This is the current
release of the 2005 BES rolling campaign panel survey (RCPS) data. These
data were gathered
in a Britain-wide internet survey carried out by YouGov under the supervision
of Research
Director, Joe Twyman. An initial baseline survey (N = 7793) was conducted in
March 2005. Then,
every day during the election campaign a random sample of ~270 of these
respondents were
requested to do follow-up interviews. Immediately after the election, all of the
pre-campaign
respondents (regardless of whether they had participated in the campaign survey)
were recontacted
and requested to do post-election interviews.
1. Data
Files: You may download
either an SPSS file (YGJUNS09.SAV) or a STATA file
(YGJUNS09.DTA).
Users requiring the data in other formats may contact Harold Clarke
(hclarke@utdallas.edu)
for assistance. Alternatively, they can use data conversion programs such
as DBMSCOPY or
STAT Transfer to translate the downloaded data file into the format required.
2. Sample
Sizes: The unweighted N's for
the three waves of the RCPS are: (a) pre-campaign N
= 7793; (b)
campaign N = 6068; (c) post-election N = 5910.
3. Weights:
pre-campaign dat
a:
PRE_W8 is the standard YouGov weight which includes a past-vote factor;
PRE_W8NO is a
demographic factors only weight.
campaign dat
a:
W8_FULL is the standard YouGov weight which includes a past-vote factor;
W8_FUL_A is a
demographic factors only weight.
In addition, the
campaign wave has a set of weights which are used to produce six-day moving
averages for
variables of interest over the course of the campaign. The first of these
weights are
W8_1104 which is
the standard YouGov weight for the period April 6th-April 11th. The
corresponding
demographic factors only weight is W8_110_A. The last of these moving average
weights are
W8_0405 and W8_040_A, respectively. These weights are for the April 29th-May
4th period. A full
list of the labeled moving average weights can be obtained by generating a
SPSS dictionary of
the data (SPSS command 'display dictionary').
post-election dat
a:
POST_W8 is the standard YouGov weight which includes a past-vote factor;
POST_W_A is a
demographic factors only weight.
4.
Filters:
Selecting value 1 on the variable CAMPFILT will produce the
pre-campaign-campaign
wave data (unweighted
N = 6068). Selecting value 1 on the variable POSTFILT will
produce the
pre-campaign-post-election wave data (unweighted N = 5910). Selecting value 1 on
the variable
FILTWAV3 will produce the three-wave (pre-campaign-campaign-post-election)
data (unweighted N
= 4894).
5.
Variable
Names: With the exception of
various technical variables (e.g., weights, filters), the
pre-campaign
variables have the prefix PRE_ , campaign variables have the prefix CAM_, and
post-election
variables have the prefix POST_.
6.
Question
Wording: Wording of questions
asked in the three-waves of the RCPS survey is
available in
documents that can be downloaded from the BES website.
7. Comments,
Questions, Problems? Please
contact BES Research Officer, Kristi Winters at kwinte@essex.ac.uk
The BES office telephone number at the University of Essex is
01206873346.
The British Election Study 
