Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Overview

 

Service provisions in general

What services are provided by the German Education Portal?
What are the main target groups of these services?

Search for literature in the German Education Index and other modules provided by the German Education Portal

How can I search for literature on the German Education Portal?
Is the literature I have researched either sold or supplied by the German Education Portal?
What does the German Education Index offer, and how can I use it?

Announcing a publication to the German Education Index

What should I consider in case I would like to announce a publication to the German Education Index?
Why are the publications I have announced not visible in the database immediately?

Subject Directory

What information can I find in the Subject Directory?
How do I find relevant information in the Subject Directory?
Can I announce or update data regarding an institution or a project? How can I do so?

Answers

Service provisions in general

What services are provided by the German Education Portal?

The German Education Portal is the central access point to academic educational information. The bibliographical databases and the comprehensive collections of information regarding divers aspects of educational science constitute the core of the services. Here are some typical questions you can address to the Education Portal.

• What academic educational literature is available for my subject?
• Where, and how, can I obtain this literature?
• What institutions exist in the area of educational science?

Our users have access to information that is indispensable in the context of scientific research: literature, descriptive data (bibliographical metadata), information as to when and where titles are available (indexes of library catalogues), academic information (regarding institutions, projects etc.). Moreover, the Education Portal provides access to titles depending on their availability, either by linking to commercial providers (document delivery services, pay-per-view offerings) or, wherever possible, by means of a direct link to a document that is available online and free of charge.

The following modules are integrated into the German Education Portal:

• the German Education Index (free of charge),
• the Document server pedocs (free of charge),
• Metasearch across a large number of pedagogical databases (mostly free of charge),
• the "Subject Directory" - a service providing systematic contextual scholarly information (free of charge).

These are the individual features the Education Portal includes in its "One-Stop-Shop":

• academically relevant research for printed and electronic literature,
• search queries pertaining to the Electronic Journals Library (EZB) via the German Education Index,
• direct access to free electronic full texts,
• access to payable publications, via pay-per-view offerings and document delivery services,
• a parallel search across educational databases as to literature, online resources, facts, media catalogues, educational history, international aspects,
• a search for Subject Directory information in the area of educational science - institutions, projects, etc. - according to a system of subdisciplines,
• link tips regarding further pertinent scientific information,
• a message board including news and relevant dates,
• an opportunity to announce the bibliographical data of your printed publication or the opportunity to launch your electronic publication on the document server pedocs
• a joint pool of data with the German Education Server.

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What are the main target groups of these services?

The German Education Portal mainly provides its services for educational scientists from research and practice and anyone interested in educational science. In the area of education this includes lecturers, university scholars, and students from higher education, research and commemorative institutions, but also teachers, teacher trainees, social workers and other interest groups. The scientific nature of information is crucial to the German Education Portal. If you require more general information, the German Education Server provides a comprehensive information service.

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Search for literature in the German Education Index and other modules provided by the German Education Portal

How can I search for literature on the German Education Portal?

The German Education Index is the focal instrument for researching titles in educational literature, it requires a licensed subscription. It informs you about the titles that are available on a certain subject without actually delivering the literature itself. It is normally possible to find out in what library the literature is held. Further, electronic documents that are free of charge can be accessed directly via a link. Additionally, users of the German Education Index have access to document delivery services and pay-per-view offerings that are provided by external information services. For further information on the German Education Index, see http://www.fachportal-paedagogik.de/fis_bildung/fis_datenbank_e.html.

The Metasearch option allows for a simultaneous search across several databases, some of which also belong to the area of "literature". This service is offered free of charge with the exception of the German Education Index, which is also integrated here. In the right margin of the advanced search option, a search entry form is provided for searching Google Scholar. Google Scholar searches web services that are expressly related to research, i.e. university library catalogues, higher education and research institute sites, full text journals (open access or liable to subscription). As the search area is not pre-defined, it is necessary to delimit the search by means of entering professionally relevant terms into the search field. The recorded results include links to electronic full texts, references to printed publications, and citations from literature.

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Is the literature I have researched either sold or submitted by the German Education Portal?

The German Education Portal is concerned with delivering information. Hence, its intention is to enable users to find information (e.g. as to the existence of a title or a library collection) which allows them to find the resources (e.g. books) they need for their particular scientific work. The module "German Education Index" on the Education Portal provides access to the descriptions of bibliographical titles that are collated in a database. Copyright provisions are not affected. The sale or delivery of books or journal articles is expressly not part of our services. Instead, we allow our users access to commercial document delivery services (subito, The British Library) and pay-per-view-options, these are independent from the German Education Portal. Only those titles that are available as open access documents on the web can be accessed directly via a link. Please check the German Education Index for further details.

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What does the German Education Index offer, and how can I use it?

The German Education Index is the focal instrument for researching titles in educational literature, it requires a licensed subscription. It informs you about the titles that are available on a certain subject without actually delivering the literature itself. Apart from displaying search results, the German Education Index allows for the creation of an individual list of titles ("Save Records") as well as print or transfer of the descriptive records (metadata) for further processing in a literature database. Please use the functions for researching, printing, saving and transfer of metadata.
The record of a title you have researched in the database usually includes information as to where the title is available. Electronic documents that are free of charge can be accessed directly via a link. Moreover, users of the German Education Index are provided access to commercial document delivery services and pay-per-view options that are provided by external information services. More information on the German Education Index can be found on an information page.

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Announcing a publication to the German Education Index

What should I consider in case I would like to announce a publication to the German Education Index?

You would like to announce a publication to the German Education Index? Then please refer to the following set of items. They inform you about the type of literature that matches our profile, when your data will become apparent in our database, why it is particularly important that the data are complete and accurate, and how the entry into the form works.

Relevance
The German Education Index is maintained by a set of clearly defined quality criteria. Hence, please perform a brief check for relevance prior to entering your publication into the form.
1. Please find out online whether the publication matches the profile of the German Education Index
2. Please check if the publication you would like to announce can be classified as one of the relevant document types.
3. Does your publication comply with the qualitative and formal requirements of the German Education Index?
4. Please perform a search quest in the German Education Index in order to find out if the publication is already recorded, and hence the announcement would be obsolete.
5. If you would like to enter a current journal article, please check the list of journals in order to find out if this particular journal is indexed by any of the participating documentation centres. In this case an additional entry would not be necessary either.

Updates
The updating of the database is a process that is performed in several steps involving more than one person. Hence, occasionally the entering of literature may be delayed. Journal articles are generally indexed three to six months following their announcement.

Completeness/Accuracy of data
We can only enter complete and accurate records into the German Education Index. The quality of results from a search quest directly corresponds to the attention paid to entering the data, thus it is crucial to the value of the database as a scientific instrument. As the coordinating office of the German Education Index does not possess your publication we cannot amend or correct erroneous data. It is to your own interest that we ask you to be diligent when entering a record. An editorial check of the data may be performed prior to their entry into the database. You can support our work by announcing erroneous data.

Entering data
You are asked to enter approximately 20 details (depending on the type of publication) in five steps. Please press the button "to next page", when you have completed a page. Important: Please use the buttons at the bottom of the page. The use of the "forward" and "back" navigation bars of your web browser may lead to the loss of data you have entered previously. The last page displays a full record of all the details you have entered. You can then save the record. You can send these data to your own e-mail address if you wish. Just activate the ticked box below. The entry of a record may take approximately 15 minutes. Those fields marked by * are obligatory, the system will demand missing entries. The contextual help option may help you, if you are not sure what information you should enter. You can activate it via the link next to each heading. This link will open a little information window. to entry of data

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Why are the publications I have announced not visible in the database immediately?

The updating of the database is a process that is performed in several steps involving more than one person. Hence, occasionally the entering of literature may be delayed. Journal articles are generally indexed three to six months following their announcement.

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Subject Directory

What information can I find in the Subject Directory?

The Subject Directory offers a comprehensive system of contextual information categorised by subjects that informs you about institutions, projects, statistics and links. Its structure is similar to the sections of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (German foundation for educational research, DGfE) - including didactics. The Institutions, projects and statistics are elicited from the relevant databases by means of underlying search quests based on the assigned index terms. To the Subject Directory

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How do I find relevant information in the Subject Directory?

Please check the educational sub-disciplines in the first step and select the sub-discipline that is relevant to you. You can now browse the specific institutions and projects ("by means of forward", "back") or you can search for individual entries by means of the "Go To" option. The statistics and links pertaining to the sub-discipline can be found in the right margin. To the Subject Directory

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Can I announce or update data regarding an institution or a project? How can I do so?

The subject directory is aimed at fostering networks among educational scientists/pedagogues. You can announce details regarding institutions and projects. The editors check all the entries prior to recording them in our databases. The Education Portal expressly asserts that there is no legal claim to data being entered into our databases. We would like to point out that records can be altered or deleted. Once you have made an entry, please keep in mind that you should update your data if necessary. Please first decide what types of data you would like to enter, and select one of the databases listed below. You can fill in an entry form by activating the respective link.

Enter an institution:
http://eintrag.bildungsserver.de/db/eintrag_e.html?KATEGORIE=institution

Enter a project:
http://www.gesis.org/Information/FORIS/erhebung/index.htm#neu

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