Biography

Diana is a survey methodologist interested in all aspects of the survey lifecycle. She is a specialist in multinational, multiregional and multilingual comparative surveys holding a doctorate in comparative survey methodology.

She is a member of the Core Scientific Team (CST) of the European Social Survey (ESS) collaborating on questionnaire design, translation, measurement quality and cross-national measurement equivalence. She has participated in the design and evaluation of ESS questionnaires since Round 6. She is also a member of the ESS Translation Expert Panel.

Diana is currently leading a research project to enhance the translation practice of multilingual survey projects in the Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud.

She was a researcher in the Synergies for Europe’s Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) project, studying the feasibility of applying computational linguistic methods to survey translation.

Her current research lines focus on 1) analysing the effects of language in measurement errors, 2) measurement equivalence in multilingual surveys, 3) survey translation and computational linguistics, 4) correction for measurement errors in survey research. Other research interests are experimental designs in survey research and structural equation modelling.

As a survey advisor, she has large experience in the design of survey projects for electoral campaigns. Recently, she was an advisor in the 2018's presidential campaign in Mexico. In her previous experience, she coordinated the electoral surveys of a national newspaper for the 2006's Mexican presidential election. She collaborated as public opinion consultant at Mexican Senate and the Mexican Congress. Diana has been consultant for World Health Organization (WHO) advising on projects in Turkey and Spain.

Publications

Linkedln

GitHub

Reseach projects

"European Social Survey (ESS)-ERIC". (2008-ongoing). PI: Dr. Wiebke Weber. Additional information

"Intergenerational perception of the utility of major transport projects" (2015-2016). This project consisted on the design and development of an online survey. We led the design and implementation of a survey measuring relevant concepts about citizens' preferences regarding public expenditure in the transportation infrastructures' sector. Respondents lived in Catalonia, Spain. Funding: CENIT-UPC. Additional information

"Panel de Desigualtats socials a Catalunya (PaD)". 2011-2012. We provided advice on modes of data collection. Funding: Fundació Jaume Bofill.

"Response Scale design in the Baròmetre d'Opinió Política (BOP)". (2011) We provided advice on the choice of response scales for some concepts measured in the Baròmetre d'Opinió Política (BOP, Public Opinion Barometer) of the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Funding: Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Additional information

"Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud (SSHOC)" (2019-ongoing). PI: Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas. Additional information

"Survey Quality Predictor (SQP)" (2011-ongoing). PI: Dr. Wiebke Weber. Additional information

"Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS)". (June 2015-May 2018). Task 3.2 leader: Feasibility of applying computational linguistic methods to survey translation. This task aims to investigate the suitability of tools used in computational linguistics and linguistic corpora to detect deviations in content and measurement characteristics of survey questions. PI: Dr. Wiebke Weber. Additional information