Political Science on the Web: Prospects and Challenges
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Abstract The first part of this contribution provides a short overview on the state-ofthe-art of Internet use in political science. In the second part, a few trends are outlined that will have an impact on the field, followed by a more detailed discussion of possible implications of electronic publishing. In the conclusion, a few recommendations to political science professionals are spelled out recommending how the field should react to this development.
Keywords
electronic publishing; libraries; cyberscience
E-journals;
INTRODUCTION: THE STATE-OF-THE-ART OF INTERNET USE IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
S
ince the early 1980s, the scholarly community has been witnessing a considerable increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The networked PC, E-mail, the Internet, on- and off-line databases, the World Wide Web, electronic publications, discussion lists and newsgroups, electronic conferences, digital libraries and knowledge robots (‘knowbots’) are but a few of the trends that increasingly influence the daily work of the scientific community. As opposed to ‘traditional’ science and research that has done
220
living
reviews;
virtual
without networked computers, the notion of ‘cyberscience’ designates the use of these ICT-based applications and services for scientific purposes (Nentwich, 2003). Political scientists are no exception from this general trend. They profit a lot from the Internet as indispensable resources are increasingly online; for example, legal and preparatory texts, documents by institutions and groups participating in political decision-making (such as parties, NGOs, administrative bodies) and statistical data are now on the Web. For sure, political scientists still carry out interviews in the field, filter through printed material and watch the traditional media. But the fact that the majority of players in politics now have their own Website (offering much
european political science: 7 2008 (220 – 229) & 2008 European Consortium for Political Research. 1680-4333/08 $30 www.palgrave-journals.com/eps
more than they would have given away in pre-Internet times) and that many have their public diaries (blogs) makes the work of a political scientist at the same time easier and different to before. Together with the availability of bibliographic databases and, increasingly, electronic full text of scholarly articles, a considerable part of the work of a political scientist has moved to cyberspace. In all political science sub-fields, you find link collections and resource collections of various kinds. While there is a considerable variation, the homepages of the research institutes and of the scholarly associations in the field as well as of conferences have long reached a high standard of information depth. A number of projects were initiated to build up common resources in the field. For instance, an Italian group advocated Hyperpolitics (De Rosa, 2000; Calise and Lowi, 2000), a worldwide resource depository based on a common thesaurus (but it is still unrealised). Mai
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