GESIS-IZ

The GESIS-IZ  was founded in 1969 in Bonn as Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften to provide overviews of the state of German-language social science research. Since its founding, the today's GESIS-IZ has continually expanded its services as well as continually updated the information it provides, so today it counts internationally as one of the most efficient social science information centres in the world.

GESIS-IZ -provided information and service is primarily oriented toward easing the search for relevant research literature and making expert knowledge available for specific topics, as when a research project is being prepared. The services are available to everyone, whether university instructor or student, politician or journalist. Anyone wishing to pursue a social scientific question has references to existing literature or research projects available to them in printed form, on the Internet, or by direct request to the GESIS-IZ. To provide such information, the department systematically surveys the social scientific literature of German-speaking Europe – articles in academic journals, monographs, contributions in compilations, and "grey literature" (unpublished research reports) – and includes it in databases.

Databases: the Path to Knowledge

The database SOLIS ("Social Science Literature Information System”) contains specialized literature from Sociology, Social Science Methodology, Political Science, Social Policy, Social Psychology, Educational Research, Communication Studies, Demography, Ethnology, Historical Social Research, and Labour Market and Employment Research as well as from further interdisciplinary areas of the social sciences, such as, for example, women's studies, leisure studies, gerontology, and social welfare. For some fields, literature published as far back as 1945 is included.
Assembling the database, that is, surveying and evaluating books as well as more than 350 specialized journals, occurs together with and by means of the help provided by a variety of social science institutions, including the German Federal Institute for Population Research (Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung) in Wiesbaden, the Free University of Berlin, Centre for Documentation on Mass Media (Freie Universität Berlin – Fachinformationsstelle Publizistik), the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Services (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit) in Nuremberg, the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung), and from the editors of the German Journal of Politics (Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft).

The database SOFIS ("Social Science Research Information System”) adds or updates about 6,000 descriptions of research projects each year, not only from the fields SOLIS surveys, but also from Psychology, Pedagogics, and Economics. Important sources for SOFIS are  SOFIS surveys of research in German social science institutions, surveys of research in Austria conducted by the Library of Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Universitätsbibliothek der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), and surveys of Swiss research conducted by the Swiss Information and Data Archive Service for the Social Sciences (SIDOS – Schweizerischer Informations- und Daten-Archivdienst). These sources are augmented by information provided by specialized social scientific institutions, such as the aforementioned Institute for Employment Research, as well as through the evaluation of Internet sources, the reports universities compile of ongoing research projects, and the annual reports of central funding agencies and foundations.
The SOFIS database provides detailed up-to-date overviews of current projects as well as of projects completed during the last ten years, including the names and addresses of experts and institutions (e.g. those that provided financial support for the research) who can be contacted in conjunction with one's own research project.

Information for Research and Application

For those interested in social scientific materials, whether for research, teaching or study purposes, or for economic, administrative, political, or journalistic use, the GESIS databases provide a broad information basis. The entire contents of these databases can be accessed online, using various hosts, or searched on the Internet. For search purposes at universities, students and teachers ordinarily have these materials available at no cost on the wiso III CD-ROM resp. on the wiso-net. For select topics or specific areas, for example "general sociology", "youth research", "social problems", or "migration and ethnic minorities", the IZ additionally provides updated information from its databases in both printed and electronic form. On demand from individual users, the GESIS will also collect and provide social science references from other national and international databases.

Research and development in information science and information technology also support the work of the GESIS in further developing its databases and services.