Our mission is to grow, promote and support social science research so that socially relevant questions can be answered on the basis of the latest scientific methods, high-quality data and research information.
How do we do it? With our research-based services and infrastructures:
We support you with the following offers:
Customized support – our consulting | Our team of experts advises you individually on the topics of survey instruments, survey design and fieldwork, as well as survey statistics. |
Best Practices in the GESIS Survey Guidelines | In the GESIS Survey Guidelines you will find „best practices“ on common questions that arise when planning and conducting a survey. |
Meet the experts | You are more of a visual type? In our „Meet the Experts“ series, we teach the basics in audiovisual form. |
Valid responses - survey instruments | In our pretest lab we optimize your survey instruments by cognitive pretesting in combination with eye tracking, by cognitive online pretests (web probing) or by coordinating intercultural pretests. |
Tested items and Scales | We provide you with systematically documented and evaluated measurement instruments in the Compilation of Social Science Items and Scales (CIS). |
Estimate your item's measurement quality | Do you want to know how good your measuring instrument is and how you can improve it? We recommend the Survey Quality Predictor (SQP) for this. |
Adequate sampling for meaningful inferences | You can rely on our years of experience when it comes to sampling plans, drawing telephone samples, and implementing complex sample designs. |
Collecting data with the GESIS Panel | the GESIS Panel, our probabilistic mixed-mode access panel, you can collect representative data at short notice and flexibly. |
For many social science questions, data, that have already been collected, are available and can be used for secondary analyses without effort in our data archive.
Click here for our data catalog.
A special selection of data for analyses across time and national borders is presented here:
Longitudinal data on attitudes, behavior, values, social structure
German General Social Survey ALLBUS | Since 1980, the ALLBUS have surveyed the German population in representative cross-sectional samples at regular two-year intervals, using constant and variable questions. |
Eurobarometer | Commissioned by the European Commission, the Eurobarometer surveys have been monitoring public opinion in the European Union since the early 1970s. |
European Values Study EVS | The EVS is cross-national cross-sectional survey research program on values and attitudes, conducted at nine-year intervals since 1981. |
International Social Survey Programme ISSP | Since 1984 the ISSP has conducted a joint annual survey on topics of relevance to the social sciences. It is currently fielded in about 50 countries. |
Longitudinal data for electoral research:
German Longitudinal Election Study GLES | The GLES has been observing and analyzing the electorate in methodologically diverse surveys since 2009. |
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems CSES | The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems CSES contains post-election surveys in around 40 countries since 1996. |
Special expertise is required for dealing with missing values, with different types of data, for comparison with reference data or for linking to other data sources. Take advantage of our experience and services and make your data ready for analysis.
We support you:
Advice and service | |
Tools and infomation |
FAIRness comes first: GESIS supports Open Science and helps to make your research results findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable - in other words, FAIR.
In our repositories, you can archive, register and share your data, scripts, measuring instruments and publications on a long-term basis so that your research does not disappear:
Data services | Archiving and sharing data and syntax |
Social Science Open Access Repository SSOAR | Archiving and sharing literature |
GESIS Journals | Our journals Historical Social Research HSR with articles on new methods in historical social research and the journal methods, data, analyses with articles on the methods of survey research are specifically tailored to topics. |
GESIS Training | GESIS Training offers courses on all topics of empirical social research with a focus on data analysis, survey methodology and computational social science. |