How to use the search feature?

We are happy to help you find the right search statement tailored to your preferences.You can reach us via +49 30 280 408 46 or info@polit-x.de.

Basic Search

The basic search function allows you to enter a keyword and automatically look for it in the database. The term is searched in full texts as well as in keywords and metadata, such as titles and subtitles. You can choose between broad search and exact search.

A broad search is case-insensitive and includes search terms related to the root word as well. The results may include terms from the same word family, compound words and flections of the search term.

An exact search shows only results containing the precise keyword, including case sensitivity and any special characters. This option is best when you are looking for proper names (e.g. company names) or fixed expressions.

Of course, you can enter several search terms at the same time. For expert search tips and a list of search operators please see below.

Alert

An Alert is an automatic notification service for your search statement.

You can find relevant documents by entering a search statement and using the filter function. This search statement can be saved as an alert. Polit-X looks every day for new documents matching your search criteria and sends the relevant results via mail.

You can choose between daily updates or a weekly summary of all relevant documents.

Please do not hesitate to contact our customer service if you have any questions or want to optimize your search statements. You can reach us via +49 30 280 408 46 or info@polit-x.de.

Filter

Our filters enable you to tailor search results to your individual preferences.

Source filter

The source filter allows you to customize which sources to include in your search. Via the + and - button you can choose the individual sources or groups of sources, for example all federal states or only the Bundestag, that are to be searched. This filter is also used for your respective alerts.

Date range filter

This function allows you to filter search results by time. You can set a custom date range to only display documents that were published in that period.

Source tree

To find and select sources you can use several features to navigate the source tree or simply enter a search term.

Only the path to the currently selected source or group of sources is indicated in bold.

If you click through the source tree's levels, only the respectively selected level is displayed. All other levels are hidden. If you want to display all selected levels, use the "minimal" toggle button ( ).

Use the search bar, displayed on top of the source tree, to search and find particular sources. In that case, only the path to the corresponding sources is displayed in the source tree and are highlighted in blue. All other sources are hidden until you enter a new search term, clear the search bar or click on "Reset search".

To connect a parliamentarian tracker with a search term simply enter a term to search or analyze and switch to "Track" in the navigation bar. Your search term will be added automatically.

To display the subcategory of a source category, click on the arrow ().

If you want to display only one source separately, click on the text of the respective source. All other sources will be deselected.

If you want to select or deselect single sources click on the circle. The circle symbol displays whether you did not select a source category (), selected a complete source category () or selected a source category only partially ().

Advanced Search

To ensure higher accuracy, our search engine features special search operators (a word or string of characters that defines the logical relation between terms in a search to optimize results).

Combination
Search terms can be combined in a search statement so that each result of the list contains all the terms or at least one of the terms specified.
  • AND
    The document contains all entered terms. 
  • OR
    Results contain at least one of the terms.
In search statements without a specified operator (i.e. using a space character between terms) the terms are automatically combined with the AND-operator. Moreover, search terms can be easily combined and grouped by using brackets.
Examples: 
  • energy and environment
    All documents contain the words energy and environment. 
  • energy or environment
    All documents contain at least one of the words energy or environment. 
  • energy and environment or economy
    All documents contain the word energy and at least one of the words environment or economy or both.
  • (energy and environment) or economy
    All documents contain either the words energy and environment or the word economy or both.
Exclusion
By using the operator 
-
search terms can be excluded from a search so that results do not contain the specified terms.
Examples: 
  • -energy
    Only documents that do not contain the word energy appear in the result list.
  • environment -energy
    Only documents that contain the word environment but not energy appear in the result list.
  • (environment and -energy) or economy
    Documents contain the word environment or economy but not environment in combination with the word energy. 
  • -(environment and energy) economy
    Documents contain the word economy but not the two words environment and energy at the same time (they may, however, contain one of the two).
Phrase
When put in quotation marks 
"
, two or more words can be combined to form a phrase. Only documents that contain the phrase literally, as it was typed, appear in the result list. Grammatical variations of a phrase are included as well (i.e. results for the phrase “Deutscher Bundestag” include “deutschen Bundestag”). 
  • "Deutscher Bundestag"
    All documents that contain the words Deutscher and Bundestag in that order appear in the result list. 
  • "environment and energy"
    Documents contain the phrase “environment and energy”.
Wildcard and truncation
Using wildcard or truncation helps when the spelling of a word might differ or the right order of characters is unknown. The letters in question can be replaced with two different operators: 
  • ?
    The question mark can be used to replace any single unknown letter. 
  • *
    The asterisk may replace none, one or several characters.
Please note that these two operators cannot be used in combination with phrases. Grammatical variations, as explained above in the Phrase section, are also excluded when using wildcards or truncation.
Examples: 
  • ?rexit
    Documents contain words like Brexit or Grexit. 
  • *gruppe*
    Documents contain words like Splittergruppe, zielgruppenorientiert or Gruppenleitung. 
  • "comprehensive te?t"
    It is not possible to combine a wildcard and an exact phrase in the same search statement. 
  • *ndsatzes
    Documents that contain words like “Grundsatzes” appear in the result list. However, documents that contain the grammatical basic form “Grundsatz” are not included.
Proximity search
Phrase searches only show results containing the exact word order of the entered term. In contrast, the advanced proximity search option allows you to search for two or more words that occur within a certain number of words from each other, regardless of the order in which they appear. Simply add the operator 
~
and the desired range of proximity in form of a figure to the search phrase. For this operator case-sensitivity does not apply.
Examples: 
  • "greece investment"~3
    Finds the words “greece” and “investment” if they are maximum three words apart from one another appear. For example “Greece should prioritise investment”. 
  • "privacy debate"~9
    Finds the words “debate” and “privacy” if they are maximum nine words apart from one another. For example “debate is taking place concerning cyber security, data protection, and privacy”.
Fuzzy search
The fuzzy search function allows you to include words that are similar to the entered term into the search statement. This operator is useful if you don’t know the exact spelling of names or want to include typos and misspellings of a word into your search results. By adding 
~
to a term, up to two characters can be replaced by any other character. Additionally, it is possible to add a figure to the 
~
in order to specify the number of replaceable characters. Fuzzy search can not be combined with phrases.
Examples: 
  • roam~1
    The search will find documents that contain terms similar in spelling to roam, for example foam or roams. 
  • roam~
    or 
    roam~2
    The search will find documents that contain terms similar in spelling to roam, for example rooms, or foams. 
  • roam~3
    The search will find documents that contain terms similar in spelling to roam, for example roaming, or foamer.

Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis, as defined by Wikipedia, is “the use of natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics, and biometrics to systematically identify, extract, quantify, and study affective states and subjective information.”

Polit-X uses a linguistic approach to analyze the relationship of your search term to other words in its proximity. The underlying scientific method allows to calculate whether the entered search term is used negatively, positively or neutrally compared to its neighboring words.

If the data can’t be calculated sufficiently, e.g. due to the form of the search statement or the full text of the document, no sentiments will be displayed. Please note that correlation doesn’t imply causality: If, for example, a search term is connoted with positive „applause“ or „approval“ but is positioned in a generally slightly negative word environment, it can be displayed as neutral. Naturally, the perception of sentiments can differ.
If you have any questions regarding the employed methodology, please do not hesitate to contact us.