Abstract
The Zurich Survey of Academics is a large-scale and representative web survey among scientists at universities in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria (DACH region). The survey was conducted in 2020 and includes N=15,778 scientists from 263 universities. The survey is motivated by recent developments, such as the significant increase of team work in science and problems of how to organize fair and sustainable collaborations. It also reflects recent discussions around the replication crisis, problems of scientific integrity, and the apparently increasing pressures in scientific work. The aim of the survey is to obtain in-depth insights from researchers in Europe. The survey includes a number of new measurements, such as vignettes, factorial surveys, behavioral games, an Implicit Association Test on misconduct, indirect questioning techniques for eliciting scientific misconduct, randomized survey experiments on selective publishing behavior, and more. These measurements are applied to elicit, among other things, selfish versus prosocial behavior of scientists, authorship norms, and provisions of collective goods in science. This document describes the most innovative elements of the survey and the core item batteries, questions, games, behavioral tasks, and how permission to record linkage with individual bibliometric data was obtained. In addition, the specifics of the sampling and data-cleaning are described. The document serves as a companion for informing about the questionnaire and the data for data analysts, interested researchers, reviewers, and those interested in learning more about the specifics of the survey contents and the data structure. The document further entails links to additional material and documents, such as the codebook, ethics approval, and data protection. The survey is part of the larger-scale SNF/ERC Starting grant project “Social Norms, Cooperation and Conflict in Scientific Collaborations”.
Rauhut, Heiko