Political Science

In the database information system (DBIS), you will find an overview on available databases in Political Science (journal databases, factual databases, reference databases and full-text databases).

Important literature databases for Political Science:

• Web of Science/Social Sciences Citation Index
  • This database includes, among other things, information about the citation numbers of an article and the journal impact factor of a journal.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
• POLLUX – Informationsdienst Politikwissenschaft
  • Registered political scientists can, among other things, access the political monitoring and analysis service Polit-X via POLLUX.
• WISO
  • In addition to journals and e-books from the social sciences and economics, the database can also be used to find and read newspaper articles, e.g. from Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche, DIE ZEIT and Der Spiegel.

Databases for current press releases:

• Factiva
• Nexis Uni

In the database information system (DBIS), you can also find statistical databases. You can find statistical databases relevant to political science below (under 'Research data').

E-journals are listed in the Electronic Journal Library (EZB).

You can use the Primo catalog to search for individual journals. When searching for journals in the catalog, we recommend using the advanced search and limiting the search to “journals” as material type.

The University Library in Mannheim has licensed an extensive offer of subject-specific e-books.

For Political Science, a selection of e-book packages of the publishers Nomos, Oxford, Palgrave and Springer has been licensed.

Via the WISO database, you can also access further e-books.

All e-books available at the University Library in Mannheim can be found in the Primo catalog. If you are searching in the Primo catalog, you can recognize e-books by “Online access” in the title information or by the “View it” tab. To open an e-book, click on the tab “View it” and follow the link. If you are researching a specific subject, you can limit the search results to “e-books” by restricting the search to “books” and “full texts online” in the “Tweak results” column. For more information, please refer to the Information on using e-books and databases.

Statistical databases relevant for political science:

• Google Dataset Research: An interdisciplinary search engine for data sets
• PolData: A collection of political datasets 
• ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
• CNTS Data Archive: Country-level data 
• Statista: Statistics from the fields of politics and economics
• GENESIS-Online: The statistical information system of the Federal Statistical Office
• GESIS Datensuche: Research data collection of the Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences
• MADATA: Research data repository of the University of Mannheim

The University Library supports researchers in research data management, meaning the structured collection and publishing of research data. In the institutional research data repository Mannheim Research Data Repository, research data can be stored and permanently archived.

There are many other national and international research data repositories for individual subject areas, for example the datorium of GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. By using datorium, it is possible to individually document, back-up and publish research data. One of the world’s largest data archives for Social Sciences, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan is also worth mentioning. To use the data on the campus of the University of Mannheim, it is required that you register personally and agree to the terms of use.

The subject-specific repositories of the Social Sciences in Europe are united in the Consortium of European Social Data Archives (CESSDA).

The Registry of Research Data Repositories offers a detailed overview on the research data repositories from all subject areas.

DataCite allows you to access academic research data.

In the A5 Library, you will find literature on Political Science which you can use on site. The items are freely accessible and organized according to subject area. Borrowing from this collection is only possible for academic staff of the University of Mannheim. There you will find print journals in Political Science which were published in or after 1990. They have the call numbers 400/MA 1000 to 400/MA 9999. You can order older editions of print journals from the closed stacks via the Primo catalog and read them in the special collections reading room in the InfoCenter. You will find books for Political Science in the A5 Library. They have the call numbers 400/MB ... to 400/ML.

The Central Lending Library Schloss Westflügel hosts more literature on Political Science which you can borrow with your ecUM or your library card.

The textbook collection in the Central Lending Library Schloss Westflügel hosts many copies of the most important textbooks. Students of the University of Mannheim and cooperating institutions are eligible to borrow from the textbook collection.

In the Primo catalog, you can search for the literature available at the University Library.

• Department of Political Science
• Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES)
• GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
• Forschungsgruppen Wahlen e.V.

In Political Science, scientific journals are often ranked according to the impact factor of a journal. The impact factor of a journal indicates how often, on average, the journal’s articles are cited in other scientific journals. Relevant rankings for political science are e. g. the SCImago Journal Ranking or the Google Scholar Ranking.

You can find impact factors and contextual information in the Web of Science/Social Sciences Citation Index database or you can go directly to the Journal Citation Reports.