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Access to Data and Documentation

All EVS data and documentation is openly accessible and available free of charge through the EVS and GESIS websites. Processing of data and documentation is realized in close collaboration between EVS teams at Tilburg University and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The GESIS Search provides data and documentation from the GESIS data catalogue for retrieval and direct access for download. For each study, the study description includes information on the origin of the data, version history, and errata. For the EVS studies, detailed variable documentation is available under the "Variables" category, including question text, response categories, and, if available, frequency tables. In addition, publications based on EVS data can be found under the "Publications" category.

Data and documentation formats

  • Data is provided in several file formats: e.g.SPSS (*.sav and portable files *.por) or STATA (*.dta)
  • Documentation is provided as printable PDF files: Master questionnaire (English), national questionnaire (original language),variable reports (English master question and frequency counts), bilingual variable documentation (facilitating a direct comparison of English master questions and original questions for EVS 1999 and 2008).

Registration and errata services

  • Registration: Data downloads are available after registration. Users of data from Data Catalogue need to sign in with user name (e-mail address) and password. New users have to register first. If you want to register or edit your existing registration, please go to the Registration Form.
  • Errata: To get as error-free datasets as possible, we are thankful for your help. If you find mistakes in the datasets or documentation of the EVS please let us know by sending a short note to the EVS team at GESIS (E-Mail).

Bibliographic citation of EVS research data

  • Example: Citation of an integrated dataset
    EVS (2011): European Values Study 2008: Integrated Dataset (EVS 2008). GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA4800 Data file version 3.0.0, doi:10.4232/1.11004
  • Example: Citation of a country dataset (e.g. France)
    EVS (2010): European Values Study 2008: France (EVS 2008). GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA4751 Data file version 2.0.0, doi:10.4232/1.10198
    Ref.: Recommendation on citation of research data.

Usage regulations

Here you can find the current usage regulations.

Learn more

Contact persons

EVS Service

evsservice[at]gesis•org