August 10, 2013

IREON revisited

Since one year or more, famous social science search portal IREON (= The International Relations and Area Studies Gateway) changed its performance. The core element is still the "world affairs online" database (i.e. Online Contents IBLK), but other databases like WPSA, PAIS dismissed. Instead, the database ECONIS (a large economic database), the catalogque of the library of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (social democratic institution), the GIZ Database (development policy), the catalogue of SciencesPo and WAO treaties are added. The search interface is still very clear and also the advanced search and the controlled thesaurus are helpful! If you are still interested in searching the lost databases World Political Sciences Abstracts (WPSA) and Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS), please try the social science gateway SOWIPORT, where they are still implemented as part of the german "national licences". That's because you must search as part of a university network or with an account of the "Nationallizenzen" to get results. By the way: Both, IREON and SOWIPORT, give the option to search only for full texts!