European Thesaurus on International
Relations and Area Studies
Purpose
The multilingual European Thesaurus is a controlled
vocabulary to index and retrieve special subject literature in the
field of International Relations and Area Studies.
The European Thesaurus is currently used among others in the International Relations and Area Studies
Gateway.
Thematic Scope
The European Thesaurus focusses mainly on international
politics and area studies. The thesaurus is made up of 24 subject fields (download as PDF file) with each field having a
further sub-structuring.
The European Thesaurus contains circa 8.200
descriptors (preferred terms). About 600 of the descriptors are
proper names of relevant international organisations and
international agreements.
Languages
English is the primary thesaurus
language. Equivalents of the English descriptors are available in
Czech, French, German, Italian, Polish
and Spanish. Furthermore, versions in Russian and Croatian are available at the
IREON gateway. A Greek version will be added in the near future.
Background
The European Thesaurus is the result of a cooperation
project within the framework of the European Information Network
on International Relations and Area Studies (EINIRAS). The
European Thesaurus integrates the terminologies of a number of
thesauri and subject heading lists of European research
institutions (e.g. Royal Institute of International Affairs,
Stockholm International Peace Institute, Institut français
des relations internationales, Fachinformationsverbund
Internationale Beziehungen und Länderkunde).
The following institutions participated in the European Thesaurus project:
- Stiftung
Wissenschaft und Politik German Institute for
International and Security Affairs (SWP)
- Deutsch-Französisches
Institut, Ludwigsburg (dfi)
-
Freie Universität Berlin
(FU)- Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science
- GIGA
German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg
- Royal Institute of International
Affairs, Chatham House, London (RIIA)
- Polish Institute of International Affairs,
Warsaw (PISM)
- Institute of International Relations, Prague
(IIR)
- Fundació CIDOB Centro
de Investigación de Relaciones Internacionales y
Desarrollo, Barcelona
- Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome (IAI)
-
Institute of Scientific Information in the Social Sciences, Moscow (INION)
- Hellenic Foundation of European and Foreign
Policy, Athens (ELIAMEP)
Cross-concordances have been
established to the following related thesauri:
- Standard Thesaurus Economics
- Thesaurus for Social Sciences
- Thesaurus for Economic and Social Development
- PAIS Subject Terms Thesaurus
Print Version
The print version of the European Thesaurus published in
2007 consists of:
- a seven-lingual systematic part in which the descriptors
are shown in their thematic context, synoptically in all
languages
- seven monolingual alphabetical parts, each listing in
alphabetical order the descriptors and selected non-descriptors.
Ordering Information
Attention: price reduction!
To order the print version of the European Thesaurus,
please send an e-mail to eurothesaurus@swp-berlin.org.
The multilingual systematic part, which always includes the
English alphabetical part, costs 50 Euro plus
postage. Additional monolingual alphabetical parts cost 5
Euro each.
Please note: Alphabetical parts can not be bought separate from
the systematic part.
You can order a free of charge single language English version of the European Thesaurus as a PDF file (3,5 MB). It is based on the print version from 2007, including the complete alphabetical and systematic parts as well as a systematic survey. Please send an e-mail to eurothesaurus@swp-berlin.org.
Online Version
The European Thesaurus is accessible online via IREON - the International Relations and Area
Studies Gateway. On the IREON Gateway the thesaurus serves
foremost as a retrieval tool to search for contents of the the
bibliographical database "World Affairs Online".
Additionally, cross-concordances to thesauri of other databases
integrated in the portal allow the simultaneous search of multiple
databases.
In contrast to the print version, the online version of the
European Thesaurus does also provide the semantic relationships of
a descriptor (broader, narrower, and related terms). The online
version can either be used to browse - alphabetically or by
subject area, and in any language - through the European Thesaurus
or to directly search for a specific descriptor. Descriptors
relevant for a search can easily be transferred to the
portal’s search form by a mouse click. The online version is updated regularly.
The European Thesaurus Project is coordinated by the Stiftung
Wissenschaft und Politik German Institute for International
and Security Affairs (SWP).
Contact: Axel Huckstorf, E-Mail:
axel.huckstorf@swp-berlin.org
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