ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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Advances and Innovations in Online Panel Research |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Katharina Pfaff (University of Vienna) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Andrea Orazio Spinello (CNR-IRCrES – Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth of the National Research Council of Italy, Rome, Italy) |
Session Details
Online panels have become an increasingly important part of the contemporary survey landscape. They offer opportunities for timely, flexible, and cost-efficient data collection, but also raise methodological challenges related to recruitment, participation, panel maintenance, survey error, data quality, response quality, data integration, and inference. Recent developments in probability-based, non-probability, and hybrid panel designs, adaptive approaches, mixed-device participation, and quality monitoring provide new opportunities to improve how online panels are designed, implemented, and evaluated.
This session focuses on advances and innovations in online panel research. Contributions may relate, but are not limited to:
● panel design: pros and cons of probability-based, non-probability, and hybrid designs;
● online panel building and management processes: novel recruitment, refreshment, and retention strategies;
● new approaches to selection bias, coverage error, nonresponse, attrition, panel conditioning, and cumulative error across the panel life cycle;
● emerging methods for assessing and improving data quality, response quality, satisficing, measurement error, respondent verification, fraud detection, and survey professionalism in online panels;
● new strategies for integrating online panel data with official statistics, administrative records, high-quality reference surveys, and other external data sources through benchmarking, weighting, calibration, sample blending, and model-based inference;
● innovative applications of online panels in social science, civic engagement, public opinion, and related fields;
● the potential of online panels to contribute to Open Science policies.
The session welcomes methodological, experimental, simulation-based, and applied contributions. By bringing together researchers working with different types of online panels, the session aims to advance the evidence base on when and how online panels can produce high-quality, reliable, and fit-for-purpose survey data.
