tools & SerVICES (Prototypes)

As a European Research Infrastructure, MEDem is dedicated to creating a unified platform for discovering and integrating diverse data collections and data objects. By implementing pre- and post-harmonization processes, MEDem ensures large-scale and long-term interoperability across all types of democracy research data. In addition to this core mission, MEDem offers a comprehensive suite of specialized services tailored to meet the needs of various stakeholders. These services collectively enhance the accessibility, quality, and usability of democracy research data, fostering education, collaboration, and informed decision-making across Europe.

• The MEDem Platform is going to be a one-stop-shop, where users can query for concepts and datasets using the MEDem Search System. This will guarantee an efficient user experience that goes beyond simple keyword-searches, allowing for queries across the full range of available datasets, relevance ordering, and multilingual queries.
• The MEDem Measurement Map will compile and document the measurement of concepts and items/scales used in different data collections in the field of research on democratic processes, politics, and elections. The Map is meant to serve as a living encyclopedia that assists researchers when working out the empirical details of their research questions, helping them to pick valid and reliable measurement instruments.
• The MEDem Harmonization and Linking Services will provide users with an overview of and access to harmonized variables across diverse datasets relevant to Democracy Research and emerging from the MEDem Data Networks and with a range of linking tools to facilitate identifying linkage keys that allow for combining datasets from different data types.
• The MEDem Training Opportunities will offer training and capacity building for students at various stages of their academic career, from providing teaching materials for high school students, supporting their democratic formation, to providing online courses (MOOCs), and summer schools for (post-)graduate students on research and methods-related topics, laying the groundwork for academic excellence.
• The MEDem Expert’s Advice will offer advice and expertise to its members and associated partners on various topics like legal and ethical issues, or individual methodological and technical questions – helping members to make informed decisions when designing new data collections.
• The MEDem Communication Hub will devise tools to improve the communication among researchers, where researchers can benefit from the experience of others to make fragmented knowledge accessible to everybody: who is working on what, methodological notes, early access to codebooks and questionnaires, statistical scripts, replication data, or info on pretests.
• The MEDem Dashboard will cater to researchers from diverse disciplines and methodological backgrounds, enabling effortless exploration of democracy research data. With its intuitive interface and powerful visualization tools, users can inspect, analyze, and apply the data to their research contexts.
• MEDem will also offer training for (data) journalists on how to effectively utilize quantitative democracy data. This training will equip journalists with the necessary skills to access and interpret such data, empowering them to produce accurate and insightful reports. Furthermore,MEDem will provide a comprehensive link list covering different topics (elections, parties, parliamentary speeches, etc.).