PUBLICATIONS

Selected publications of the Czech Social Science Data Archive and links to publications of the Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Data a výzkum – SDA Info

Data a výzkum – SDA Info [Data and Research – CSDA Info] is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal with focus on empirical social research. It publishes papers in the field of applied advanced methods for analyzing social data, methodology papers, and review articles about data sources, infrastructure, information technologies and other types of social research background. The journal comes out irregularly, twice a year.

Full texts online: Data a výzkum – SDA Info (journal in Czech, English abstracts)

SDA Info: The above-mentioned journal Data a výzkum – SDA Info is a successor of the former Sociological Data Archive bulletin entitled, SDA Info, which published reviews of data services, information about research projects, and articles on methods of statistical data analysis and information technologies in the social sciences. The bulletin came out between 1999 and 2006. The individual issues are available online at: SDA Info (in Czech).

Links to Institute of Sociology Publications

Links to works published by the Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic:

Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review (in Czech and English)

A peer-reviewed disciplinary scholarly journal with an impact factor. The journal is listed by Current Contents/Social&Behavioral Sciences (CC/S&BS), in the Social SciSearch computer database, in latest Research Alert notifications, and among US Institute of Scientific Information (ISI)’s publications. It comes out six times a year (four times in Czech, twice in English). The journal’s table of contents and full texts of articles are published online at: http://sreview.soc.cas.cz, e-mail: sreview@soc.cas.cz  

Other periodicals:

 Gender, rovné příležitosti, výzkum [Gender, Equal Opportunities, Research] (in Czech, English abstracts)

 Data a výzkum – SDA INFO [Data and Research – CSSDA Info] (in Czech, English abstracts)

 Naše společnost [Our Society] (in Czech, English abstracts)

 Sociologický webzin SOCIOweb [SOCIOweb sociological webzine] (in Czech)

 newsLetter (in Czech)

Book series:

 Sociologické studie/Sociological Studies (in Czech and English)

In this series, the Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic publishes latest results of projects implemented by its different research departments. 

 Other publications (in Czech and English)

List of publications distributed by the Institute of Sociology’s Print and Publication Department.

Postoje k imigrantům [Attitudes to Immigrants] (in Czech)

Yana Leontiyeva, Martin Vávra (eds.) Praha: Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 117 p., ISBN 978-80-7330-173-6 (in Czech)

The book discusses the attitudes of members of the Czech general public to immigrants, foreign nations and people from other ethnic groups living in the country. The proportion of immigrants in the Czech Republic’s population continues to be below the average of “western countries” but has been rising quickly after 1989. There is no indication that this growing trend should change in the short- or mid-term perspective. In contrast, all evidence speaks for the fact that the growth of international migration and communication and the resulting mixing of cultures have become indispensable parts of the contemporary world, and it is in this sense that life together with “others” has become the fate of Czechs as well. However, this fact alone does not guarantee the peaceful character of living together. Objective conditions for living together (labour market regulation and other legislative measures pertaining to foreigners’ life in the country) are neither sufficient nor of primary importance; the relevant question is how the “local” majority population perceives foreigners. That is what makes the topic of attitudes to immigrants highly up-to-date (both for scientific research and for public discourse) and this is why this publication is devoted to the topic.

The book is based on a secondary analysis of quantitative representative sociological surveys – both ones limited to the Czech Republic and international ones. The character of the book is closely related to its authors’ professional background. All authors work in the Czech Social Science Data Archive (CSSDA) and have in their job description, among other things, to manage and archive data from sociological surveys and, last but not least, to facilitate secondary analysis of such data. Thus, the book also wants to bring attention to data sources available for the study of migration and to provide a useful overview of those sources for utilization in future research.

Kvalita sociálněvědních výběrových šetření v České republice [Quality of social science sample surveys in the Czech Republic] (in Czech)

Jindřich Krejčí. Praha: SLON 2009.

The book has three goals: (1) to inform about state-of-art criteria of quality in sample surveys, (2) to assess the environment for implementing sample interview surveys in the Czech Republic and (3) to conduct an in-depth analysis in two selected areas: response rates in sample interview surveys in the Czech Republic and implementation of election surveys in the Czech Republic.

The environment for implementing sample surveys has changed in the Czech Republic. Social research has come a long way toward the developed world in terms of the extent of its utilization, but at the same time, it is facing similar obstacles. In order to achieve quality, it is necessary to rethink some assumptions and adopt methodologies to the new situation. Generally speaking, the character and basic parameters of Czech surveys do not substantially differ from practices that are normal in developed countries. However, there are pitfalls and an unused potential for overcoming unfavourable conditions more successfully. Can the results of interview surveys be trusted? The issues of quality of sample interview surveys go beyond the concepts of mathematical statistics and include the issues of sampling error and psychometric approaches to validity and reliability. Effectiveness is the key criterion of quality, and the cost-precision ratio is its major determinant. In the mid-1990s, the research climate in the Czech Republic deteriorated significantly, but researchers’ performance has been another source of problems. The reliability of data from Czech surveys has been put in question due to their low response rates. Unfavourable results of quality indicators can be improved if adequate methodological strategies are chosen and if research process quality is raised. Variation in the quality of different surveys’ methodologies is reflected in differences in the precision of their results. However, many errors are only made later, when results are interpreted and publicized in the media.

Sociologické nakladatelství - SLON

Kvalita výzkumů volebních preferencí [Quality of election polls] (in Czech)

Jindřich Krejčí (ed.), Olga Gyárfášová, Dominique Joye, František Kalvas, Martin Kreidl, Vladimír Krivý, Daniel Kunštát, Tomáš Lebeda, Yana Leontiyeva, Klára Plecitá-Vlachová. Praha: Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. 2004.

The publication gathers scholarly studies about the methodology of social sciences, sociology and political science with the common goal of reviewing existing interview surveys of election preferences and discussing their quality and social relevance. The texts respond to the current situation where both experts and laypersons in the Czech Republic are supplied with a large number of different kinds of election polls, while there is relatively little comprehensible and practical information about the character of the different polls and their outcomes. The publication primarily focuses on the Czech Republic but it also reviews polls in Slovakia. The book is designed for professionals working with the results of election polls, especially journalists, political scientists and sociologists.

Order at: Institute of Sociology, Print and Publication Department: prodej@soc.cas.cz

Publications archive:

Analytical publications from concluded projects:

 Publications from the Social Trends Project (1996–1998) (in Czech and English)

 Data & Fakta Bulletin (in Czech)