Academic Information Seeking

by Birgitte Munk (Copenhagen University Library) and Thomas Skov Jensen (Technical University of Denmark) available at https://www.coursera.org/learn/academicinfoseek.

Skills you will gain Reuse data from existing sources Recognise, cite and acknowledge contributions Develop open research strategy and vision Set up and document workflows Searching repositories and scientific databases Documentation for public use, lay understanding Evaluation of repository and publishing platforms Vocabulary/ ontology application

Description

This course will introduce you to the basic elements of academic information seeking - we will explore the search process from defining a strategy to evaluating and documenting your search results.

Attending the course will make you a proficient information seeker. You will learn how to carry out comprehensive literature searches based on your own research assignment. You will be guided through the various information seeking steps from selecting relevant search strategies and techniques to evaluating your search results, documenting your search process and citing your sources.

Attending the course will enable you to:

  • Identify your information need
  • Evaluate databases and other information resources
  • Set up search strategies and use various search techniques
  • Formulate search strings based on your own research assignment
  • Identify relevant material types
  • Undertake critical evaluation of your sources
  • Search more efficiently on the internet
  • Avoid plagiarism
  • Cite correctly
  • Work with reference management
  • Document your search process

The course is intended for undergraduate students but the lessons will be useful to anyone who is interested in becoming better at finding scientific information. There are no formal requirements for the course.

The series consists of 21 lectures that are organized into three modules. The lectures include small assignments and quizzes (to check comprehension). The lectures will each touch upon a topic that is essential to the information seeking process. To get the most out of the lecture series, we recommend that you access the lectures while you are working on an academic paper. We also recommend that you watch the lectures in the order in which we have structured them. We recommend that you create and fill out a log book while attending the lectures. We have created a log book template that you can use during the course.

The lecture series has been developed in collaboration between information specialists at University of Copenhagen and Technical University of Denmark

Keywords literature search log book citation reference management