- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
Academic survey research centres
United Kingdom
[New page 15 March 2014: last updated 22 August 2014]
National Centre for Social Research (Natcen)
Natcen (previously Social and Community Planning Research) is a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to making an impact on society and advancing the role of social research in the UK. We aim to share our insight and knowledge with the wider research and policy community, through NatCen Learning and the recently launched Survey Skills programme.which is part of the ESRC-funded Survey Resources Network
University of Manchester
The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research is an interdisciplinary research centre in the School of Social Sciences. CCSR is closely aligned with the discipline area of Social Statistics and has close links with the Institute for Social Change. They also supply anonymised Census data .
University of Essex
The university is the base for the UK Data Service (UKDS) and is the UK link for the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) and the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Many surveys by government and, academics are routinely deposited with UK Data Services based at the University of Essex (see especially UK Surveys, Crossnational surveys and Longitudinal Surveys) as are regular opinion polls undertaken by commercial survey organisations such as Gallup, GfK/NOP, Ipsos/Mori and Yougov (see list of hyperlinks on UK Polling Report)
There is also a specialist research centre the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)
which is the base for the major UK survey series Understanding Society (previously the British Household Panel Survey)
UK Data Service guide: Depositing shareable survey data
“The guide ‘Depositing shareable survey data’ was developed by a specialist team at the UK Data Service with extensive input from UK government departments, academic survey owners and survey producers.”
“The 16-page handbook takes the reader through the full data journey, from fieldwork planning to eventual user access. Correspondingly, all content is organised into five stages of the journey: Plan, Prepare, Negotiate, Deposit and Ingest. While the guide was specifically developed to support new depositors of large-scale surveys, the principles apply to a wide range of significant deposits.”
“The guide can feature as a useful check for owners and producers; it also suggests wording for commissioning tenders and briefs on considering any data sharing requirements. The aim is to encourage commissioning departments to include a standard paragraph requiring archiving with the UK Data Service in a timely manner and pointing to existing protocols for doing this.”
“Those who own and manage large-scale surveys now have a compact and detailed guide to help them make their data more widely used by researchers.”
The guide is available free from the UK Data Service website at the link below.http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/440320/depositsurvey.pdf
MSc Survey Methods for Social Research
What methods are used to discover how people behave, what they believe and what opinions they hold? What sort of sampling techniques are needed to access different types of population? What is the best way to design a questionnaire? The MSc degree in Survey Methods for Social Research will provide answers to these questions and more. It will prepare you for a professional career in social, academic or market research.
Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection
Courses cover various types of quantitative and qualitative research methods, research design, techniques for data collection and measurement as well as mathematics. The language of instruction is English. The first Summer School at the University of Essex, held in 1967, was sponsored by UNESCO. Subsequent schools have been sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation, and, latterly, by the Department of Government, University of Essex and the European Consortium for Political Research. The Summer School provides an opportunity for social scientists to make contact with professional social scientists from other countries. Besides classroom instruction and daily laboratory work, there are evening seminars on research topics of special interest. The terms of the original UNESCO grant to the school stipulated that participants be drawn from all over Europe. This tradition has been maintained and is now extended internationally. Since its founding, the Summer School has had participants from most countries in the world.
There is also a specialist research centre the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)
which is the base for the major UK survey series Understanding Society (previously the British Household Panel Survey)
UK Data Service guide: Depositing shareable survey data
“The guide ‘Depositing shareable survey data’ was developed by a specialist team at the UK Data Service with extensive input from UK government departments, academic survey owners and survey producers.”
“The 16-page handbook takes the reader through the full data journey, from fieldwork planning to eventual user access. Correspondingly, all content is organised into five stages of the journey: Plan, Prepare, Negotiate, Deposit and Ingest. While the guide was specifically developed to support new depositors of large-scale surveys, the principles apply to a wide range of significant deposits.”
“The guide can feature as a useful check for owners and producers; it also suggests wording for commissioning tenders and briefs on considering any data sharing requirements. The aim is to encourage commissioning departments to include a standard paragraph requiring archiving with the UK Data Service in a timely manner and pointing to existing protocols for doing this.”
“Those who own and manage large-scale surveys now have a compact and detailed guide to help them make their data more widely used by researchers.”
The guide is available free from the UK Data Service website at the link below.http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/440320/depositsurvey.pdf
MSc Survey Methods for Social Research
What methods are used to discover how people behave, what they believe and what opinions they hold? What sort of sampling techniques are needed to access different types of population? What is the best way to design a questionnaire? The MSc degree in Survey Methods for Social Research will provide answers to these questions and more. It will prepare you for a professional career in social, academic or market research.
Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection
Courses cover various types of quantitative and qualitative research methods, research design, techniques for data collection and measurement as well as mathematics. The language of instruction is English. The first Summer School at the University of Essex, held in 1967, was sponsored by UNESCO. Subsequent schools have been sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation, and, latterly, by the Department of Government, University of Essex and the European Consortium for Political Research. The Summer School provides an opportunity for social scientists to make contact with professional social scientists from other countries. Besides classroom instruction and daily laboratory work, there are evening seminars on research topics of special interest. The terms of the original UNESCO grant to the school stipulated that participants be drawn from all over Europe. This tradition has been maintained and is now extended internationally. Since its founding, the Summer School has had participants from most countries in the world.
City University, London
The Centre for Comparative Social Surveys (CASS) hosts the multi-nation European Social Survey (ESS) funded by the European Commission which is a survey of changing social attitudes and values across Europe. It also houses the Social Research Methodology Centre which runs a series of courses related to survey research.
The Social Research Methodology Centre was established in 2001 and provides a forum for research training and methodological research within City University and the wider social research community. The role of the Centre is to foreground methodology in the context of substantive research by means of a seminar programme and information exchange. It has a thriving training programme in social research methods as well as an impressive range of research activity. It provides a focus for research training of City University PhD students and for funded research activity. It is one of ten Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Regional Training Centres. These centres are located across the UK and were set up to support ESRC training and development activities.
The MSc Social Research Methods offers practical training in social research methods and analysis which aims to equip students with an understanding and appreciation of both qualitative and quantitative research methods across a range of disciplines with technical competence in the use of leading edge technology.
The Social Research Methodology Centre was established in 2001 and provides a forum for research training and methodological research within City University and the wider social research community. The role of the Centre is to foreground methodology in the context of substantive research by means of a seminar programme and information exchange. It has a thriving training programme in social research methods as well as an impressive range of research activity. It provides a focus for research training of City University PhD students and for funded research activity. It is one of ten Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Regional Training Centres. These centres are located across the UK and were set up to support ESRC training and development activities.
The MSc Social Research Methods offers practical training in social research methods and analysis which aims to equip students with an understanding and appreciation of both qualitative and quantitative research methods across a range of disciplines with technical competence in the use of leading edge technology.
University of Surrey
Training in SPSS is an integral part of the postgraduate courses for Social Research MSc, Social Research PgCert and Social Research PgDip. The university also offers occasional short courses in SPSS through the Continuing Education Centre.
Surrey Social and Market Research (SSMR) is an independent social and market research company based at the University of Surrey. SSMR offers a comprehensive range of services for the public and private sectors. Our difference is that we provide a powerful combination of the academic resources of a leading university with the commercial skills of market research specialists.
Surrey Social and Market Research (SSMR) is an independent social and market research company based at the University of Surrey. SSMR offers a comprehensive range of services for the public and private sectors. Our difference is that we provide a powerful combination of the academic resources of a leading university with the commercial skills of market research specialists.
University of Southampton
Courses In Applied Social Surveys (CASS) is a programme of short courses in applied social surveys run by the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) at the University of Southampton. Since April 2009 it is part of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). The programme is funded by the ESRC currently until 2014. It continues the successful short course programme run by the ESRC Centre for Applied Social Surveys between 1995 and 2005.
The programme covers all aspects of the quantitative survey process from design to data collection and analysis. The courses aim to provide guidance and workshop practice for researchers who face practical survey tasks and decisions, such as how to draw a sample, how to design a questionnaire and how to analyse a data set.
The programme covers all aspects of the quantitative survey process from design to data collection and analysis. The courses aim to provide guidance and workshop practice for researchers who face practical survey tasks and decisions, such as how to draw a sample, how to design a questionnaire and how to analyse a data set.