Methodology of Longitudinal Surveys II

Date and Location

When: Wednesday, 25 Jul 2018 09:00 – Friday, 27 Jul 2018 17:00
Where: University Of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

This international conference will bring together scholars and research professionals involved in the design, implementation and analysis of longitudinal surveys, to share methodological research findings and to discuss the state of the art in carrying out longitudinal surveys.

The focus is primarily on surveys that involve collecting data from subjects on multiple occasions, though issues that arise in surveys that collect longitudinal data via retrospective methods may also be relevant.

The conference follows on from the highly successful conference held in July 2006, which resulted in the monograph book “Methodology of Longitudinal Surveys”, published by Wiley. Since then, the field of longitudinal survey methods has advanced considerably. The advantages of longitudinal data have been more widely understood, leading to the commissioning of many new longitudinal surveys, including in substantive fields where longitudinal data did not previously exist, and in countries/regions where longitudinal surveys had not previously been carried out.

This enthusiasm for longitudinal surveys has brought with it a thirst for knowledge about the best ways to design and implement such surveys. Considerable advances have been made in recent years in areas such as methods to encourage continued participation, ways of utilising multiple data collection modes, improving the measurement of change, obtaining participant consent to data linkage, linking and analysing administrative data longitudinally, and longitudinal methods for cross-disciplinary research including the use of biomarkers in social surveys.

The conference will highlight research relating to all stages of the design and implementation of longitudinal surveys, but with a particular focus on areas in which significant advances have been made in the last 12 years. Topics may include:

Dynamic sampling for the representation of dynamic populations;
Methods for tracking mobile sample members over time;
Methods for maintaining co-operation over time;
Targeted design features for response maximisation;
The use of longitudinal survey paradata for field management;
Advances in dependent interviewing techniques;
New data collection methods to improve longitudinal survey measurement;
Maximising consent to data linkage in a longitudinal context;
The opportunities of longitudinal data linkage;
The design of longitudinal surveys for cutting-edge biosocial research;
Mixed mode designs for longitudinal surveys;
Advances in statistical modelling for complex longitudinal survey data;
Issues in weighting for longitudinal surveys;

It is anticipated that the conference will generate a monograph book and a journal special issue.