Competence Center for Data Quality in the Social Sciences (KODAQS)

KODAQS: Data Quality Driven Research for Social Sciences

The Competence Center for Data Quality in the Social Sciences (KODAQS) is a collaboration between the Social Data Science and AI Lab (SODA) at Ludwig Maximilian University, the School of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim, and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The project aims to foster a new culture for teaching data quality skills in the social sciences. KODAQS promotes quality-assured handling of data by providing researchers with innovative tools and comprehensive training to determine and assess the quality of data. It is focused on digital behavioural data, survey data, and linked data (e.g. surveys linked with geodata).

The planned training components of KODAQS include (1) a Data Quality Academy, configured under a digital and hybrid learning approach; (2) a Data Quality Toolbox, which offers methodological resources to estimate and develop data quality indicators along with supervised learning and consulting resources; (3) DataFests, a series of “hackathons” aiming to implement hands-on training to apply the learnt theoretical and methodological skills, and (4) guest research stays at KODAQS partner institutions. KODAQS project leads are Prof. Dr. Frauke Kreuter (LMU), Prof. Dr. Florian Keusch (University of Mannheim) and Prof. Dr. Beatrice Rammstedt (GESIS). KODAQS is funded by the BMBF NextGenerationEU (until 2026).