Search

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that effective vaccines constitute a central element of successful pandemic control. Although everyone in Germany has had the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, some people remain hesitant or refuse to get vaccinated. To address this phenomenon as well as to examine the unvaccinated population more closely, the present study investigates (RQ1) factors explaining the COVID-19 vaccination status (RQ2) trust in different types of COVID-19 vaccines, and (RQ3) people's specific reasons for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19.MethodsWe base our findings on a representative survey that we conducted in Germany in December 2021 with 1,310 respondents.ResultsIn response to the first research question, a logistic regression shows that trust in specific institutions (e.g., medical experts and authorities) is positively related to vaccination status, whereas trust in companies and COVID-19-related social and alternative media consumption decreases the likelihood of being vaccinated. Furthermore (RQ2), while vaccinated people trust mRNA-based vaccines (e.g., BioNTech), most unvaccinated people put greater trust in recently developed protein-based vaccines (e.g., Novavax), albeit on a low level. Finally, our study reveals (RQ3) that the most important reason why people choose not to get vaccinated is that they wish to make their own decisions about their bodies.ConclusionBased on our results, we suggest that a successful vaccination campaign should address COVID-19 risk groups and lower income populations, increase trust in different public institutions and newly developed vaccines in advance, establish a multisectoral approach, and debunk fake news and misinformation. Furthermore, since unvaccinated respondents state that the desire to make their own choices about their body is the main reason why they have not gotten vaccinated against COVID-19, an effective vaccination campaign should emphasize the need for general practitioners who have a closer relationship with their patients who, in turn, trust their doctors.

Delphi-Verfahren finden als Teil der sozialwissenschaftlichen Methodik seit ihrer ersten Anwendung mehr und mehr Interesse. Der vorliegende Bericht pr��sentiert Ergebnisse einer Expert:innenumfrage, die in der Arbeitsgruppe ���Fragebogen- und Feedbackgestaltung��� des DEWISS Netzwerkes (Delphi-Verfahren in den Gesundheits- und Sozialwissenschaften) erarbeitet wurde, um Einsichten in die aktuelle Verwendung der Delphi-Methodik zu bekommen und Herausforderungen und Potentiale zu untersuchen. Insbesondere Erfahrungen von Wissenschaftler:innen mit der Entwicklung und Durchf��hrung von Delphi-Studien, mit Fokus auf die Fragebogenerstellung und Feedbackgestaltung wurden systematisch erfasst und ausgewertet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Delphi-Verfahren f��r diverse inhaltliche und methodische Ziele genutzt werden, h��ufig auch in Kombination mit anderen Methoden. Die Anwendung des Klassischen Delphi dominiert, wohingegen Real Time Delphi-Studien vergleichsweise selten genutzt werden. Vor allem die Fragebogengestaltung wird von vielen Befragten im Nachhinein kritisch gesehen und stellt somit die gr����te Herausforderung der Methodik dar., The Delphi methodology as part of social science methods increasingly gains interest since its first application. This report presents the results of an expert survey developed in the working group "Questionnaire and Feedback Design" of the DEWISS network (Delphi-Studies in Health and Social Sciences) in order to gain insights into the current use of the Delphi methodology and to investigate challenges and potentials. In particular, scientists��� experiences with developing and conducting Delphi-studies, with a focus on questionnaire and feedback design, were systematically collected and evaluated. The results show that the Delphi methodology is used for various content-related and methodological objectives, often in combination with other methods. The use of Classical Delphi dominates, whereas Real-Time Delphis remain a rarity. The questionnaire design in particular is viewed critically by many respondents in retrospect, which thus represents the greatest challenge of the methodology.

This thesis is a collection of various modelling studies, carried out on the basis of state-of-the-art meteorological, climatological and hydrological data products, to map the potential for solar PV power, wind power and hydropower generation across sub-Saharan Africa at high spatiotemporal resolution. Particular attention is herein given to the patterns of these resources in space and time, and their synergies from hourly to seasonal timescales across different climate zones. The research is meant to improve our understanding of how weather and climate control the potential for renewable power resources across sub-Saharan Africa, how variable renewable resources such as solar PV and wind could be better integrated in power grids and power pools across Africa, and how energy and climate services based on high-resolution spatiotemporal modelling of solar PV, wind and hydropower can help in decision making and planning for electricity generation across the African continent (and elsewhere). status: published

Extensive harmonization of survey and especially biographical data has not been common in the social sciences. HaSpaD provides a tool for harmonizing and accumulating, and thus comprehensively analyzing, survey-based longitudinal data sets on partnership biographies. The following studies were harmonized and merged for a joint analysis for the third-party funded project "Harmonizing and synthesizing partnership histories from different research data infrastructures" (HaSpaD): the panel studies pairfam, SOEP and SHARE; the cross-section studies General German Social Survey, Mannheim Divorce Study and the Fertility and Family Survey; as well as the cross-section studies combined with partially repeated surveys Family Surveys, German Life History Studies and the Generations and Gender Surveys. The project provides syntax-based harmonization processes available through the HaSpaD Harmonization Wizard. The HaSpaD Harmonization Wizard enables a customized selection of survey programs and variables. After downloading the source data sets from their repositories, the HaSpaD syntax package enables to generate an individually customized and harmonized data set of the source datasets. In addition to biographical data on partnerships, the HaSpaD target dataset may include other variables such as age, gender, citizenship, and education level. If all surveys are selected, the target data set will contain approximately 182,000 partnership biographies., GESIS Papers

Die Harmonisierung von Umfrageprogrammen, und insbesondere von Biographiedaten, ist in diesem Umfang in den Sozialwissenschaften bisher wenig verbreitet. Durch die Harmonisierung und Kumulation umfragebasierter Längsschnittdatensätze bietet das HaSpaD-Projekt die Möglichkeit zur umfassenden Analyse von Partnerschaftsbiografien. Folgende Studien wurden im Drittmittelprojekt „Harmonisierung und Synthese von paarbiografischen Daten“ (HaSpaD) harmonisiert und für eine gemeinsame Analyse verknüpft: die Panelstudien pairfam, SOEP und SHARE; die Querschnittsstudien ALLBUS, Mannheimer Scheidungsstudie, Fertility and Family Survey; die Querschnittsstudien mit teilweiser Wiederholungsbefragung der Familiensurveys, der Lebensverlaufsstudien und des Generations and Gender Surveys. Das Projekt stellt seinen Aufbereitungs-Code zur Nachnutzung zur Verfügung. Über den HaSpaD - Harmonization Wizard können Umfrageprogramme und zusätzliche Variablen für einen individualisierten Datensatz ausgewählt werden. Nach Download der Urprungsdatenquellen aus den jeweiligen Forschungsdatenrepositorien kann mit Hilfe des HaSpaD-Codes ein gemeinsamer Datensatz erstellt werden. Variablen dieses Zieldatensatzes sind neben Biografiedaten der Partnerschaften auch Zusatzvariablen wie Alter, Geschlecht, Staatsbürgerschaft und Bildungsstand. Bei Auswahl aller Umfrageprogramme enthält der Zieldatensatz ungefähr 182.000 Partnerschaftsbiographien., GESIS Papers

This article quantifies the aggregate potential of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in 2030 from the assumed full implementation of major international cooperative initiatives (ICIs). To this end, a methodology is proposed to aggregate emission reduction goals of the most significant and potentially impactful global initiatives. We identified the extent to which reductions are additional to national policies, assuming these actions do not displace climate actions elsewhere, and accounted for overlap ranges between the ICIs. The analysis was conducted for 17 initiatives, selected from an original list of over 300 with a series of testing criteria, across eight sectors and ten major emitting economies. These initiatives include cities, regions, businesses, and other subnational and non-state actors, cooperating with each other and sometimes working in partnership with national governments or other international organizations. Our analysis shows that the combined achievement of initiatives’ reduction goals could reduce global emissions in 2030 by 18–21 GtCO 2e/year in addition to current national policies (total of 60–63 GtCO 2e/year), down to 39–44 GtCO 2e/year. If delivered fully, reductions from these 17 initiatives would help move the global emissions trajectory within the range of a 2°C-consistent emission pathway by 2030, although a significant gap would remain to reduce emissions to a 1.5°C-consistent pathway. Key policy insights We propose a transparent and robust methodology to aggregate GHG mitigation potential of ICIs, accounting for overlaps between ICIs. If major initiatives meet their goals and do not change the course of other existing climate actions, they could make large contributions by 2030 towards global efforts to stay within the range of a below 2°C-consistent emission pathway by 2030. The full suite of existing initiatives beyond those in this analysis could further increase ambition towards achieving the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals. Cities and regions, businesses and forestry initiatives account for significantly more than half of all possible emission reductions from ICIs; implementation of their goals should be a key policy focus.