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Digital-age tools for research

Class at Faculty of Science |
MC260P136

Syllabus

1. Introduction2. Publication System3. Computer Architecture

4.  Collaborative means - B (Repository, Version control)5. Alternatives to Microsoft-office: WYSIWYG vs WYMIWYG6. Collaborative means - A (GDocs, Overleaf)7. Data policy8.  Literature handling - DB, Feed RSS9. Researcher Social Networks - A : Personal profiles for research (RG, OID, GScholar, Twitter)10. Researcher Social Networks - B : Professional platform (LK, EuroAx)11.  Case study: Materials scienceContent ###

1. IntroductionThe development of internet, cloud, and methods such as Artificial Inteligence (AI) changed completely the approach to research in both private and public sector. This also allowed an increase number of people to take part to the production of scientific knowledge. To establish a career in any type of research is nowadays required to be able to handle amount of data, as never seen before. At the same time, it is necessary to convey the results of such processes to several other individuals with the proper tools. ###

2. Publication SystemThis lecture will focus on the _publishing_ system. Starting from the conventional environment of publisher, editors, ... arriving to the new emerging open systems.This will cover topics such as: Impact Factor, Open Access, ArXiv, PlusOne, Blind Review, withdraw, ... ###

3. Computer Architecture This lecture will present some basic knowledge of UNIX system and how they can use to automatize the work load. We will present means to install virtual machines on different personal computer independently from their native configuration (MacOx, Windows, Linux).This lecture will present some key-aspect of computer science that will be used across the whole course. As a follow up to the first lecture of introduction there will be a second class with hands-on exercise.###

4. Alternatives to Microsoft-office: WYSIWYG vs WYMIWYGDespite its ubiquity word documents are not the only standard available to present research text. Such format is actually a limiting factor if computer interaction is needed. This class will present the basic rules of hierarchical writing and present easy tutorial to produce text in MarkDown language.  It will also provide an introduction to the more professional language of LaTex. ###

5. Collaborative means - A (GDocs, Overleaf)The tools presented in lecture

4. allow more proficients and simple way to store and analyze works. In particular in this lecture it will be presented the difference between Google Documents and a version control platform as Overleaf. This is aim to explain what is the best way to work in collaborative manner with multiple authors. ###

6. Collaborative means - B (Repository, Version control)This classes is mostly oriented to technical means to implement version control of simple text objects. This includes as well software code as normal text.Using the platform GitHub the class will present the reason behind the need of version control, repository and release systems. The same platform can also be used to create a personal website, or to store reserved data. ###

7. Data policyEuropean Union is the responsible for financial support to most of the key research nowadays performed in Europe. Accordingly to the new guidelines available [here](https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/open-access-scientific-information), all the result have to be made available to the public. Such choice extend beyond EU financed projects and influence other bodies guidelines. Using the skills acquired in the previous lectures we will present which tools can be used to achieve such requirement and which are the best way to present the data in different formats.We will present some example of plotting code such as gnuplot, R, and/or python and how to create an online journal through the use of Jupyter. ###

8. Literature handling - DB, Feed RSSOne central point of academic research is the referencing system. In this class we will present how to create and handle a database for papers, books, or any other objects using Zotero. The database will then be used to create an interactive profile on Feedly to follow RSS feeds or journal or general publications.###

9. Researcher Social Networks - A : Personal profiles for research (RG, OID, GScholar, Twitter)Due to the new size of research, it is more and more difficult for a piece of research to emerge. This require time investment on social network to present and disseminate personal achievement and results. The class will include the creation of a personal academic  profile on different services (Research Gate, OrchID, Google Scholar).###

10. Researcher Social Networks - B : Professional platform (LK, EuroAx)Besides academic research there is a whole sector of private research that offers several opportunities. Using all the previous presented tools, we will implement a personal page that will also interact with professional platform as LinkedIn and [EURAXXES](https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/)###

11. Case study: Materials scienceThis lecture will present the case study of research on Materials presenting how the actual fields developed several platform to disseminate data, perform data analysis, shared database, etc.

Annotation

Several tools to improve skills to plan, organize, manage and present research will be covered, including modern approaches to use informatics means in research. The goal is to improve personal skills in research organization, management and establishing professional profiles.

The classes include both theoretical overviews and tutorials to create personal profiles and data handling.

At the end of the class the student will create a personal page linked to online platforms to organize publications, research projects, and networking with the academic and the private sector.

The work-flow of nowadays generation of researcher changes abruptly. This is mostly due to the increase of people who have access to higher education, and with the development and involvment of computers.