The courses “Perspectives in Information Science” and “Research Methodology” are required for Masters candidates and optional for Ph.D. candidates.
Complementary Activities I
Complementary activities, within the scope of the curriculum framework of the PPGCI/IBICT-UFRJ, are represented by participation in one or more academic activities and research activities, amounting to a total of 60 class/hours (4 credits) in the respective semester (Doctorate: up to one discipline may be attended as Complementary Activity I), which may include:
a) participation and/or organization of seminars and scientific events;
b) production and submission of texts for publication in scholarly communication channels (article in a scientific journal, book and book chapter, complete work in annals of scientific events);
c) teaching internship, in graduation course, of scholarship or non-scholarship students, excluding regular teaching activities;
d) studies conducted under a PPGCI professor’s supervision or in another Post-Graduate Program;
e) joint activities with the advisor’s research group;
f) participation in courses with compatible time load.
A Complementary Activity has to be defined, as well as to be agreed upon and be supervised by the advisor, who is responsible for the student’s evaluation and corresponding grade assignments.
If a Complementary Activity is substituted by 1 regular course, the enrollment has to be effected in the chosen course, always under advisor’s approval, and the professor who is responsible for the discipline will be the one responsible for evaluating and grading the student.
Perspectives in Information Science
Information Science: historical approach. Social, scientific, and technological frameworks of its constitution. Paul Otlet’s thought and work. From documentation to information retrieval systems studies. Epistemology of Information Science: Principles, concepts, theories, methods, and laws. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Epistemological domain, disciplines, and applications in different fields. Information as an object of study: concepts and contexts. Relationship and boundaries with data, documents, and knowledge. Current foci of Information Science in the Information Society. Information Science in Brazil. Education and research.
Research Methodology
It aims to assist the students on the development of their research projects in Information Science, the selection of research tools, of object and subject of knowledge, of different methodological and epistemological concepts, and of the objectivity and subjectivity of information considered as a construct. Still from the perspective of historicity in Information Science, to define problems and empirical fields of academic research including hypotheses, thesis, synthesis and antithesis.