Course info

Identifying different sources of scientific and technical information. Defining a need for information. Search, retrieval and filtering techniques of information. Strategies, approaches and tools to perform a literature review and to determine the technological state of the art. Techniques to optimize information search. Management methods (organize-find-monitor) for gathered and created information. Ethical and legal use and handling of information. Dissemination and valorisation of relevant information. Implementation of monitoring activities. Principles of critical analysis of a scientific article. Application to a research project.

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Workshop plan

Session 1 (3,25 h.)
Understand the process of creating scientific information. Find out about means to access the Invisible Web. Find information sources and types of documents relevant to literature reviews. Be aware of the main ethical and legal requirements related to the use of information. Discover the benefits of using bibliographic management software.
 
Session 2 (3,25 h.)
Find documents in various information sources. Search by citation. Develop a search strategy.
 
Session 3 (3,25 h.)
Optimize a search strategy. Search by author. Find dissertations and theses. Identify tools and methods to keep up to date.
 
Session 4 (3,25 h.)
Discover information sources for patents and standards. Find business directories and industrial catalogs. Be aware of key issues of publishing in open access versus commercial publishing. Learn basic principles for analyzing the contributions and limitations of scientific articles.
 
Evaluation
Self-diagnostic Test (10%)
Individual Assignment 1: Search strategy for literature review (25%)
Exam (40%)
Individual Assignment 2: Analysis of an article related to the doctoral student’s project (25%)
 
The final grade for this course is ‘‘Pass’’ or ‘‘Fail’’. Attendance and participation at each of the four sessions are required to obtain the credit.