Conferences

As more and more surveys are conducted either across countries and / or across time the need for strategies and procedures that yield comparable data, i.e. harmonized data, is increasing. Current practices in cross-national surveys vary widely: While, for example, the European Social Survey aims at standardizing the whole data production process as much as possible (input harmonization) other studies, such as the International Social Survey Programme or even more so the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the surveys conducted under the auspices of Eurostat rely mostly on defining target measures without prescribing the procedures by which these measures are reached, i.e. ex-ante output harmonization.

Similar problems are encountered when social change is studied on the basis of cumulated cross-sectional surveys. Measures must have to be (ex-post) harmonized; files have to be merged; documentation and metadata have to be created.

The session invites presentations dealing with comparability of survey data and any aspect involved in the harmonization of survey data: harmonization of measures; harmonization of instruments; harmonization of data collection, data editing, data documentation and the creation of appropriate metadata. In addition presentations focusing on evaluating the level of harmonization achieved in a given dataset and measuring the quality of a harmonized variable would be greatly appreciated.