image: Global Flourishing Study
Credit: Global Flourishing Study
Charlottesville, VA (February 13, 2024) – The wave one dataset from the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) initiative is now available to researchers.
The GFS, a partnership among Gallup, Center for Open Science (COS), and researchers at Baylor University and Harvard University is a $43.4 million, five-year study of more than 200,000 individuals in over 20 countries. The GFS data will become a resource for researchers, journalists, policymakers, and educators worldwide. Data can be accessed through the Open Science Framework (OSF) - COS’s free, open source project management and collaboration tool that supports researchers throughout the entire research lifecycle.
While several studies have tracked respondents over time in a single country, the scope and breadth of GFS is unprecedented.
Project co-director Dr. Byron Johnson, Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and Director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor, commented: “On a project of this scale and scope, it is essential that the data be made available not just to the academic community, but to a truly global audience. This is why our partnership with the Center for Open Science (COS) is so critically important to the success of the GFS. Guided by the principles of the Open Science Framework (OSF), COS is uniquely qualified to ensure that the access to this data resource takes place in a manner that is transparent, ethical, and reproducible.”
The wave one dataset release offers valuable insights over the next several years.
“The Open Science Framework and the expertise of COS makes this possible,” said Dr. Huajin Wang, COS’s Director of Programs. "COS is thrilled to be stewarding the data access process and ensuring that everyone around the globe is able to access this unprecedented data.”
Researchers can access GFS data in three ways:
- Preregistration: Preregister an analysis plan now to receive access to the wave one dataset at cos.io/gfs.
- Registered Report: Access is also available to those who submit a Registered Report to a journal. With Registered Reports, a journal reviews the preregistration plan and agrees to publish the findings regardless of the outcome, protecting against publication bias.
- Public release: Those wishing to receive the data without preregistration can access the non-sensitive data for each wave a year after the initial release.
“The GFS will be an incredible longitudinal data resource on the study of human well-being. I cannot wait to see what our research team and other teams around the world, facilitated by COS, will learn from it,” said project co-director Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard.
As Gallup’s CEO Jon Clifton remarked, “The GFS initiative is more than a study; it’s a commitment to understanding the human condition. The release of this dataset is a significant step towards that goal.”
Watch the recordings of previous webinars to learn more about using the sample dataset from this study, preregistration and Registered Reports, and how to gain access to the wave one dataset. Sign up to the GFS newsletter for news about the data and to register for webinars in the coming months.
For more information on GFS’s data access, visit: cos.io/gfs.
About the Global Flourishing Study
The Global Flourishing Study is the product of collaboration among researchers from Harvard University, Baylor University, Gallup, and Center for Open Science to address significant limitations in current studies of Human Flourishing. The project is based on the creation of an important new data resource: a global, probability-based panel of more than 200,000 participants from over 20 geographically and culturally diverse countries. Funders include John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, Templeton World Charity Foundation, the Well-Being for Planet Earth Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, Well Being Trust, the Paul L. Foster Family Foundation, and the David & Carol Myers Foundation.
About Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion
Launched in 2004, Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) initiates, supports, and conducts research on religion, involving scholars and projects spanning the intellectual spectrum: history, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, political science, philosophy, epidemiology, theology, and religious studies. The ISR mandate extends to all religions, everywhere, and throughout history, and embraces the study of religious effects on prosocial behavior, family life, population health, economic development, and social conflict.
About Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program
Founded in 2016, the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science aims to study and promote human flourishing, and to develop systematic approaches to the synthesis of knowledge across disciplines. The program’s research contributes to the broad question of how knowledge from the quantitative social sciences can be integrated with that of the humanities on questions of human flourishing and how best to carry out this synthesis of knowledge across disciplines.
About Gallup
Gallup is a global analytics and advice firm with more than 80 years of experience measuring public opinion and human development. In the organization’s own research and in working partnerships with government, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, Gallup develops indicators to measure key global development and social responsibility indicators over time.
About the Center for Open Science
Founded in 2013, COS is a nonprofit culture change organization with a mission to increase openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific research. COS pursues this mission by building communities around open science practices, supporting metascience research, and developing and maintaining free, open source software tools, including the Open Science Framework (OSF). Learn more at cos.io.
Method of Research
Survey
Subject of Research
Animals