British Participation in the International Social Survey Programme, 2013-2015

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is one of the most important attempts to undertake cross-national survey research that currently exists. 48 countries currently participate, covering all five of the inhabited continents across the world. Each year, member countries field an agreed module of 60 questions on a particular topic, usually as part of an existing random probability survey. The data from these studies, along with a set of prescribed socio-demographic background variables, is then deposited in an agreed format with the ISSP data archive.

A wide range of different modules have been fielded since the project began in 1985, covering topics such as social inequality, religion, and the role of government. Topics are chosen at an annual plenary meeting by attending members. They are revisited periodically, with a number having now been covered three or four times. As a result, ISSP data can be used both to examine differences between countries at a particular point in time and to compare differences in trends over time.

A combined data set containing data for all countries in which a module has been fielded is made publicly available to the research community approximately two years after the module fieldwork. ISSP data are widely used; worldwide, over 200 publications using ISSP data are recorded each year. In Britain alone, there have been over 400 publications using ISSP data since the programme began, not far short of 10% of the worldwide total.

Since ISSP began in 1985, Britain's participation has taken place by including the ISSP module on a self-completion supplement that forms part of the British Social Attitudes survey, an annual, high quality independent survey conducted by NatCen. This is a highly cost effective way of fielding the module, as only the marginal costs of asking the ISSP questions have to be covered.

Until 2002, British participation was primarily funded through the core funding given to the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends, an ESRC Research Centre. Since 2004 it has been funded as a research resource by the ESRC Resources Board, and this application proposes that this arrangement should continue for a further three years.

ISSP modules will cover three topics during this period: national identity (2013), citizenship (2014) and work orientations (2015):
- The national identity module was previously fielded in 1995 and 2003. Its repetition will provide valuable data allowing us to track how views about issues such as national pride and identity have changed over a period which in many countries has been marked by considerable economic difficulty, changing migration patterns and political turmoil.
- The 2014 module on citizenship was fielded in 2004, and will include questions about democracy, political participation and political efficacy, and trust towards politicians.
- The 2015 module on work orientations (another repeat module) will allow us to examine changing experiences of work, including work patterns and work-life balance, and workplace relationships. This will provide valuable information about how recession has affected people's attitudes towards, and commitment to, work.

A range of dissemination activities promoting the use of ISSP data in Britain are proposed, and at least one chapter a year based on ISSP data will appear in the annual British Social Attitudes reports.

The primary beneficiaries of this project will be social scientists, both in Britain and internationally, with an interest in conducting cross-national research. The data collected as part of ISSP will provide them with a unique resource (see section on Academic Beneficiaries and Case for Support for further details).

Academics will readily be able to access the British data through the UK Data Archive whilst the full cross-national data set will be made available via the ISSP website and the ZentralArchiv fur Emprische Sozialforschung (ZA), University of Cologne. As in previous years, full documentation will be provided along with the data.

The importance of the data set to academic users is reflected in the large number of publications using ISSP data. In Britain alone, over 400 publications using ISSP data have been recorded (Britain was the 3rd highest contributing country after the USA and Germany). Use of the British data is of course far greater than this figure suggests, as they are used in a wide range of publications generated outside the UK (the worldwide total for known publications using ISSP data stands at 5,225). Further information about ISSP publication trends can be found at www.issp.org/page.php?pageId=150.

We are committed to a wide range of dissemination activities to ensure that the ISSP data collected are widely known about and used within the academic community. These include:
- Giving presentations on ISSP to appropriate audiences (the Principal Applicant has recently given talks at an ESDS International Datasets event, and a special event organized by NatCen, City University and ESDS, which focused on ISSP and the European Social Survey)
- Ensuring information about data releases appears on relevant academic list-servers
- Publicising findings by including chapters based on ISSP data in the annual British Social Attitudes report. For example,
- the 30th Report (2013) will include a chapter on gender roles and family using questions asked in the 2012 survey. The chapter will make use of the long time series of data we have for this module, which was also asked in 2002, 1994 and 1988
- the 28th Report (2011) included a chapter using data from the 2010 environment module, and the 27th Report (2010) included 2 chapters using the 2009 social inequality module

Whilst the main purpose of this application is for funds to provide a resource for the academic community, it is anticipated that the published findings that result will be of considerable interest to the wider community including government policy makers and other practitioners. Several elements of our proposed dissemination strategy will help ISSP findings to reach a wider audience, not least our commitment to ensuring that the annual British Social Attitudes Report, which receives extensive media coverage, contains a chapter using ISSP data.