Open science in democracy research: the research infrastructure “Monitoring Electoral Democracy” (MEDem)

Author(s): Hajo Boomgaarden, Alexia Katsanidou, Sylvia Kritzinger, Georg Lutz, Johanna Willmann, Jakob-Moritz Eberl
Abstract: Ensuring universal access to scientific research and upholding the principles of keeping data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable is of paramount importance to the democratization of science. However, upholding these principles becomes increasingly complex with the increasing scope of data collection, the more different types of data we collect (e.g., survey, text, or institutional and country-level macro data), and the more research teams are involved in data collection. In the domain of democracy research, scientists across Europe are therefore joining forces to launch the research infrastructure monitoring electoral democracy (MEDem), which aims to establish itself as an open platform where the fragmented crowd of researchers in the various research fields can coordinate and develop common standards for data collection both retrospectively as well as prospectively to make their data interoperable, and (comparative) democracy research more productive. Moreover, MEDem will help make democracy research data and findings accessible to the general public (e.g., citizens, journalists, and policymakers).
Organisation(s): Department of Communication, Department of Government
External organisation(s): GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Swiss foundation for research in social sciences (FORS)
Journal: European Political Science
Volume: 24
Pages: 782-794
No. of pages: 13
ISSN: 1680-4333
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-025-00534-8
Publication date: 12-2025
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 506012 Political systems, 508020 Political communication
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Political Science and International Relations
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/c9e8af9f-76fa-450a-a3bd-baa504afd263