The Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)The Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), founded over 25 years ago, is a research department in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Essex.
The department wishes to appoint a talented and ambitious survey methods researcher to work on a research project related to Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Understanding Society is a major longitudinal survey initially covering 40,000 households across the UK and includes an Innovation Panel that is used for methodological development and testing (http://www.understandingsociety.org.uk).
The Role and DutiesThe post is based in the survey methods research group at ISER and is part of a research project funded by the National Centre for Research Methods, with the overall aim of using mobile technologies to improve financial data collected in household surveys. The strands of research that the successful candidate will be involved in include (1) testing ways of increasing participation in mobile data collection, (2), examining whether offering respondents feedback on their data increases willingness to participate, and whether feedback leads to panel conditioning, and (3) working towards developing a framework of Total Error in Social Science data collected using different technologies.
The successful candidate will collaborate with leading experts in survey methodology and economics, to produce and disseminate high quality research. The candidate will contribute to data analysis and writing of manuscripts for publication in academic journals. They will also contribute to the development work for experiments, to monitoring fieldwork, and to preparing and documenting data collected for the project.
Duties will include writing manuscripts for publication in academic journals; supporting the development work for an app study to measure expenditure; contributing to data analysis and preparing data from the app study; and supporting the development and implementation of experiments.
Qualifications and SkillsThe post is open to researchers with a PhD in survey methodology or quantitative social science (or be close to completion), or a Master's degree with a track record of academic publications in survey methodology or quantitative social science.
A combination of technical aptitude and good interpersonal skills is required, as is an ability to negotiate and co-ordinate activities with collaborators involved in the project. Computer literacy, excellent written and verbal communication and organisational skills, the ability to work effectively in a team and to deadlines, accuracy and an eye for detail, as well as self-motivation and initiative are all essential qualities required of applicants.
The post is fixed-term for 18 months (or until 31 March 2019, the date on which the research grant ends), as there is uncertainty about its continued funding in the foreseeable future.
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Please see the further detail link below for a full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role plus more information relating to the post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application. Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please telephone the Resourcing Team (01206 874693/873521).
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