IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

ACADEMIC RESEARCH

Academic researchUniversities are fundamentally about two things: education and research.

You need to understand the process of academic research to succeed in Higher Education.

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

University research relies heavily on academic publications and libraries, and since the Web began in the 1990s the Internet has become a valuable research tool alongside these traditional sources.

INTERNET RESEARCH SKILLS

However, although a quick Internet search may seem the easy option for finding information for coursework and assignments, if you're not careful it can severely compromise the quality of your work.

Internet research skills can help you find the information you need.

BUILDING ON PAST RESEARCH

In academia it is considered important that new research builds upon past research.  Academics will typically conduct a review of previous research before carrying out their own work.

Once they have done some of their own research they will generally write it up and make it available to future researchers.  However, there is a strict quality-control system in place ...

PEER REVIEW

Peer review is a core part of academic research.  It is a formal procedure for checking the quality of research before it is published.  If a publication is peer reviewed it means it has been read, checked and authenticated (reviewed) by independent, third party academics (peers).Peer review has been the quality-control system of academic publishing for hundreds of years.

Academic publishing

Standard systems for preserving and passing on knowledge and expertise have developed to support academic research.

Academics usually publish their research in formal publications such as academic papers, reports or books.

Scholarly journals

Academic articles are often published in scholarly journals - collections of papers on a particular topic - produced and edited by the academic press.  Each journal title is released at regular intervals, providing a series of articles on the same topic over time. Some journals go back many years.

Journals are likely to be a key source of information for you at university - you will be expected to reference articles from them in your work.

THE ACADEMIC PRESS

Specialist publishing houses, professional societies and university presses exist to produce academic books and journals.  They will carefully check and edit everything before it is published.

Bibliographic databases

Most academics rely on specialist databases to access details of past research. Bibliographic databases draw together details of scholarly publications from a wide range of sources including academic publishers, journals, archives and books, and so enable you to search a large body of the scholarly literature in one go.  

Libraries

University and research libraries collect together academic publications relevant to the needs of the researchers working in their institution.

Library services are central to the academic research process.

Nowadays libraries have both print collections and electronic collections of information sources, so the books you see on the shelves are only a fraction of the resources the library is actually making available to you - the others are online.

Scholarly communication

As well as writing formal publications, academics also engage in communication and debate.

Researchers around the world often keep in touch with each other to share ideas and make sure their research remains cutting edge.

Professional organizations: Each academic subject has its own community composed of researchers working in the same discipline.  Professional organizations exist which support scholarly communication and research in different subjects.

Academic conferences

It is standard practice for academics to present their research findings at academic conferences, where researchers interested in a particular subject meet to discuss and debate the latest research in the field.  These events are often organized by professional organizations or scholarly societies.

Conference proceedings are likely to be a key source of information for you at university - you will be expected to reference papers from them in your work.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Increasingly, academics are also using Web technologies to communicate and discuss their ideas - blogs, wikis, podcasts, videos and email discussion lists are often used for individuals or groups to communicate, discuss and debate ideas.

WHAT CAN THE INTERNET OFFER FOR RESEARCH IN YOUR SUBJECT?

A. What can the Internet provide for Computer Science and Informatics?

B. Take a guided tour of some key websites for English:

It has become an important way for researchers in universities to obtain resources from Internet. Search engines such as Google are often the choice to obtain particular network information. However, due to lack of evaluation on qualities and standards of descriptions, sometimes it is very difficult to get valuable information of a search engine. Therefore, researchers urgently need a new model to organize and explore online academic information.

starting from the mid 90’s of 20th century, Hundreds of subject information gateway with valuable online academic resources to users were built up worldwide, providing valuable online academic resource to users.

It helps the users to obtain valuable information more quickly and accurately.

Subject Information Gateway of the World

Current Practice Abroad Subject information gateways abroad started earlier. Early subject information gateways were usually built up and supported by big research projects. Later on, university libraries and research organizations joined in. Main ones are: British INTUTE(used to be RDN), European DESIRE 、 German SSG—FI 、 American INFOMINE LII etc. （ http://infomine.ucr.edu http://www.intute.ac.uk ）

INFO

MIN

E

INFOMINE was started in January 1994 by University of California Riverside as a library project. Later on, other six libraries or colleges such as Wake Forest University joined in the project. It was the first tool of web resource organization provided by libraries. It was also the first website based on the virtual academic resource on web. INFOMINE information resource has biology, architecture and medical science, commercial and electronics, culture and religion, social and human science, physics, mathematics , and engineering etc.

INFOMINE is a comprehensive virtual library and reference tool for academic and scholarly Internet resources, including Web sites and databases.

INFO

MIN

E

Data base, e-journal, e-book 、 bulletin, mail list, online catalog, articles, research catalog, subject introduction, textbook etc

Subject: biology architecture medical science, commercial and electronics, culture and religion, social and human science, physics math and engineering etc. 9 areas Language ： English

INTU

TE

There are four areas:

Science and technology, Arts and Human Science, Social Sciences, Health and Life Science etc. Free high qualified network resource services are provided to instructors, researchers and students. In July 2006, RDN was renamed as INTUTE.

INTUTE is the largest subject information gateway website in British as one of eLib projects started in 1994. In October 1999, eLib projects were substituted by RDN (Resource Discovery Network) projects. RDN was initiated by MIMAS of Manchester University, cooperated with many cooperators and funders. The core of the whole organization is an association including seven universities.

INTU

TE

Journal article, abstract, conference dissertation, e-book, patent, software, policy, FAQ, government publication

Subject ： Art and Letter Science, Health and Life Science, Science and Technology, Social Science etc. 4 Areas Language ： English

CA

LIS

The participants of CALIS subject navigation database consists of 53 University Libraries. So far, it contains one hundred and sixty thousand free academic resources, relating to 11 subjects, 79 first-class subjects. Resource types include references, full text, multimedia, interacting resources, yellow pages, events, etc. This database was opened to all participant libraries starting from June 2006. It has been clicked seven hundred and sixty thousand times, providing students, instructors and researchers in universities free access of academic network information.

One subject information gateway built in China was one of CALIS’ projects starting in 2000.

(http://navigation.calis.edu.cn)

CS

DL

Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Science Digital Library （ CSDL ） officially started the built-up work on subject information gateway in December 2001. Until July 2008, 5 subject information gateways had been built, they are: physics and mathematics, life science, book information, chemistry, resource and environment science.

In this section of the tutorial we will:Take a guided tour of some of the key information sources on the Internet for Computer Science and Informatics.Help you to start collecting your own list of useful websites to explore later.See the sitesTake a guided tour of some key websites for computer science and informatics:Higher educationEbooks and referenceEducational materialsAcademic researchPublicationsElectronic journalsBibliographic databasesLibrary cataloguesInternet researchInternet research toolsScholarly communicationProfessional organisationsConferences and eventsSocial mediaCurrent awarenessNews and media