COVNETPS-Wuhan (First Wave)

This is the first wave data COVID-19 and Social Network Panel Study, Wuhan subsample (CovNetps-Wuhan). CovNetps-Wuhan is an online survey with a stratified probabilistic sample representing the college population in Wuhan City. The data collection procedure is reported below. Prior to sampling, the number of students in each higher educational institution (HEI) located in Wuhan is retrieved from the school’s official website. Then, survey invitations are sent out through mainstream social media platforms of the HEIs and student unions (such as their official Wechat public accounts, authorized QQ group chats, and micro-blogs). The survey takes about 13 minutes, and each participant is rewarded 5 CNY as an economic incentive until the expected number of respondents from their corresponding HEI is fulfilled. In addition, all HEIs are classified into 5 types based on the five-tier system developed by the Ministry of Education, which ranks the HEIs from the most selective, national key universities to vocational colleges. For schools with insufficient participants, the remaining quota is replaced by students from similar HEIs of the same tier. Finally, we obtain a sample of 2047 students from 45 out of the 54 eligible HEIs, who named 6134 contacts in their networks (i.e., alters). CovNetps-Wuhan is collected between 30 March and 26 May 2020, launched at the end of the first wave outbreak in China to capture the consequences of the whole process of exposure. Ethics clearance of data collection has been granted by East China University of Science and Technology. For detailed information, visit our website at www.cov-netps.com/home.