International Social Survey Programme


The International Social Survey Programme is a collaboration between different nations conducting surveys covering topics which are useful for social science research. The ISSP researchers develop questions which are meaningful and relevant to all countries which can be expressed in an equal manner in different languages. The results of the surveys provide a cross-national and cross-cultural perspective to individual national studies. Through 2015 58 countries have participated in the ISSP.

History

The ISSP was founded in 1984 by research organizations from four countries:
Four different Social Surveys included a common module each year:
Ever since social science institutions from 58 different countries included a 15-minute supplement to their national surveys. The membership to the ISSP is institutional and by country. One or more than one institute in a country can co-operate on ISSP research. The common module surveyed by the member institutions also contains an extensive common core of background variables. The modules focus on one specific topic each year and were planned to be repeated more or less every five to ten years. When it comes to the researchers choice of topics, the relevance of the area of social sciences in the year of the survey is taken into account.
Given this, the ISSP deliveries data sets helpful for both Cross-sectional studies and Time series analysis.
Over time the set of modules has grown towards more diverse topics. The latest additions were Leisure and Sports in 2007 as well as Health and Health Care in 2011.

Organisation

The ISSP is a self-funding organisation with an emphasis on democratic decision making stated in its working principles. To accomplish this principle it has set up several groups and committees. These groups either consist of member organizations as a whole or include some particular social scientists. There are:
Most of the members of these groups are elected democratically at the General Assembly. These meetings of delegates from every member state of the ISSP are held in May or June in changing locations all around the world. The General Assemblies also serve the function of discussing modules, which are to be completed the same year or begun and surveyed the upcoming one. The delegates also discuss the topics of upcoming modules.
The ISSP also gives importance to the way member organisation implement their surveys. The organisation's principles are published in its and its .

Methodology

The methodological work in the ISSP is coordinated by a Methodology Committee, consisting of seven members elected at the General Meeting. It co-ordinates the work of six groups addressing different areas of cross-cultural methods, all concerned with issues of equivalence: demography, non-response, weighting, mode effects, questionnaire design and translation.

Modules by Year GESIS ISSP Modules by Year http://www.gesis.org/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-year/

The datasets from the different modules conducted by participating ISSP member states can be downloaded at the GESIS Archive page. All these links lead to the official GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences homepage, where the data is provided openly for research purposes.

Modules by Topic GESIS ISSP Modules By Topic http://www.gesis.org/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-topic/

Members (1984 - 2017)

CountryOrganization

Australia
  • , Australian National University
Austria
Belgium
  • The Administration of Planning and Statistics of the Ministry of Flanders.
  • Walloon Institute of Assessment, Forecasting and Statistics.
Bolivia
Brazil
  • . '
Bulgaria
  • .
Canada
Chile
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
  • . '
Estonia
  • ,
Finland
France
  • Together these Organizations also present data on an Homepage
Germany
  • GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Georgia
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Japan
  • .
Latvia
Mexico
  • The
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
  • .
The Philippines
  • .
Poland
Portugal
Romania
  • .
Russia
Slovakia
  • .
Slovenia
South Africa
  • .
South Korea
Spain
  • .
  • .
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Uruguay
United Kingdom
United States
Venezuela
  • Laboratorio de Ciencias Sociales.