News from PolluxPollux will receive further funding from the DFG for another three years | | We are delighted! After three successful funding periods (since 2016), the DFG has approved our renewal application in full. This means that the FID Political Science will receive a total of EUR 1.9 million in funding for another three years. The focus of the fourth funding phase (2025–2028) will be on: - Expanding the Pollux research portal, which currently contains over 13 million references, to include research data, grey literature, abstracts and citations, among other things
- Further developing the ‘PoliCorp’ analysis tool for structured political text data (text corpora)
- Expansion of open science activities, in particular scholar-led open access
- Strengthening research data management for qualitative political science data
- Optimisation of internal work processes and quality assurance
- Public relations work to raise the profile of the service in the community of political scientists
| | Cross-references at a glance: references and citations in PolluxReferences and citations have recently been integrated into the Pollux search. What exactly does this mean? Pollux offers you the opportunity of loading information on cited sources for millions of articles from research journals. This allows you to quickly gain an overview of the research basis of selected publications. As a second option, Pollux offers you the possibility to display references to other research papers in which the selected article is cited. This helps you to quickly find thematically related, more recent research articles and to assess the reception of a publication. You can find an example here: ‘Direct Democracy in Europe: Potentials and Pitfalls’ (by Arndt Leininger, 2015). The data is based on OpenAlex: a comprehensive, non-commercial database. Even though the data coverage is now surprisingly good, it is important to note that such citation data is never complete because for example the databases used do not cover certain types of media, such as books, or because they are biased towards English-language content. Citation frequencies can be an indicator of a publication's impact. However, relying solely on numerical measures for research evaluation should be viewed critically. The recommendations of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment are authoritative in this context. | | Share and publish reference listsFrom now on, reference lists stored in Pollux can be published as well as shared with other people and edited collaboratively. Invited individuals only need a Pollux account (Standard or PLUS) to participate in a reference list. | | | Polit-X webinar on October 21st, 11 a.m. (German) |
In collaboration with Polit-X, we are once again offering a 45-minute webinar on October 21st 2025, 11 a.m. to introduce Polit-X. |
The webinar will demonstrate how to search through millions of daily updated political documents at federal, state and European level, how to analyse political topics, how to track processes and how to apply AI. There will be plenty of time for your questions at the end of the webinar. We at Pollux and Polit-X look forward to your participation! Please register via the following link: | | Participation is free of charge. To use Polit-X, you need a PLUS account with Pollux. | | News from our Scientific Advisory Board |
| Picture: Taylor Mickal 2024 |
| Open ScienceResearch Data Management in Political ScienceAt forschungsdaten.info, the central information portal for research data management (RDM) in Germany, there is now a comprehensive introduction to research data management in sociology and political science (German only). There you will find extensive subject-specific information on handling research data in the research process, important contact points for quantitative and qualitative data, as well as training materials and further reading. |
| The ‘deal’ is not the solution - Pollux in the FAZTogether with Prof. Dr. Dirk Jörke from TU Darmstadt, Pollux employee Dr. Michael Czolkoß-Hettwer published a guest article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 25 June 2025 (german only). The text deals with current developments in the scientific publishing market and alternative publishing practices. The transformation agreements – the so-called ‘DEAL agreements’ – with major international publishers such as Springer Nature are acknowledged for their positive effects, but the conclusion is clear: the ‘deal’ is not the solution. | | Peer Review – Out of the Box, Into the OpenFranciska Heenes from our partner project SOCIOS presents the concept of open peer review in the DVPW blog – and sees great potential in it for improving the quality, transparency and fairness of review processes in scientific publishing. Nevertheless, there are considerable cultural and institutional barriers, particularly with regard to incentive systems and career uncertainties. Sustainable change therefore requires the systematic anchoring of openness in infrastructures, policies and scientific publication cultures. |
In line with this, SOCIOS is offering another webinar: |
September 30th, 1–2 p.m.: Webinar
Open peer review of preprints – transparent evaluation beyond traditional journals Open peer review is considered a promising way to achieve greater transparency, dialogue and quality in the scientific publication process. New formats and infrastructures are emerging, particularly around preprints, which are breaking down the traditional separation between evaluation and publication. This webinar will discuss the opportunities that open review offer authors, reviewers and researchers, and how these can be implemented beyond traditional journals. Current developments and practical examples will be used to show how open review of preprints works in practice, what challenges exist and how greater recognition of open review can be achieved. The webinar is aimed at all political scientists who are interested in transparent peer review processes beyond traditional journals. Participation is free of charge. | | | October 7th, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.: PoliCorp-Webinar (English)
Open Political Corpora: Searching and analysing political text collections in a structured way with PoliCorp Pollux Political Corpora – PoliCorp offers researchers structured and searchable access to processed text corpora. PoliCorp currently contains a collection of transcripts of Bundestag debates (GermaParl) covering 76 years of parliamentary debates – from September 1949 to July 2025. The integration of additional sources (e.g. StateParl) is in progress. A demo version of PoliCorp is available at https://demo-pollux.gesis.org/ The webinar will cover the following topics: - Accessing and working with open corpora in PoliCorp
- Main functions and use cases of PoliCorp
- Practical demonstrations for research and analysis
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The event is aimed at researchers, students and anyone interested in political text analysis, and will be held in English. |
Participation is free of charge. | | | SpotlightBook your customised Pollux webinar | | You can book us for a free webinar at your institute. Possible topics: - Supraregional literature research beyond the local library catalogue (target group: students)
- An overview of our services for political science researchers (PLUS account)
- Search and analyse Bundestag debates in a structured way with PoliCorp
Simply send us an email at kontakt@pollux-fid.de with your thematic interests, and we will plan your very own personalised webinar (minimum number of participants: 5 people). | | Pollux, that is…Who are the people behind Pollux? In each newsletter, we introduce one person from the Pollux team to get to know us a little better. Hannah Paulußen |
Hello, I'm Hannah Paulußen and I've been a student assistant on the Pollux team for a year. I study political science at the University of Bremen, focusing on European politics and policy and welfare state research. |
My tasks at Pollux are varied and diverse; I always help out wherever there is something to be done. This can include quality control of the search engine, sources and scientific blogs. But it also includes downloading data, testing new functions and tools such as PoliCorp, and researching whether new sources should be integrated into Pollux. My regular tasks also include the annual review of whether PLUS users still meet the requirements for using their PLUS account. I have also had the opportunity to attend and assist with a training course for subject librarians organised by Pollux, which was an exciting experience. I find working at Pollux particularly exciting because it gives me an insight into an area of academic work and political science that my studies do not offer. When I'm not busy with politics and Pollux, I like to work on small personal projects. At the moment, for example, I'm learning Swedish. I also often go to concerts or the theatre, meet up with friends in a café to eat cinnamon buns, watch a good series, read books or listen to podcasts. |
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