GESIS Training News

This year, the Spring Seminar focused on Bayesian Modeling in the Social Sciences. It started on 04 March with a course on “Introduction to Bayesian Modeling” held by Prof. Susumu Shikano and Dr. Taehee Kim. In the second week, participants learned how to do Bayesian factor analysis and path modeling in the course “Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling” by Prof. Rens van de Schoot and Ass. Prof. Milica Miočević. The Spring Seminar concluded with a course on “Bayesian Multilevel Modeling,” in which Dr. Mark Andrews and Dr. Jens Roeser [Continue reading on facebook…]

The Summer School 2019 will be held from 01 - 23 August at GESIS Cologne, Germany. 16 courses are scheduled, among them 4 short courses and 12 one-week courses. New to the program are courses on “Questionnaires for Cross Cultural Surveys” and “Pretesting”. The courses “Mathematical Tools for Social Scientists” and “Factorial Survey Design” return to the Summer School program after a break. Don’t miss the opportunity to master advanced techniques of statistical data analyses with renowned international experts.

Here is an overview of this year's courses:

Week 0 (01 - 02 August):

Using Mplus for Latent-Variable Modeling: An Introduction

Dr. Matthias Bluemke, Dr. Ai Miyamoto, Dr. Clemens Lechner (GESIS, Germany)

Research Designs and Causal Inference

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Eifler, Dr. Heinz Leitgöb (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany)

Introduction to Data Analysis Using Stata

Dr. Kathrin Busch, Julia Klinger (GESIS, Germany)

Open Access to Research Data. Facing Funders’ Requirements on Making Research Data FAIR

Dr. Sebastian Netscher, Dr. Anja Perry (GESIS, Germany)

Week 1 (05 - 09 August):

Introduction to Survey Design

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bella Struminskaya (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands), Ulrich Krieger (University of Mannheim, Germany)

Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling: Confirmatory Factor Analysis with Mplus

Prof. Dr. Jost Reinecke, Georg Kessler (University of Bielefeld, Germany)

Questionnaire Design

Prof. Dr. Marek Fuchs, Anke Metzler (Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany)

Mathematical Tools for Social Scientists: A Refresher Course with R

Prof. Dr. Michael Greenacre (University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain), Dr. Oleg Nenadic (University of Göttingen, Germany)

Week 2 (12 - 16 August):

Introductory Course to R with Applications from Data Analysis

Dr. Jan-Philipp Kolb, Alexander Murray-Watters (GESIS, Germany)

Mixed-Mode and Mixed-Device Surveys

Prof. Dr. Edith de Leeuw, Asst. Prof. Dr. Vera Toepoel (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands), Dr. Thomas Klausch (VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Statistical Analysis of Incomplete Data

Dr. Florian Meinfelder, Angelina Hammon (University of Bamberg, Germany)

Design and Implementation of Longitudinal Surveys

Dr. Tarek Al Baghal (University of Essex, United Kingdom), Dr. Alexandru Cernat (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)

Week 3 (19 - 23 August):

Questionnaires for Cross Cultural Surveys

Prof. Dr. Michael Braun (University of Mannheim & GESIS, Germany), Brita Dorer, Dr. Katja Hanke (GESIS, Germany)

Sampling, Weighting, and Estimation

Stephanie Eckman, PhD (RTI International, USA)

Pretesting

Asst. Prof. Dr. Katharina Meitinger (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands), Emily Geisen (RTI International, USA)

Factorial Survey Design

Prof. Dr. Katrin Auspurg (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany), Dr. Carsten Sauer (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

Scholarships, ECTS Credits & More

15 Scholarships are available to Summer School participants. 10 of them are awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)/ Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS) of the University of Cologne. 5 grants are disbursed by the European Survey Research Association (ESRA).

Thanks to our cooperation with the Center for Doctoral Studies in Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Mannheim, participants may earn 4 ECTS points per one-week course. In addition to courses, we have set evening talks by experts in Survey Methodology and prepared a number of plenary and social events such as weekly welcome receptions, cultural and social excursions. There is no registration deadline, but to secure a place in the course(s) of your choice and to book affordable accommodation, we strongly recommend that you register as soon as possible.

Register now! You will find more information here!

If you want to know how the Summer School feels like, watch our video.

The GESIS Methodenseminar is aimed at graduate students in the social sciences and humanities as well as related fields. Participants can choose from six courses, three in German, three in English. All courses are research-based and teach practically relevant skills. The Basismodul, Aufbaumodul I, and Aufbaumodul II are held in German and teach essential knowledge and skills on how to analyze quantitative, scientific data. The Big Data Modules I, II and III are held in English and convey knowledge and skills from data science. All participants will learn how to handle and analyze large amounts of data from the internet. Further topics are data mining, the relational dimension of digital behavioral data and network analyses.

The following courses are on offer in 2019:

Week 1 (08 - 12 July):

Basismodul – Uni- und bivariate Statistik (in German)

Katja Salomo, Björn Seipelt (Friedrich-Schiller University Jena)

Big Data Module I – Introduction to Data Science with Python (in English)

Dr. Arnim Bleier, Dr. Fabian Flöck, Dr. Juhi Kulshrestha (GESIS Cologne)

Week 2 (15 - 19 July):

Aufbaumodul I – Faktorenanalyse und Clusteranalyse mit Stata (in German)

Katja Salomo (Friedrich-Schiller University Jena), Janka Goldan (University of Wuppertal)

Big Data Module II – Introduction to Social Network Science with Python (in English)

Dr. Fariba Karimi, Dr. Haiko Lietz, Dr. Marcos Oliveira (GESIS Cologne)

Week 3 (22 - 26 July):

Aufbaumodul II – Multiple Regression mit Stata (in German)

Prof. Dr. Michael Gebel, Jonas Voßemer (University of Bamberg)

Big Data Module III – Text Mining with R (in English)

Dr. Andreas Niekler (University of Leipzig), Dr. Gregor Wiedemann (University of Hamburg)

Thanks to our cooperation with the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities at the University of Cologne participants of the Methodenseminar may earn 2 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) points per course for active participation.

Book now! For more information on the Methodenseminar visit www.gesis.org/methodenseminar

EUROLAB is pleased to invite applications for one month research visits at its research lab in Cologne. Individual researchers who want to work on data available at GESIS may apply for support to access EUROLAB for a period of one month from September to December 2019.

Successful applicants will receive a travel grant that covers travel costs (economy class, up to 500 euros for short-haul flights and up to 900 euros for long-haul ones) and accommodation. During their stay, visiting researchers will profit from a wide range of services including an individual workspace, access to data and to GESIS library with various online databases, as well as direct contact to GESIS experts. Interested candidates have to apply by using our online application form and upload their CV and a research proposal of up to two pages. An international selection panel will evaluate the applications on a competitive basis. The applications will be assessed depending on the expected scientific merits of their projects. Applications for self-funded research stays are accepted all year round.

Deadline for applications is 26 May 2019. For more information on EUROLAB, please visit our website!

We are excited to invite applications for the International Summer School in Uganda: Survey Methodology and Data Management (ISSU) to be held from September 16 - 27 September 2019. The Summer School is funded by the VW Foundation and jointly organized by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany, and Muteesa I Royal University, Uganda. It will bring together 50 participants from Germany, Uganda, and Kenya. The Summer School seeks to provide participants with an intense training in social science research methods as well as to foster international research collaboration and intercultural exchange. Over the course of two weeks, the International Summer School in Uganda offers four one-week courses on social science research methods taught by internationally renowned scholars. Participants can choose from one of two courses per week.

Week 1 (16 - 20 September 2019):

Introduction To Survey Design

Research Data Management

Week 2 (23 - 27 September 2019):

Introduction to Data Analysis Using R

Cross-Cultural Survey Research

Individual researchers and PhD students from Germany, Uganda, and Kenya may apply for a scholarship to participate in the International Summer School in Uganda. Scholarships cover travel costs, accommodation, and course fees. For more information, please visit the ISSU website.

For any questions, please contact issu@gesis.org.

He has specialized in cross-cultural survey methodology and analysis and is an expert in both the design and the analysis of large-scale comparative surveys using state-of-the-art statistical methods. Together with Brita Dorer and Dr. Katja Hanke (both GESIS), he will conduct the course “Questionnaires for Cross Cultural Surveys” at the GESIS Summer School in August 2019 in Cologne.

How did you become interested in your subject?

Since my school days I dreamt of cooperating with colleagues in other countries and conducting research projects together later in my life. As any research requires a good methodological basis I concentrated on research methodology during my university studies in sociology. And because I also became increasingly interested in foreign languages I concentrated more and more on questionnaire construction in a cross-cultural context where both cultural factors and subtleties of language have to be taken into account.

What lessons can participants draw from your GESIS course?

That cross-culturally comparative (and comparable) questionnaires have to be constructed in a carefully designed process and that there are no ready solutions applicable in all cases.

What do you enjoy most about being a social scientist?

That cooperation between scientists from different cultures has also these cultures as an object of analysis – and not just something which is identical in all countries.

We thank Prof. Dr. Braun for his interesting insights.