The GESIS Panel consists of two samples: the well-established GESIS Panel.pop Population Sample (Gesis Panel.pop) and the new GESIS Panel.dbd Digital Behavioral Data Sample (GESIS Panel.dbd). The quarterly fielded GESIS Panel.pop is a self-administered probability-based mixed-mode (CAWI and PAPI) panel of the German-speaking adult population permanently residing in Germany with a total sample size of about 5,000 respondents. Established in 2013, it is open to the academic public for primary and secondary research. While about 75% of all respondents participate online, the remaining quarter of our panelists participate in the mail mode (over 1,000 respondents), which we deem important since not everyone in Germany has access to the Internet, the skills to use it, or does want to participate in surveys online. The GESIS Panel.pop pursues a unified mixed-mode design with a mobile-first approach to reduce mode measurement effects. Due to the limitations of the mail mode, we only allow a maximum of four experimental groups per wave. The GESIS Panel.pop allows the submission of cross-sectional as well as longitudinal studies. It is especially suited for drawing inferences about the general population.

In 2022, GESIS expanded its data collection capabilities by setting up a new data collection opportunity – the GESIS Panel.dbd – for collecting digital behavioral data (DBD) on the adult German-speaking population that can be linked with survey data. Most prominently, the GESIS Panel.dbd continually records web browsing behavior for up to 1000 respondents. For this purpose, GESIS maintains and uses a web browser plugin (GESIS Web Tracking) that records desktop/laptop browser usage at the level of individual website visits, recording both URLs and the HTML content of visited web sites. Integrating web tracking data with longitudinal survey data can be considered the gold standard in investigating and explaining online media use and information-seeking behaviors and their effects. Additionally, the GESIS Panel.dbd is used for app studies (e.g. utilizing the GESIS App-Kit) and data donation studies (using varying data donation frameworks). Respondents for the GESIS Panel.dbd were recruited through probabilistic and non-probabilistic methods. Notable probabilistic recruitment methods were population register-based sampling and piggybacking from high-quality surveys such as the ALLBUS, GESIS Panel.pop and GLES. Non-probabilistic recruitment was realized employing targeted advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

Projects that wish to collect data through the GESIS Panel infrastructure will have to take the following steps:

• Contact the GESIS Panel survey management as early as possible to register your interest for specific 5-minutes survey slots in the survey years 2028, 2029 or 2030 with one of our samples (GESIS Panel.pop or GESIS Panel.dbd). After receiving feedback from the GESIS Panel survey management, please fill out the submission documents:
  • For submitting to the GESIS Panel.pop, fill out the GESIS Panel.pop Stage 1 Submission Form, the GESIS Panel.pop Questionnaire Template and the Research Ethics Self-Assessment.
  • For submitting to the GESIS Panel.dbd, fill out the GESIS Panel.dbd Submission Form and the GESIS Panel.dbd Questionnaire Template.  
• We encourage researchers to take advantage of GESIS consulting services before submitting their proposals/questionnaires to the GESIS Panel. The services offered include general questionnaire consultation, pretesting service, and consultation to questionnaire translation.
• The collected data will be provided to researchers between six to nine months after data collection. Please note that all data will be made available to the academic public through the GESIS Data Archive without an embargo period. 

Study Characteristics