GESIS Survey Guidelines - Expert Knowledge for Your Survey Projects

Die GESIS Survey Guidelines sind Bestandteil eines zentralen Angebots von GESIS zur Beratung von Wissenschaftler*innen bei methodischen Fragen zur Planung und Durchführung von Umfragen. Die Beiträge der Survey Guidelines bieten einen praxisorientierten Überblick sowie erste Handlungsempfehlungen zu relevanten und in der Beratung häufig nachgefragten Aspekten der Umfrageplanung und -durchführung. Thematisch lassen sich die Guidelines in vier verschiedene Bereiche untergliedern: Empfehlungen und Hilfestellungen zum Erhebungsprozess („Survey Operations“), zur Entwicklung von Erhebungsinstrumenten („Survey Instruments“), zu Umfragestatistik („Survey Statistics“) sowie Empfehlungen inklusive Checklisten zum Thema Open Methodology („Survey Documentation“). 

GESIS Survey Guidelines by Topic

Survey Operations

GESIS Survey Guidelines on the subjects of survey modes, survey and fieldwork, interviewer effects, tendering and documentation, panel studies, paradata and data linkage as well as intercultural surveys.

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Survey Documentation

GESIS Survey Guidelines on the documentation of survey instruments and the documentation of fieldwork.

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GESIS Survey Guidelines A - Z

Here you will find an overview of all GESIS Survey Guidelines.

Survey Guidelines von A - Z

Survey Statistics

GESIS Survey Guidelines on the subjects of questionnaire construction, survey instruments, socio-demographic characteristics and quality assurance of survey instruments.

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Survey Instruments

GESIS Survey Guidelines on the topics of sampling in theory and practice, weighting, non-response bias and the imputation of survey data.

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About the GESIS Survey Guidelines

he GESIS Survey Guidelines undergo a non-blinded peer review with at least two internal or external GESIS reviewers before publication. This makes them suitable for teaching purposes. In addition, many of the guidelines are supplemented by additional materials such as slide sets, analysis codes, etc. We inform you about changes to the GESIS Survey Guidelines in our annual reports: Report Survey Guidelines 2019/20 (105 kB) and Report Survey Guidelines 2021 (82 kB) (112 kB)

Please note: The GESIS Survey Guidelines and additional materials are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC). Their content can therefore be distributed and made public for non-commercial purposes with attribution to the authors/publisher. The recommended citation method can be found in the respective articles.

Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Henning Silber

Associate Editors: Dr. Jessica Daikeler, Dr. Cornelia Neuert, Dr. Barbara Felderer

Editorial Assistant: Fabienne Kraemer

Founding Editor: Prof. Dr. Natalja Menold

Planning and conducting surveys:

Research Ethics and Data Protection: