Research Resources
Social Science Information Sources

In this section you will find information on:

 

Internet Bibliographic and other Resources for European Comparative Research
National Centre for Longitudinal Studies “Keeping Track”
A guide to major longitudinal sources of data. The central purpose is “to allow users to see what kinds of longitudinal data are available and to locate information about studies which may provide data useful to their research interests”.

Social Survey Question Bank
A site containing complete questionnaires from major UK social science surveys, allowing selection by topic, survey, year and keyword.

ZA-QBase
A tool allowing searches of the Central Archive Cologne codebooks and data collections.

Internet Resources Newsletter
A free, monthly newsletter for academics, students, and social scientists (as well as scientists and engineers) with news about the Internet and its resources.

Social Science Information Gateway
Online catalogue of thousands of high-quality Internet resources relevant to social science education and research.

The Resource Discovery Network
The UK’s free national gateway to Internet resources for the learning, teaching and research community with links to more than 80,000 resources via a series of subject-based information gateways (or hubs). The RDN is primarily aimed at Internet users in UK further and higher education but is freely available to all.

Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences
Searchable and browsable dictionary of terms commonly used in the social sciences

Resource Guide for the Social Sciences
Directory of annotated links to bibliographic, reference, and research information, subject gateways, datasets, image collections, and software services in the field of social science research. Includes journals, abstracts, reports, books, newspaper articles, full text official publications, and details of training opportunities in business, economics, education, anthropology, geography, law, philosophy, politics, and statistics.

GESIS GUIDE
A comprehensive searchable site containing links to information about the social sciences. It is organised by countries and regions, as well as themes, and contains information on social research institutes, data archives and institutions, methods, journals and other sources of information.

Scout Report for Social Sciences
Bi-weekly report for university staff, students and librarians interested in the social sciences, highlighting relevant Internet sites.

Social Science Data on the Internet
Internet sites of numeric social science statistical data, data catalogues, data libraries, social science gateways, financial and economic census files.

Eurobarometer Data: Public Social Science Data Archives
The website for the Public Opinion Analysis sector of the European Commission.

Distributed National Electronic Resources (DNER)
A source of information on resources available on the Internet; although primarily British, it covers a broad international field.

Social Research Methodology Data Base Online
Database of references to literature on social and behavioral research methodology,statistical analysis and related computer software. This site link is for Dutch users only. Other users should contact Sage Publications.

Resources for Economists on the Internet
Sponsored by the American Economic Association, this site lists more than 1,000 resources on the Internet of interest to academic and practicing economists, and those interested in economics

SocioSite
A social science information site of the Sociological Institute at University of Amsterdam.

On-Line Training Resources
Resource Discovery Network Virtual Training Suite
Set of online tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information literacy and IT skills.

Teaching Resources and Materials for Social Scientists (TRAMMS)
Offering free access to new training material for students and researchers in the social sciences, designed to teach users how to find data using the UK Data Archive's catalogue, promote learning about event history analysis, and develop skills in multilevel modelling.

Training Materials on Sustainable Development
Exemplary numerical data and documentation on sustainable development issues made accessible by the German Central Archive to graduate students free of charge to conduct international comparative analysis on issues related to sustainable development. The exemplary datasets are prepared as subsets of the cross-national survey programmes Eurobarometer and ISSP.

Analytical Resources

Classification Systems and Background Information

Social Science Newsgroups

European Community Information and Resources

International Research Associations

Major Resources Research Projects
CHER
The Consortium of Household Panels for European Socio-Economic Research was a feasibility study for a data production and dissemination exercise. The Consortium developed and enhanced a comparative database for longitudinal household studies by harmonizing and integrating micro datasets from a large variety of independent national panels and from the European Community Household Panel. The current database, which is available for comparative research, contains data from 1990 to 2000 for 18 European countries. The CHER consortium includes teams from eleven national panel studies or comparative research institutions.

MetaNet
Metanet, which ran for 30 months from November 2000, was another metadata-based project, aimed at the development of standards in the description of statistical metadata and statistical information systems, the dissemination of the resulting proposed standard to the user communities and, ultimately, the achievement of a coherent approach and a common model. Working through Working Groups, in which several NESSIE partners were involved, the project held its Final Conference in May 2003 at which it presented its model to representatives of the National Statistical Offices, academic research institutes and data archives. The summary of the proceedings and details of the model development have been made available.

Madeira
Multilingual Access to Data Infrastructures of the European Research Area (MADEIRA) is a project designed to develop an integrated and effective distributed social science portal to facilitate access to a range of data archives and disparate resources, employing a multi-lingual thesaurus to break the language barriers to the discovery of key resources, linked to training programme.

MetaDater
Metadata Management and Production System for Surveys in Socio-economic Research (METADATER) is a project aimed at development of standards for the description of large scale comparative surveys over space and time and the provision of tools for metadata creation and management for such surveys.

AMRADS
Accompanying Measure to Research and Development in Official Statistics; designed to create the conditions for facilitating technology and know-how transfer of results of research projects of European Programme of Research in Official Statistics.

COSMOS
Cluster Of Systems of Metadata for Official Statistics; an accompanying measure (Cluster) of five projects of the European Union Framework 5 research programme, aimed at building better metadata repositories by exchanging ideas and experiences in using metadata systems for the individual projects, identifying a common set of metadata objects, with agreed definitions, attributes and methods, implementing a demonstration subset of these objects to show interoperability of the developed systems, defining a methodology for further developing this interoperability.

DDI : Data Documentation Initiative
The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an effort to establish an international criterion and methodology for the content, presentation, transport, and preservation of "metadata" about datasets in the social and behavioral sciences.

CHINTEX
The Change from Input Harmonisation to Ex-post Harmonisation in National Samples of the European Community Household Panel (CHINTEX) was a shared-cost research project supported by the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.The harmonisation of European surveys run by national institutes is a task of growing importance for the European statistical system. The European Community Household Panel (ECHP) switched in three countries from input harmonisation with strict comparability of questionnaires and statistical routines to ex-post harmonisation with reduced comparability of questionnaires and statistical routines. This switch of method was caused by the end of three national sub-samples and their replacement by ongoing household panels run by other institutes. It was the overall objective of CHINTEX by means of this unique data situation to clarify if it is necessary to have centralised, standardised survey instruments to achieve harmonisation and comparability or if this objective can also be achieved by ex-post harmonisation, by which independent national sources are satisfactorily converted to common concepts, definitions, survey questions etc. Furthermore, the project investigated important hypotheses about the data quality of panel surveys (non-response, reporting errors and panel effects) which are of general interest for survey statisticians.

National Research Liaison Offices
Liaison Offices provide information and services to researchers wishing to carry out research in Europe. The level of service varies widely, ranging from up-dates on European funding to assistance with proposal writing and meeting rooms.


Finland: Finnish Liaison Office for EU R&D

France: CLORA

Germany: KOWI

Ireland: Enterprise Ireland

Israel: FURAD

Italy: CNR-EU Liaison Office

Lithuania: LORD

The Netherlands: NEST

Norway: RCN

Portugal: PRELO

Spain: SOST

Sweden: EU/FOU Radet

Switzerland: SwissCore

Turkey: TuR&Bp-PPP

United Kingdom: UKRO

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