A note on the Weingarten function

Abstract: The aim of this note is to compare work of Formanek \cite{formanek2} on a certain construction of central polynomials with that of Collins \cite{Coll} on integration on unitary groups. These two quite disjoint topics share the construction of the same function on the symmetric group, which the second author calls {\em Weingarten function}. By joining these two approaches we succeed in giving a simplified and {\em very natural} presentation of both Formanek and Collins's Theory.