Establishment of an online access panel at DeZIM (DeZIM.panel)

Data-Method-Monitoring Cluster

Project head: Dr. Jörg Dollmann ,  Dr. Jannes Jacobsen ,  Prof. Dr. Frank Kalter

Project coordination: Almuth Lietz

Project team members: Jonas Köhler ,  Michaela Schmälzle ,  Madeleine Siegel ,  Stefan Zimmermann

In general, an online access panel is a group of people who have agreed to participate in repeated online surveys on various topics. Within the framework of the DeZIM.panel at DeZIM.fdz, it is planned to maintain a sufficiently large pool of potential respondents who can be interviewed at relatively short notice, for example on current topics. In this way, the Research Data Centre will provide an infrastructure that also makes short-term policy advice possible. At the same time, this project will create long-term synergies between individual data collections, as the implementation of individual, isolated studies or smaller data collections can become superfluous if these surveys can be realised within the framework of the online access panel instead. Thus, the DeZIM.panel can contribute to a sustainable improvement of the data situation in migration and integration research.

The panel also has an integration function within DeZIM, as it is open to all researchers at DeZIM to contribute research questions, which are then queried relatively promptly within the framework of an online survey. The Online Access Panel thus offers an infrastructure in which all DeZIM researchers are involved, both in its conception and in its subsequent use. This also ensures an increasingly cumulative character of the research, in which research questions build on each other and are interrelated.

The Online Access Panel also provides an opportunity for the BMFSFJ to generate opinion pieces on ministry issues. For example, when it comes to the question of whether certain legislative changes have an effect or not, the Online Access Panel can provide valuable empirical information at relatively short notice on the extent to which the associated measures or options are even known in the relevant target groups.

As of the end of 2022, the first 5 surveys (1 recruitment wave and 4 panel waves) have been completed. The recruitment wave and wave 1 are also available as a scientific usefile (suf) via DeZIM.fdz. The number of respondents is currently around 3,500 per wave, with 2,500 people participating in several waves. For 2023, it is planned to integrate an enlargement sample into the current panel operation. This sample is disjunct to the previous population and includes persons who were 69 years or older at the time of sampling in 2021.

For the year 2023, it is planned to carry out a general refreshment of the panel in order to counteract the previous systematic drop-out from the panel, to increase the number of participants and thus also to carry out more detailed regional evaluations (NUTS 2, NUTS 3).

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)