Digital technologies and the future of social surveys

Technical developments in the last few decades have created new opportunities for social science research. Internet interviewing has grown in prominence, and several online panels have been setup for scientific research purposes. Technical developments that have driven the development of online panels have also improved coordination and increased the capacity of survey scientists to deploy large scale, complex general social surveys. The landscape, however, is fragmented and integration of existing social science surveys into existing online panels may resolve the duplication of efforts and potential inefficiencies, as well as open up opportunities for more intensive data linkage and interoperability. Linking survey data to other forms of data, such as administrative data, has numerous benefits. There have already been several successful examples of such linkages. But linkages are predominantly post-hoc. A new trend is the move towards surveys that are linkable by design, with complex, relational administrative data. A rapid development of innovative technologies and intensified efforts of linkage and integration will offer opportunities to answer questions that have so far been out of reach for social scientists.