Strategic Review of Panel and Cohort Studies

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned a strategic review of panel and cohort (longitudinal) studies in order to help them decide investment policies for longitudinal data collection.

About the review

The review for ESRC included finding out:

  • which surveys to support at what level
  • which surveys to terminate
  • which new surveys were needed

The ESRC wanted a wide-ranging review, which examined experience in Britain and other countries to determine the best ways forward. Longview formed an expert team to bid for the work and was successful in winning the contract.

About the Longview team

Longview's expert team comprised the following individuals:

  • Jean Martin of the Department of Sociology at Oxford University
  • John Bynner of Longview
  • Graham Kalton of Westat, USA
  • Harvey Goldstein of the University of Bristol
  • Paul Boyle of the University of St Andrews
  • Vernon Gayle of Stirling University
  • Samantha Parsons of the Institute of Education
  • Andrea Piesse of Weststat, USA

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The project

The team established a database of the main longitudinal studies across the world, principally located in Britain, the USA, continental Europe, Australia and New Zealand and their Principal Investigators. A list of experts and stakeholders in longitudinal data was also drawn up. Views were invited and over 70 inputs through interviews or in writing were obtained. Key reports and papers were also collected and reviewed.

A successful consultative conference was held in September 2005 in St Anne's College, Oxford, at which 42 experts in longitudinal research from Britain and overseas exchanged views and experience about the issues addressed in the review.

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Delivery and dissemination

An interim report was delivered to the ESRC in October 2005 and the final report in January 2006.

It is planned to disseminate the review's findings widely. The main report is published on this website, while a shorter non-technical version will be distributed widely.

The findings of the review were discussed at the Longview conference at St Catherine's college, Oxford in July. The findings were also presented at the MOLS conference at the University of Essex - also in July.

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