European Thesaurus on International Relations and Area Studies

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The European Thesaurus on International Relations and Area Studies (abbreviated: European Thesaurus) is a multilingual, interdisciplinary thesaurus covering the subject fields of International Relations and Area Studies. The European Thesaurus consists of about 8.200 descriptors organised in 24 subdomains. To enhance the access to the thesaurus’ controlled vocabulary the descriptors are arranged both alphabetically as well as systematically. The semantic relationships (equivalence, hierarchy, association) between all individual descriptors have been established. The European Thesaurus is intended to be used primarily in bibliographic databases for indexing and retrieval of professional literature from the relevant domains. The European Thesaurus can, in addition, even serve as a terminological reference work and/or as a translation tool in international affairs matters.

Thesaurus reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning

In general usage, a thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning, in contrast to a dictionary, which provides definitions for words, and generally lists them in alphabetical order. The main purpose of such reference works for users "to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed," quoting Peter Mark Roget, author of Roget's Thesaurus.

An index term, subject term, subject heading, or descriptor, in information retrieval, is a term that captures the essence of the topic of a document. Index terms make up a controlled vocabulary for use in bibliographic records. They are an integral part of bibliographic control, which is the function by which libraries collect, organize and disseminate documents. They are used as keywords to retrieve documents in an information system, for instance, a catalog or a search engine. A popular form of keywords on the web are tags which are directly visible and can be assigned by non-experts. Index terms can consist of a word, phrase, or alphanumerical term. They are created by analyzing the document either manually with subject indexing or automatically with automatic indexing or more sophisticated methods of keyword extraction. Index terms can either come from a controlled vocabulary or be freely assigned.

Subject indexing is the act of describing or classifying a document by index terms or other symbols in order to indicate what the document is about, to summarize its content or to increase its findability. In other words, it is about identifying and describing the subject of documents. Indexes are constructed, separately, on three distinct levels: terms in a document such as a book; objects in a collection such as a library; and documents within a field of knowledge.

The European Thesaurus was developed by an international working group in the framework of a terminology cooperation project carried out by the European Information Network on International Relations and Area Studies (EINIRAS).

The European Thesaurus is available in nine languages: Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish. A Greek version is currently being translated.

At present the European Thesaurus is applied by academic organisations and research institutes in Germany (German Information Network International Relations and Area Studies – database World Affairs Online –), the Czech Republic (Institute of International Relations Prague) and Poland (Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw). The European Thesaurus is updated regularly.

Institute of International Relations Prague organization

Institute of International Relations (IIR) is a public research institution that conducts basic and applied scientific research in the field of international relations. Its director is PhDr. Ondřej Ditrych, MPhil. (Cantab.) Ph.D. Important elements of self-government organizational structures are also IIR Board and the Supervisory Board.

The European Thesaurus is publicly accessible via the academic internet portal IREON (International RElations and area studies ONline).

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References

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.