Duration
15h Th, 15h Mon. WS
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
The objective of this course is to guide the student in acquiring the skills necessary for the completion of the master thesis, including literature search. This course is aimed for students who already master the basics of documentary research. Support allowing you to get up to speed with the prerequisites is available on eCampus. The theoretical content is directly applied to each student's dissertation theme via guided exercises.
SUBJECTS ADDRESSED:
Review of the principles and resources for literature research:
- Keywords, search equations
- Search engines
- Types of documents
- Elements of bibliometrics
- Zotero, a tool for managing bibliographic references
- Ethics of citing references (no plagiarism!)
- Research question(s) and keywords
- Creating a list of relevant documents in bibliographic format
- The sections of the thesis
- From research question to hypotheses and objectives (on the thesis topic)
- Structuring the background and introduction (on the thesis topic)
- Writing the thesis background with bibliographic references
REMARK:
As part of your university education, you can legally dispose of the materials made available to you (PDF Power Points, videos, podcasts, etc.) protected by copyright. These materials are intended solely to be used by students as part of their course at the University of Liège. No other use or distribution is authorized, under penalty of constituting a violation of the Law of June 30, 1994 relating to copyright. If the resources found themselves freely accessible on the web, the person responsible would be exposed to legal proceedings.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
At the end of this course, the student will be able to:
- Take ownership of a research topic
- Construct a research question and integrate it into its context (problem statement)
- Define scientific objectives in a coherent manner
- Clearly present the context (introduction) and the research objectives
- Determine and state useful documentary questions in the context of scientific research
- Select appropriate information sources and bibliographic databases
- Run a computerized literature search and access the full text
- Sort information based on quality and relevance criteria
- Integrate the results of a documentary search in the bibliographic databases with the other information available in its scientific environment
- Manage collected bibliographic references
- Avoid plagiarism
- Write a scientific text including correct citations and bibliography (format and relevance)
- Orally present the background of your thesis topic using slides
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Passive knowledge of scientific English (reading and understanding scientific articles written in English).
This course is based on the skills acquired during the student's previous training, with regard to the realization of a documentary research and an oral presentation using slides.
The course notes for these subjects taught at ULiège in BLOC3 of the bachelor's degree in biological sciences ("Training in the use of documentary resources" and "Training in scientific communication") are made available on eCampus.
This course must be taken at the same time as the master thesis. The student must have selected his dissertation topic before the start of the course. Exceptionally, with the agreement of the jury, the course can be followed when the student is already working on his thesis subject (to be presented it the following year).
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lectures
Tutorials
Workshops:
- presentations
- discussions
- writing texts
- exercises
- short group activities
- documentary research on computer
- importing and managing bibliographic references in Zotero
- citation of bibliographical references
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Blended learning
Additional information:
Most of this course is carried out face-to-face. Some personal work sessions are carried out remotely. A detailed timetable is provided at the beginning of the course.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
All the resources necessary for this course are centralized in the course space on eCampus (course slides, documents for consultation, information, discussion forum, etc.).
The support for the course "Training in the use of documentary resources" and "Training in scientific communication" of BLOC3 are available on eCampus, as a reminder.
Additional references:
- Dony Christophe, 2019, Guide d'utilisation de Zotero: Fonctionnalités de base de l'outil de gestion bibliographique. Online. http://hdl.handle.net/2268/232436
- Pochet Bernard, 2015. Comprendre et maitriser la littérature scientifique. Gembloux : Presses agronomiques de Gembloux. Online. Version du 2 août 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2268/186181
- Université de Liège. 2017. Le plagiat? Pas pour moi! Petit guide à l'intention des étudiants de l'Université de Liège. https://www.student.uliege.be/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-01/brochure_-_le_plagiat_pas_pour_moi_avec_etiquette_2021.pdf
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Additional information:
All assessment work must be handed in (otherwise the final assessment score is 0/20).
- Students must attend at least one formal oral scientific presentation (eg conference, seminar, doctoral thesis, NOT an internal seminar of a team) and write a 0.5-1 page reflective text focusing mainly on the technique of presentation of the subject by the speaker. (10%)
- During the January session, the students present the context (introduction), the objectives and the work schedule of their thesis in front of the whole class (oral presentation with Power Point support 10 minutes; answers to questions). The presence of all students is required on the day(s) of the exam. If the number of students requires several sessions, the presence of students is required for the half-day of their presentation AND a half-day of their choice. (60%)
- The writing of the context of the dissertation (1-2 pages) with citations in the text and bibliographical list. (30%)
- The realization of formative MCQs proposed on eCampus during tutorial sessions and relating to bibliographic tools (formative evaluation).
REMINDER (see general exam regulations): Any fraud or plagiarism is severely punished and in particular results in a mark of 0/20 on the final exam.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
The presence of all students is required on the day(s) of the exam. If the number of students requires several sessions, the presence of students is required for the half-day of their presentation AND a half-day of their choice
The student must bring his or her personal computer for class sessions. Earphones are needed iff he/she wishes to view tutorials during the tutorial sessions.
Students' username and password are required to access the set of electronic tools.
Improvements are made to the course each year based on the evolution of knowledge and formal and informal feedback from students.
Contacts
Office: by appointment only (email, discussion forum eCampus, phone, before/after lectures)
Prof. Monique Carnol
Laboratoire d'Ecologie Végétale et Microbienne, Institut de Botanique B22, Chemin de la Vallée, 4, 4000 Liège, Belgique (3rd floor)
Tel. 04/3663845 ; E-mail : m.carnol@uliege.be