ESRA 2027 sessions by theme

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Session Details

Record linkage has become an essential tool in social science survey research, enabling the enrichment of survey data through integration with additional data sources, such as administrative records, digital trace data, and other external data. As the landscape of data collection expands, researchers increasingly encounter new practical and methodological challenges related to multiplicity in record linkage. By ‘multiplicity’, we mean the practical reality that record linkage increasingly involves multiple data sources, countries, domains, consent conditions, and institutional contexts simultaneously. This session aims to address these developments and their implications for survey-based research.
We particularly welcome papers addressing the various aspects of multiplicity in record linkage. These include, but are not limited to, cross-national linkage across countries with different legal frameworks, data protection regimes, and identifier systems; linkage across multiple data domains (e.g., health, education, labour market, or digital platforms), requiring interoperability between heterogeneous data structures and concepts; and multiplicity in consent, where respondents encounter multiple consent requests for different data types or domains, raising methodological challenges and constraints on permissible linkage. Contributions may also explore decentralised data availability, where data remain distributed across institutions or secure environments, necessitating new technical and organisational solutions.
Submissions may focus on methodological developments, empirical results, or conceptual and governance-related perspectives. We are particularly interested in work examining the practical implications of multiplicity for record linkage survey implementation and data quality, as well as approaches enhancing interoperability through harmonised metadata, shared standards, or innovative infrastructures.
This session aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to improve our understanding of record linkage in complex, multi-source, and multi-context environments, and to identify best practices for carrying out robust, interoperable, and ethically sound linkages in contemporary social science research.