Data access & conditions

European Cooperation in Social Science Data Dissemination

3. International Training Seminars and Summer Schools

The Standing Committee on Comparative Research of the International Social Science Council initiated a special training programme for comparative research in 1970. These ISSC Summer Schools were designed for graduate students and younger staff to "help them cut their teeth on concrete analyses by opening up access to archives of data from a range of different countries" [14]. These international seminars significantly contributed to the creation of an international scholarly network. To ensure a broader impact beyond the ISSC Summer Schools, four workbooks in comparative analysis, including the instructional sets for data based teaching, were published [15].

Two years earlier, the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection started its training programme, building on experiences from the ICPSR Summer Training Program in Ann Arbor. The first Summer School was sponsored by UNESCO, subsequently by the Nuffield Foundation, then by the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the Department of Government of the University of Essex. UNESCO stipulated that participation should be open to scholars from all over Europe. This tradition was maintained and expanded internationally. Until now, social scientists from 89 countries around the world used this opportunity to be trained in basic and advanced methods of quantitative social science data analysis. The school is designed for six weeks, organised in two-week modules in July and August every year. Each course consists of a lecture and a practical session each weekday, so, theoretical background, statistical foundations and a good working practice can be acquired. Most valuable is the experience to work in an international network of participating students and professional social scientists from different countries, which contributes to creating scholarly networks beyond the six weeks in the Essex summers.

Topically more focused are the Spring and Autumn Seminars of the Zentralarchiv, which offer lectures and hands on training in quantitative social and historical research. Experts who developed new data analytical approaches, are invited to teach a course on this particular approach in the mornings of the seminar, while the afternoons are dedicated to tutored workgroups, applying the new techniques to specially mounted data sets. The analysis tools and the related data sets are made available for further research and teaching at the respective home university.

In 1992 the Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies was initiated. It provides post graduate courses, covering all social science disciplines. Particular emphasis is on advanced training for young European researchers, on interdisciplinary approaches and on supporting the development of networks for comparative research.