Web Panel Sample Service (WPSS)

There are large numbers of survey platforms in existence, but none of them is perfectly suited to handling international comparative web panels. The purpose of the WPSS project is to correct this infrastructure deficit, which was highlighted by the CRONOS-1  pilot project.

By issuing a simultaneous invitation by email or text message to 10,000 European citizens from 12 different countries asking them to respond to an harmonised online questionnaire, it was possible to gain a succinct idea of the most significant use of WPSS with the web panel for ESS ERIC, CRONOS-2.

Interconnecting server platform and panel management

ESS ERIC approached CDSP to find a solution that would make it possible:

• for the national research teams and the European ESS coordination team to collaborate in creating questionnaires and in communicating in multiple languages with the panellists,
• to devolve the handling of the samples to the national teams, in accordance with ethical and legal requirements, while centralising the management of the fieldwork at European level,
• to offer the respondents easy access to a personal space.

CDSP therefore developed a solution based on two interconnected components: a web collection tool and a tool for handling sample data. The collection instrument chosen was the QualtricsOc platform. The sample and fieldwork management tool,WPSS, was designed and developed in-house at CDSP.

An infrastructure for supporting the production of panel-based surveys

WPSS performs the traditional functions of handling contact data and follow-up for surveys (import, modification, export). In addition, WPSS interfaces closely with the survey platform in order to offer users a simplified range of panel management operations:

• generation and processing of survey login identifiers,
• sending of invitation and reminder messages (emails, SMS),
• tracking message campaigns with early detection of dispatch failures,
• tracking response rates.

The main priority was flexibility. So invitations can be sent by email and/or text message. In addition, the languages are set for individuals (a sample can use as many languages as necessary).

WPSS therefore offered a reliable infrastructure in the pursuit of open science and in particular to support the production of FAIR data in panel-based web surveys.

After 12 months up and running, WPSS has enabled more than 10,000 panellists to respond to 15 rounds of surveys. A total of 76,720 emails and 26,540 text messages have been sent out. 3 training workshops have been provided for researchers in the national project teams. More than 200 requests have been handled by CDSP’s dedicated support service.

Towards Open Science

The application code is open and available on request from the Digital Projects team. For full access to all functions, a Qualtrics licence is required.

The WPSS application is present in the SSHOC catalogue and available in EOSC’s data and service interoperability tool.

The WPSS wiki is freely accessible. It contains documentation addressed to all categories of users of the application.

A project rooted in research dynamics

Coordinated by CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives), the SSHOC project (Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud) connected the numerous European social science research infrastructure initiatives in order to make their services accessible to the research community. SSHOC is the social science variant on the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud).

In 2019, CDSP’s engineers began designing and specifying WPSS in collaboration with ESS’s European coordination team, and then prototyped and tested it within the framework of the SSHOC structure. From 2020, they consolidated WPSS and put it into operation for the CRONOS-2 panel with the help of ESS-SUSTAIN-2 funding. Drawing on feedback from the first field tests, CDSP’s engineers updated the application to adapt it to existing practices and added new functions. Its roll-out, in the French cloud OVH, was supported by the Sciences Po’s Information Systems Directorate.