About GESIS
GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is a research infrastructure institute for the social sciences and a member of the Leibniz Association, funded by federal and state governments. From its locations in Mannheim and Cologne, GESIS supports researchers at all stages of their projects: from study planning and data collection to analysis, archiving, and reuse.
Data archiving and secure access
GESIS operates the only general-purpose data archive for quantitative social science data in Germany. The archive is certified under the CoreTrustSeal, acts as the German service provider in the European archive consortium CESSDA ERIC, and preserves more than 7,000 studies, including survey programs such as ALLBUS and the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). With the Secure Data Center, GESIS also operates a controlled analysis environment for sensitive data, which RIDLOP will develop further into the Trusted Research Environment.
Digital behavioral data
GESIS collects and processes digital behavioral data in several established formats. The GESIS Panel.dbd combines survey data and digital behavioral data from the same participants; research software such as GESIS Web Tracking and the GESIS AppKit supports data collection via browsers and mobile devices. Data donations have been implemented in survey programs including the German Election Study (GLES) and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). The Computational Social Science department was among the first of its kind in Europe.
National and International Networks
GESIS is a member of the Leibniz Association and consortium leader of the infrastructure for research data in the social, behavioral, educational, and economic sciences (KonsortSWD) as part of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). In addition, we maintain institutional and project-related collaborations with universities and research institutions in Germany and abroad. In this context, we participate in important European projects such as the European Social Survey (ESS), the European Value Study (EVS), the European archive network CESSDA, and the OECD project Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). RIDLOP uses these connections to integrate platform data research into the national and international infrastructure landscape.
Get in touch!
Whether you are a researcher, an infrastructure partner, a policy stakeholder, or a journalist: the RIDLOP team is happy to provide further information about the project, discuss collaboration opportunities or joint events, and show you how RIDLOP can support your work in the future.