The goal is to teach students the fundamental notions and concepts underlying scientific and technological research, with a focus on Information and Communication Technology.
Research Methodology will be composed of a course and 2 seminars.
The course will have 2 exam sessions: the first after the course conclusion, and the second in June, only for those who will not pass on at first try.
Seminar: The (legal) management of scientific research data: a mission impossibile? by Paolo Guarda, University of Trento
Scientific research is based on data, which represent the starting point for the postulate of theorems, for the proof of a thesis, for the proposal of reliable solutions. Over time, the world of law has prepared regulatory systems that have, in a fragmented and sectorial way, provided regulation to the various contexts concerned, rarely seeking, if not exceptionally and sometimes unconsciously, an overall vision. This seminar aims to briefly explore the specificities of the legal regime of scientific research data, offering an analysis based on a systematic method which not only intends to provide a guide to the various legal issues, but which makes interdisciplinarity the real added value and the necessary key to understanding the phenomena in progress.
Seminar: Publishing in Computer Science: how it works and what you need to know by Aliaksandr Birukou: Vice President Journals at Springer Nature
In this lecture, we first cover the basic elements of the publication landscape (proceedings, journals, and books) and the role of publishers. We will look not only into commercial or society publishers, but also emerging self-publishing venues. Then we discuss the publication ethics, i.e., plagiarism, duplicate submissions or publications, retractions. We continue by discussing predatory publishers and how to not become their victim. The second part of the lecture will deal with various models of peer review and new tools and practices, including but not limited to open access, open data, CrossMark, ORCID, Publons, conference rankings.