Call for Session Proposals / Abstracts

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Midterm Conference of RN 21: Quantitative Methods

Data quality in quantitative research

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Important Dates

Session Proposal / Abstract submission: 1st of January, 2016 – February 15th, 2016

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Coordinators

Wolfgang Aschauer | University of Salzburg, Austria
Jolanta Perek-Bialas | Warsaw School of Economics/Jagiellonian University of Cracow, Poland

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Local Organizer

Iasonas Lamprianou
Department of Social and Political Sciences | University of Cyprus

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Scientific Board

• Henning Best | Germany
• Inna Deviatko | Russia
• Anna Domaranska | Ukraine
• Valentina Hlebec | Slovenia
• Tobias Gummer | Switzerland

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Thematics Focus

The ESA Research Network 21 "Quantitative Methods" hereby announces its midterm conference dealing with "Data quality in quantitative research".

In the recent decades we have seen major efforts in establishing a European framework of indicators trying to monitor social change and societal developments all over Europe. Those "official statistics" are often generated for public use and consist of a wide variety of indicators where major progress was achieved to enable international comparisons. Besides those databases, an increasing number of international survey programs have been established within Europe (such as the Eurobarometer, the European Social Survey, the European Value Study) and beyond (such as the International Social Survey Program, the World Value Survey etc.) to provide public opinion data from citizens all over the world.

For every database and for every survey there are multidimensional requirements to guarantee a high level of quality. Statistical estimates should be as accurate as possible to enable clear insights of the empirical reality in every nation. The results should be available within tight-fitting time points to allow a close monitoring of societal change. The comparability of indicators, the equivalence of constructs, the relevance of concepts, the clarity of definitions, the coherence of data sources and the completeness of data are further issues which attract attention in research. In general, available datasets are designed by groups of experts but usually the process of gathering the data is contracted out to national institutes. Constraints in data quality thus always refer to the whole data gathering process and may be highly different between countries.

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Specific Thematic Areas

We invite session proposals and individual abstracts dealing with various aspects influencing data quality. We are particularly interested in comparative studies as well as in single case studies to get an impression how the accuracy of data is threatened by various challenges. Possible themes include but are not limited to:

1. Questionnaire development: e.g. issues of translation and comparability
2. Specification of concepts for research: suitability and equivalence
3. Sampling frame: deviances with regard to the target population
4. Sampling strategy: best practice examples and national differences to achieve representative results
5. Nonresponse: strategies to increase response rates and to prevent item-nonresponse
6. Survey modes: different field work standards in various countries
7. Interviewer effects: e.g. partly faked and faked interviews
8. Measurement errors due to respondents (e.g. response styles)
9. Quality control procedures: inadequate institutional standards including unethical practices
10. Weighting and coding issues (e.g. organizing data for public use)

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Conference Fees

Conference fees are 30€ for young academics (including PhD students), 50€ for ESA members and 80€ for non-members (including coffee breaks and one social tour including dinner at the end of the conference).

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Instructions for Authors

Please submit:

• Either an abstract of 300 words
• Or a session proposal (description of the session, 300 words including abstracts of planned speakers, 300 words)

no later than 15. February by e-mail to wolfgang.aschauer@sbg.ac.at.
Please do not forget to include the name(s) of the author(s), his/her/their affiliation(s) and E-mail address(es).
Participants will be notified regarding acceptance the latest by the end of March.