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This session is open to anyone who would like to analyse data and experiments from the CROss-National Online Survey panel (http://bit.do/CRONOS_DATA), a project led by the European Social Survey, to explore the feasibility of using existing survey infrastructures to recruit probability-based samples for online panels. The CRONOS project capitalised on an existing probability-based face-to-face survey to establish a probability-based sample for an online panel which now comprises data from seven waves, together with experimental data and paradata. All this data is available to any researcher interested in cross-national survey research methodology and it can be downloaded for free from the ESS website.

CRONOS was part of the Horizon 2020 grant Synergies for Europe’s Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS). The panel followed an input-harmonisation approach, with the survey design coordinated by ESS ERIC with crucial continuous support from national teams and other SERISS partners. Using these harmonised protocols, the national teams in Estonia, Great Britain and Slovenia carried out the recruitment of panel members on the back of the European Social Survey (ESS). All ESS sampled units 18 or older were eligible to participate in the panel; after completing the ESS Round 8 (2016) face-to-face interview. Those who agreed were invited to participate in six 20-minute online surveys over a period of 12 months.

Apart from a large amount of substantive data, the CRONOS panel served as a platform for methodological testing. Across the six CRONOS waves, numerous methodological and substantive areas were covered. Methodological efforts included pretesting of new questions, experiments on question wording and satisficing, incentive approaches, contact modes, and other studies. Substantive questions covered various topics related to family, religion and values amongst others from established cross-national studies such as the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), the European Values Study (EVS) and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). The CRONOS data can be analysed together with responses from the ESS face-to-face interview, allowing for new substantive and methodological analyses which was not previously possible.
This session invites papers on methodological findings from the panel. Papers might cover: representativeness, cost analyses, contact mode effects and incentive strategies, effects of device on measurement, efforts to improve survey completion respondent behaviour and the impact of including off-liners through device provision.