Biography

Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas is a social scientist interested in all aspects of the human data lifecycle. She is a specialist in multinational, multiregional and multilingual comparative surveys. She is the Deputy Director of RECSM.

She is a member of the Core Scientific Team (CST) of the European Social Survey (ESS) collaborating on questionnaire design, translation, measurement quality, cross-national measurement equivalence and documentation of the survey lifecycle. 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. 

Currently, she is leading the myESS software project, a collaborative environment to document data collection lifecycles and the ESS work programme on data comparability and question quality.  

Until 2022, she led a research project to improve the translation practices in multilingual survey projects in the Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud (SSHOC), exploring the use of machine translation and the creation of corpora of questionnaires in nine languages. Since the SSHOC, she also works on the implementation of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reproducible) framework for the design and creation of research outputs.

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.

As a survey advisor, she has large experience in the design of survey projects for electoral campaigns. Before joining academia, she was an advisor for presidential campaigns in Mexico, and worked as a survey expert in the media. She collaborated as a public opinion expert at the Mexican Senate and the Mexican Congress. Diana has been a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Turkey and Spain.

Publications

Linkedln

GitHub

ORCID

Reseach projects

"European Social Survey ESS-ERIC: myESS platform: collaborative environment for ESS lifecycle". (2021-ongoing). PI: Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas. Additional information

COhort cOmmunity Research and Development Infrastructure Network for Access Throughout Europe (COORDINATE). Additional information

Growing Up in Digital Europe Preparation Phase (GUIDEPREP). (2022-ongoing). PI: Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas.

Pilot Application in Urban Landscapes Towards Integrated City Observatories for Greenhouse Gases (PAUL). (2021-ongoing). PI: Diana Zavala-Rojas. Additional information

"Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud (SSHOC)" (2019-2022). PI: Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas. 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. Additional information

"European Social Survey ESS-ERIC". (2008-ongoing). PI: Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas. 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