ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the methodology to set up a panel that combines the new technology of Internet surveys with a “true” longitudinal design. It shows how such a panel can be built and maintained, taking a Dutch panel as illustration: the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences (LISS) panel administered by Centre data. The design of the LISS panel includes a core questionnaire that is repeated each year and represents the longitudinal aspect. The chapter describes new developments in survey research, in particular Internet interviewing. It discusses the consequences of choosing Internet interviewing as a data collection method for a scientific longitudinal panel, instead of the traditional methods used by most other panels. The aim of most longitudinal panel surveys is to collect data about social change, household dynamics and individual life courses. In the 1980s, a major breakthrough was accomplished by the introduction of remote computer-assisted interviewing in a probability-based panel set up by the University of Amsterdam.
