WAPOR Webinar on May 20

A self-completion survey now. The retirement of face-to-face data collection in the European Social Survey

Dear WAPOR Members, Subscribers, and Friends,

Join us on May 20, 2026 at 13:00 UTC for the webinar on “A self-completion survey now. The retirement of face-to-face data collection in the European Social Survey (ESS)”.

The European Social Survey (ESS) is a comparative general social survey, research infrastructure, that has been collecting high quality data for the social science community since 2002. With cross-country comparability at the core of its mission, the survey used a single data collection mode, face-to-face, from its inception, to avoid introducing differential mode effects between countries. A combination of technological and societal changes and the COVID pandemic, as well as reductions in the infrastructure for face-to-face surveying in Europe, has led to the ESS moving to full self-completion data collection (web and paper) in all 30 of its participating countries from 2027. Round 12 (2025/26) is currently acting as a bridge between old and new, with each country conducting half the interviews with the traditional face-to-face method, and half with the new self-completion method. This will be one of the largest ever mode effect comparisons conducted cross-nationally. This presentation will outline the reasons for the mode change, present the new self-completion method and early pre-testing, and showcase emerging findings from the Round 12 mode experiment.

Rory Fitzgerald is Director of the European Social Survey (ESS), established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ESS ERIC) in 2013 and hosted at City, St George’s University of London. ESS ERIC now has 30 Members (November 2021), over 230,000 registered users, significant policy and media impact and extensive use in teaching and research across Europe and the rest of the world. Professor Fitzgerald is currently working to expand the ESS to include a regular cross-national web first panel.

REGISTER TO ATTEND THE WEBINAR

We look forward to your participation in this discussion!

Sincerely,

WAPOR Education Committee and

WAPOR Secretariat