Wave after wave, the European Values Study improved its methodological standards by increasing the harmonization of the procedures; applying the more recent developments in survey research; enhancing the transparency of the processes through monitoring and detailed documentation. In 2017 wave, the efforts to reach high level of data quality have been substantively increased. Read more about what has been done in EVS2017 to reach data quality in all the phases of the survey cycle.

The main features of the EVS Methodology are the following:

• Mode of data collection: F2F interview. In 2017 mixed-mode has been introduce as experiment
• Sample size: effective size=1000 in 1981; increased up to 1500 in 2008; 1200 in 2017
• Sampling: the use of quotes was admitted in the first waves, but since 2008 only probabilistic representative sample
• Target: Resident population older than 18 years old
• Translation and monitoring: centrally coordinated since 2008
• Data Access: data and documentation of all the waves are available free of charge. They are stored at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Cologne, Germany.

The preparation of the fifth wave of EVS has benefited from the SERISS project which allowed the cooperation with other survey programmes and infrastructures aimed ad developing tools for translation, web-surveys, harmonization, and survey management.

The Methodological guidelines of EVS are developed by the Methodology Group. Please, consult the dedicated page for further detailed information concerning the methodology applied in the waves of 1981, 1990, 1999, 2008, and 2017.