Cooperations
Cooperations with the academic community
The FID maintains close contacts and cooperates with various associations, societies and projects in the field of the study of religion, which highlights and promotes the FID's strong roots in the academic discipline.
The Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft / DVRW (German Association for the Study of Religions) is a key partner of the FID at the academic level. At least one member of the DVRW steering committee is always represented on the FID's academic advisory board, ensuring close ties with the research community. Regular meetings of the FID advisory board provide a forum for discussions on recent developments in science policy and the demands of academic research within the discipline.
The FID reports on the current status of the project in the annual member newsletter and at the general meetings of the DVRW. The tight link between the FID and the DVRW is also evident in the FID's regular presence at the biannual conferences of the DVRW, where it usually has an information stand and delivers a presentation or workshop.
Moreover, the FID is already in contact with several working groups of the DVRW, including:
Arbeitskreis Mittelbau (AKM): Participation in the online workshop series „digital humanities & religionswissenschaft“ 2021, with a workshop on RelBib
Arbeitskreis Religionsästhetik (AK RÄ): Participation in the anniversary conference of the working group, 6.-8. October 2022 at the University of Tübingen, with a presentation on RelBib and the FID services
Since 2023, the FID has also been part of the network of initiatives in the study of religion, which was launched at the DVRW conference in Bayreuth.
In addition, the FID aims to cooperate with stakeholders and working groups from other disciplines that overlap with the study of religion. Contact has already been established with the following initiatives:
Sektion Religionssoziologie of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie / DGS (sociology of religion)
In January 2025, a cooperation with the working group "Säkulare Weltanschauungen" / AKsäk, which is anchored in the section "Sociology of Religion" of the DGS, was launched: In future, RelBib will regularly index new publications by members on relevant topics, while the working group will disseminate relevant news about RelBib and the FID via the members' mailing list.
Arbeitskreis Religionsgeographie of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geographie / DGfG (geography of religion)
At the annual conference of the working group "Religionsgeographie" 2025, the FID was invited to present RelBib and its services. Plans are in place to include a list of subject-relevant publications, which have been meticulously compiled by members of the working group, in RelBib in the future.
At the international level, the FID regularly participates in the conferences of the European Association for the Study of Religions / EASR(annually) and the International Association for the History of Religions / IAHR(every five years). Further cooperation with both associations is being pursued.
IAHR Women Scholars Network
The Women Scholars Network (WSN) of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) is an interest group dedicated to improving connections between women scholars of religion worldwide. Since 2025, RelBib and the WSN are collaborating on a project aimed at increasing the international visibility of women scholars of religion and making their publications available in open access.
What are your benefits?
- All your publications will be added to the international open access bibliography RelBib
- Permanent open access to your publications (where applicable)
- Increased visibility of your research for the worldwide academic community
- Collection/Compilation of your academic work on your individual person information page in RelBib
- The entire service is free of charge for you!
Who can participate?
We invite all members of the IAHR Women Scholars Network to participate, regardless of career stage or institutional affiliation.
How does it work?
- Submit your complete list of publications in an editable format (e.g. .doc, .docx, .odt, etc.) to the RelBib-Team.
- Our library team will add all your publications to RelBib, making them easier to find and increasing your visibility as a researcher via the RelBib person information pages.
- Let us know, if you have an ORCID ID, another persistent identifier, or an institutional website. We will link it in your person information page in RelBib.
- Subsequently, you can use the RelBib self-archiving service to upload your eligible academic contributions to the Religious Studies Repository and make the full texts available via RelBib.
- We will provide you with additional information material and offer courses on the self-archiving service in due time.
Cooperations with other research-supporting institutions
In order to best serve the needs of the research community, which has various regional, thematic and methodological foci, the FID networks extensively with other stakeholders of the research-supporting infrastructure.
FID South Asia
Areas of cooperation:
- Automated import of titles relevant to the study of religion from the holdings of the FID South Asia
- Selective inclusion of subject-relevant open access content from the Heidelberg Asian Publishing / HASP platform in RelBib
Literatur mit dem regionalen Fokus „Südasien“ in RelBib
- Mutual support in public relations (esp. via social media)
- Use of FID licenses
- Joint public relations activitites
FID Middle East, North Africa and Islamic Studies
Areas of cooperation:
- Automated import of titles relevant to the study of religion from the holdings of the FID Middle East, North Africa and Islamic Studies – in preparation
- Joint development of a strategy for the supra-regional supply of literature on the subject ‘Islamic Theology’ – planned
- Support in indexing journals in their original languages from countries of the MENA region – planned
- Use of FID licenses
- Joint public relations activitites
FID Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino Studies / LACARinfo
Areas of cooperation:
- Automated import of titles relevant to the study of religion from the holdings of LACARinfo – in preparation
- Use of FID licenses
- Joint public relations activitites
FID network REWISO+
Proposed areas of cooperation:
- Better support for interdisciplinary users
- Data exchange for subject bibliographies
- Cooperative licensing
- Public relations activities
FIV - The German Information Network for International Relations and Area Studies
The German Information Network for International Relations and Area Studies (FIV) is a collaboration between ten independent German research institutes. Together these institutes produce the WAO – World Affairs Online, which is one of Europe’s largest bibliographic social science databases. Its main subject areas are global and regional developments, foreign and security policy, and social trends. Since December 2023, the FIV and RelBb are cooperating to exchange data:
Literature focusing on international relations and area studies in RelBib.
Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW)
RelBib has been in contact with the Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen / EZW (Protestant Central Office for Worldview Issues) since 2019. The EZW's publications are continuously indexed in RelBib (in some cases at article level):
Publications by the EZW in RelBib
There are plans for closer cooperation in the area of indexing as soon as the EZW library has migrated its holdings to a German library union catalogue.
Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst (REMID) e. V. / Archive of REMID at Marburg University Library
During its second funding phase (2019-2021), the FID for the Study of Religion, together with Marburg University Library, the Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V. / REMID (Religious Studies Media and Information Service) as well as the Institute for Comparative Cultural Research and Study of Religions (Department for the Study of Religions) at the University of Marburg realised an important cataloguing project for research on new religious movements (NRM) and small religions in Germany.
The REMID archive, which was built up over 30 years of the organisation's existence, has been transferred to Marburg University Library, and is now catalogued and indexed for academic purposes. The archive comprises periodicals, brochures, flyers and audiovisual media from and about various religious groups, in particular new religious movements (e.g. ISKCON, the Unification Church and Universal Life), but also non-mainstream Christian communities. In addition to primary materials from NRMs, the archive also features numerous documents relating to the study and debate surrounding these groups, for example the so-called cult debate ("Sektendebatte").
The transfer to Marburg University Library has greatly improved the long-term availability, findability and accessibility of these rarely collected or unique materials.
With the successful completion of the project, several hundred periodicals and over 21,000 other materials in approximately 500 thematically organised bundles can now be searched in RelBib and are available for research use as a collection at Marburg University Library.
Cooperation with REMID extends beyond the REMID archive cataloguing project: REMID's own publications are also gradually being indexed in RelBib. By 2025, all posts from the old REMID blog have been archived by the FID and made permanently accessible via RelBib:
Publications by REMID in RelBib
RelBib and REMID also regularly support each other in the area of public relations.
Documentation centre "Religious and ideological pluralism in Germany" / Leipzig University Library
The documentation centre Religious and ideological pluralism in Germany is part of the Institute for the Study of Religions at the University of Leipzig. Since 1994, the centre has been collecting material on various religious and ideological communities in German-speaking countries for use in teaching and research. The collection focuses on movements and groups that exist alongside the established churches, e.g. anthroposophy, Bahá'i, New Age, UFO groups and Jehovah's Witnesses. Since 2023, a religiously themed game selection has been under development and represents another highlight of the documentation centre. The documentation centre is supported by Leipzig University Library, which is cataloguing the library holdings. The archival materials are to be gradually recorded in the Kalliope Union Catalogue.
There is a cooperation agreement with the FID for the Study of Religion with relating to data transfer: the journals, monographs, anthologies and other materials, that have already been catalogued by Leipzig University Library, can be searched in RelBib. The complete cataloguing of the archive materials is planned as part of a project and will also be made searchable in RelBib afterwards.
Network of subject librarians for the study of religion
The FID for the Study of Religion maintains contact with subject librarians who are responsible for the field of study of religion in German-speaking countries. At a Kick-off Event in 2023, the foundations for future communication between the so-called client libraries and the FID were jointly established. Interested librarians are welcome to contact the RelBib-Team and will be added to the mailing list for information about the FID. An online meeting of the network is planned once a year.
