ISSP DataWizard

The ISSP (International Social Survey Programme, http://www.issp.org/) is a continuing annual 
programme of cross-national collaboration on surveys covering topics important for social 
science research. Every year a common reference questionnaire regarding a specific topic is the 
basis of the surveys in meanwhile more than 30 participating countries.
The ZA (Central Archive for Empirical Social Science Research at the University of Cologne, 
http://www.za.uni-koeln.de/) has been the official archive of the ISSP since 1986. The ZA is 
responsible for processing, merging and archiving all national and cross-national data sets and 
for distributing data and documentation (including code books) of merged ISSP data sets to the 
scientific community of social scientists.
To carry out this task it is necessary to map the questionnaires of each country onto the reference 
questionnaire. Up until now this has been done by controlling and editing SPSS setup files with a 
simple text editor. This method is very time consuming and error-prone. The goal of the 
information system “ISSP DataWizard” is to assist the ZA in doing the mapping in a more 
effective way.

One of the central problems for the information system is the restricted screen space. A huge 
range of information is relevant for the mapping of the questionnaire – but only a selection 
should be displayed on the screen so as not to overload it with data.
One solution for this problem is adaptivity. The information system offers data (in lists, 
comboboxes etc.) depending on the specific context the user deals with. Information hiding 
prevents the user from seeing information that is not relevant in this particular context.
The rule based system aims to assist the user in making decisions regarding which parts of the 
specific country questionnaire can be mapped onto the reference questionnaire. The rules for 
mapping variables and values (the structure of the survey) are implemented in the system. The 
user can feed and edit other rules, that work on the questionnaires’ data. These rules check the 
plausibility and validity of the submitted data or create new data depending on this data.
The information system is basically orientated on the WOB model (tool metaphor based strictly 
object orientated graphic direct manipulative user interface, Krause 1995), which was developed 
at the IZ (Social Science Information Centre Bonn). Some of the main scores of this model like 
dynamic adaptation and context sensitive permeance are used as software ergonomic principles.

The system was developed using Java/Swing and has been used against ISSP data at ZA for 
testing purposes since November 1999. Beginning with the ISSP 2000 survey it is planned that 
the program will be used under production conditions. For the year 2000 survey the ISSP 
DataWizard will exclusively be used by ZA in Cologne. After completing testing successfully 
the software will be distributed to the other ISSP project partners. In this context XML/DDI is 
being considered as playing a key role as the future interchange format between ISSP members. 
As of March 2000, the subset of XML/DDI relevant to ISSP data is already supported for 
importing and exporting.

Authors:
Robert Strötgen, Siegfried Schomisch, Marcus Schommler
InformationsZentrum Sozialwissenschaften
Lennéstraße 30; D-53113 Bonn; Germany

Contact: Marcus Schommler
Tel: (+49) 228 2281 150
Fax: (+49) 228 2281 120
Email: so@bonn.iz-soz.de