The European Values Study and its metadata stock

The European Values Study and its metadata: stock taking and the future Ruud Luijkx Tilburg University The Netherlands

European Values Study A longitudinal and international comparative survey research project on basic human values www. europeanvaluesstudy. eu

Short history • First wave: 1981 • European Countries: France, Great Britain, West Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Iceland • Non-European Countries: Canada, USA

Original Research Questions • Do Europeans share common values? • Are values changing? • Do Christian values continue to permeate European life and culture? • Is a coherent alternative meaning system replacing that of Christianity? • What are the implications for European unity?

EVS questionnaire subjects • • • religion morality politics society family & marriage • • sexuality education work leisure time

Second/Third wave 1990/199 • Modified replication of 1981 • More countries from Western and Eastern Europe • In 1999 also new issues: • • solidarity social capital democracy work ethics

Fourth wave 2008 • Largely a replication of 1999 • All countries of Europe (with more than 100, 000 inhabitants) • Progress of the fieldwork • More emphasis on high quality sociodemographic (background) variables • High quality translation of the questionnaires

Our colleagues: the World Values Survey • • “third wave” (1995 -1998) “fourth wave” (2000 -2004) “fifth wave”(2005 -2007) Overlap in the questionnaire is about 60% 12

Data dissemmination • • • Through data archives GESIS is the primary data archive for EVS 1981 originally at UKDA 1990 at DANS For/in 1981/1990 only data and questionnaires (later in pdf-format)

(Meta) data 1999 • GESIS Codebook explorer • GESIS ZACAT – Study description • • Bibliographic citation Study scope Methodology and processing Data-access – Data Files Description

(Meta) data 1999—GESIS ZACAT • Comparative questions (master questionnaire) with 1981 and 1990 • Original question wordings for all languages: question texts, answer categories, and show cards of the questionnaires • Explanatory notes concerning differences between national and master questionnaire, difficulties arising from translation, and additional questions used in the national questionnaires were added. • http: //zacat. gesis. org/webview/index. jsp

Harmonising different waves • In 2006 a harmonised data set was released after (post hoc) harmonisation of all Value Surveys since 1981 (ASEP/JDS, EVS-Tilburg, GESIS) • Goals: – Make all Value Surveys available on line – Facilitate simple analyses – Disseminate all documentation • Web sites where data are available: – EVS www. europeanvaluesstudy. eu – ASEP/JDS www. jdsurvey. net – WVS (Enter from WVS ) • ALSO HARMONISING META DATA

Meta data 2008 • Improved presentation on ZACAT – Including more notes from the translation process • Dataplu. S: Repositories for Enhanced Survey Publications

Dataplu. S Funded by Surf Foundation Create 2 subject repositories with enriched publications • Besides European Values Study (EVS), also Dutch Parliamentary Election Study • Enriched with: – Syntax codes of constructs, concepts – Links to (meta) data (at the variable level)—persistent identifier issue

Work Packages • 1, 2: INPUT: Enhanced Publications (EVS, DPES) • 3: A Sustainable Library Infrastructure for Enhanced Publications: LIS (Tilburg University) Library Twente (presentation Thomas Place) • 4: DDI 3. 0 Enhanced Publication Editor: Cent. ERdata (Tilburg University); presentation Bart van Nieuwburg • 5: Linking to (Meta) Data Stored in Data Archives (GESIS, DANS)

Deliverables • 2 subject repositories with enriched publications • Enhanced Publication Editor • Infrastructure compatible with existing repository systems

Future issues q Make more meta data available in a more coordinated way q Use version control of (meta)data—also cross linking data releases q Further integration of publications and data q Integration of data from different sources (macro indicators)