The PSIS (Planning Science Information System) is the English equivalent for the Italian acronym SISP (Sistema informativo sulla scienza della pianificazione). It is the informative instrument on the basis of which the scholars of integrated, socio-economic-environmental Planning, or of Planology (see here) can find informative material on the development of the discipline and of the operational activities connected to it at the Planning Studies Centre.

The SISP is a typical ‘networking' system through which it has been tried to improve information, knowledge and access capacity for the single individuals or institutions interested in the matter.

At the Planning Studies Centre the SISP represented the elaboration and the supplying of a series of ‘informative products', which have formed the following list:

1. A ‘Taxonomy' of the whole field ('Planning Science or Planology') from which a code of the Taxonomy (called TAXOCODE of Planology) has been deduced, used in order to classify numerous objects of research or of activities aimed at conforming to the criteria and principles of Planology. [At the Centre these taxonomies have even been utilised as criteria for the classification and collocation of the books of the Centre's library, and as arrangement criteria for the Archives of the material. For this purpose has been introduced a taxocode in two digits, within which the works of the most meaningfull authors have been located.]

2. A periodical selection and evaluation of the most significant scientific contributions to the development of the discipline of Planology, which has been called Repertory of the Planolog (RP). The Repertory is divided into three areas: A) BOOKS; B) PAPERS (articles and related works); C) DOCUMENTS (Documents of public institutions, collections of sources). This selection and evaluation of scientific contributions enriches a periodic quarterly Bulletin circulating in the net.

3. A systematic collection of all the scientific contributions and most significant researches that have at the time favoured, or also contributed to, the origin of Planology (in the way that they are maintained in the interpretative works of the Centre's Director, Prof. Franco Archibugi). See here for instance the work 'Introduction to Planolog: The paradigm shift in social sciences', Rome 2000, and the geographic ‘Map' of the various ‘strands' which are being represented as convergent, in a spiral movement, to the origin of Planology.

4. Special archives on some particular sectors of Planology, as evidence for researches or special activities promoted by the Centre (as, for example, the 'Archive of Strategic Planning (ASP)', which serves as a foundation of the centre's strategic planning studies and of their permanent updating).

The SISP, as informative system, permeates not only all the research activities of the Planning Studies Centre, but also its educational activities.