General description

Introduction to locating, searching and accessing data, secondary analysis of data, data archiving, best practices in data sharing and practical exercise in the use of comparative data. This course deals primarily with international surveys. Research design issues like question development and translation, research ethics, sampling and collection, various kinds of harmonization, the use of international survey (micro) and aggregate (macro) data sources: all these questions will be discussed within the course.

Learning outcomes

First of all, the students develop an understanding of the concept of secondary analysis. Secondly, students will learn to evaluate data and documentation in order to find the data that is suitable for their research. Thirdly, students will learn how to get access to data. Finally, students will learn about the pros and cons of secondary analysis and via exercises, characteristics of cross-sectional and comparative analysis.

Contents

Students will be provided guidance in finding and exploring social science data and documentation. The main focus on this course will be secondary analysis of data, ie. using data from an archive of previously collected surveys or other data such as European Social Survey (ESS), European Work and Living Conditions data (EWC) and the Labor Force Survey micro data (LFS).

Teaching methods

The course will be organised during one of the IPs and include introductory lectures and separate seminars, where participants can practice on the real survey data and SPSS program usage. After IP student will do individual exercises which will be supported by Moodle.

Teaching language

English

Evaluation and evaluation criteria

Numeric 1-5.
Active participation during IP and individual tasks’ completion.

Study materials

Reading list will be announced at the beginning of the course.

Belongs to following study modules