CALL

CALL

FOR RESEARCH PROPOSALS
ON COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
OF FFS DATA

THIRD ROUND

Submission deadlines:

1 February 1998
1 May 1998
1 August 1998
1 November 1998

Standard Recode Files (SRF) containing Fertility and Family Survey (FFS) data collected in recent years under the auspices of the Population Activities Unit (PAU) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) are now available for analysis by the international research community.

Each SRF contains individual-level, depersonalized data on a wide range of topics, including event history data on union formation and dissolution, live births and other pregnancy outcomes, as well as education and work. In addition, each file also contains information on household composition, the parental home, contraception, fertility preferences, and various values and beliefs.

Researchers interested in analyzing these SRF data as part of the third round of the FFS programme of comparative research are invited to submit their research proposals and corresponding data requests on special application forms to:

Population Activities Unit
Room 351
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10

Copies of these application forms can be obtained from the FFS home page at:

http://www.unece.org/deap/pau/ffs/applicat.htm

or from the FFS project manager at:

(41 22) 917 2477 (telephone),
(41 22) 917 0101/0309 (telefax),
erik.klizing@unece.org (e-mail).

Proposals and requests will be reviewed by the FFS Advisory Group within 1 month of each of the above submission deadlines. For approved applications, copies of the requested SRF data and relevant documentation will be dispatched immediately after duly signed confidentiality pledges have been received.

Only proposals for specific, well-defined comparative research projects with finite time frames will be accepted. For this third round, the AG will welcome in particular proposals for analysis of selected methodological issues affecting cross-national comparability of results, such as national differences in:

total non-response;
sampling frame used;
sampling errors;
selecting single- versus five-year birth cohorts;
interviewing 1 or more than 1 respondent (e.g., partners) per household;
collecting event histories (connected versus disconnected);
post-stratification weighting; and
imputation of missing and/or implausible data.

It is envisaged that an international conference on substantive fertility and family issues, to be organized as part of the FFS project possibly early in the year 2000, will have one or more sessions dedicated to these and other methodological issues.

Countries for which SRF data are currently available for cross-national comparative research are: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. SRF data for additional countries are expected to become available in the course of 1998.

For lists of topics already covered under the first and second round of the FFS programme of comparative research, see FFS Newsletters 10 and 12 on the FFS home page: http://www.unece.org/deap/pau/ffs/f_h_3.htm.