Scientific communication – the processes of scientific information life: conducting scientific research, publishing, preserving and disseminating scientific results, using and evaluating scientific publications. These processes are relevant to the personal career of a scientist and the recognition and evaluation of scientific activities of institutions, the country or international regions.
Researchers and their groups often need information that is difficult to find in the public space or to find in one place. For this purpose, the Kaunas University Library and Scientific Communication Center have prepared the Moodle course Scientific Communication, where information can be found according to scientific activity processes or individual topics. You can also find a constantly updated Dictionary of Scientific Terms, which makes it easier to find the necessary information. All members of the Kauno kolegija community can join this course.
You can open the Moodle course Scientific Communication and find these topics:
- Scientific activity and its organization at Kauno kolegija. In the introductory course topic, you will learn: what is science and what are the distinguished directions of science and art; at what levels does scientific communication take place; what criteria must be met in order to take up a researcher position; about the documents regulating the R&D activities of Kauno kolegija.
- Planning the scientific research process: what is necessary to know before starting a research? In the topic, you will learn what organizational, financial, methodological and other aspects of the research need to be considered before conducting a scientific study. The topic also describes in detail other aspects of the research process that need to be planned in advance: research team and cooperation; resources, equipment, tools, etc. required for the study; research and scientific ethics, personal data protection; research data management; publication, registration, dissemination of research results; assessment of possible risks.
- Data sources required for scientific research. In the topic you will learn about scientific data and what are the data repositories; what are the information sources suitable for scientific research; what are scientific publications and where to look for them; what are other sources necessary for scientific research.
- Publishing the results of scientific research: how to choose a scientific journal or publisher? In the topic you will learn: what types and what level of evaluation can scientific publications be; how to choose a publisher if you have decided to publish the results of scientific research in a monograph or scientific study; what to pay attention to when choosing a scientific journal; what selection tools to use when choosing a scientific journal.
- Publication of scientific results (article). A scientific article is the main means of disseminating scientific research results. The topic describes in detail all the stages of preparing an article: preparation for writing an article (co-authorship, author’s contribution, institutional affiliation, scientific directions); search for a suitable journal for publishing an article; article structure; submission of an article to a journal; dissemination of information about the published article.
- Publication of scientific results (monograph). If you have chosen to publish the results of scientific research in a monograph or scientific study, you should pay attention to the information provided in this topic: what is a scientific monograph, what is its characteristic; what are the requirements for publishing and evaluating monographs; lists of internationally recognized publishers.
- Evaluation of scientific and art activity results. The results of scientific and art activity are evaluated using qualitative (review) and quantitative (citation) methods and their combinations (expert evaluation). In the topic you will learn: what are the main evaluation indicators of scientific journals (Web of Science, Scopus); what are the indicators of the evaluation of a scientist (H-index); what are the most popular scientific evaluation tools; what are the indicators and tools for alternative evaluation of scientific results; what are altimetric.
- Registration of scientific and art activity results, compilation of publication lists. Scientific, educational, science popularization publications and art works (referred to as publications) of teachers and researchers are registered in accordance with the procedure established by the Kauno kolegija. Based on the registered results, individual reports of these activities of the teacher, departments of the institution and the entire institution are compiled, as well as publication lists for competitions and etc. In the topic you will learn: what are the two ways you can register your publication; how to obtain publication lists.
- Dissemination of scientific results: how to choose a scientific conference? In scientific communication, researchers must be careful and choose scientific publishers, journals and conferences after critically evaluating them and checking the information. In the topic you will learn: selection criteria for scientific conferences; how to recognize inappropriate or fictitious scientific conferences.
- Dissemination of scientific results: scientist profile, identifiers, social networks. Dissemination of scientific results should be carried out consciously, using dedicated tools, linking them to professionally created databases of scientific publications. In this topic, you will learn: what is a scientist’s digital identity and how to form it; how to create a proper scientist profile (Google Scholar My Profile, ResearchGate, ORCID); why are scientist identifiers needed and how to use them properly (ORCID ID); how can social networks for scientists be useful (Research Gate, ResearcherID, etc.).
- Ethics of scientific research and publishing, quality criteria for scientific publishing. Proper scientific research practice is based on the principles of academic integrity, which must be applied throughout the scientific research process from the idea to the dissemination of results. The topic examines: principles of scientific ethics; ethical use of artificial intelligence in scientific research; publishing ethics and quality criteria; criteria for assessing the reliability of scientific journal and conference publications.
- Open access and requirements for publishing scientific results. In this topic you will learn: how the publication of scientific research results is regulated at the national and international level, ensuring their open access; what are the models for publishing open access journals; in which journals can members of the Kauno kolegija community publish articles with an APC discount or for free; what are the open access data repositories and publishers.
- Copyright, publishing agreements and licenses. Copyright is an integral part of intellectual property, relevant to every scientist conducting research and publishing research results. In this topic you will learn: what are the economic and non-economic rights of authors; under what conditions can works be used; what is important for an author in scientific publishing; what Creative Commons (CC) license an author must use in scientific publishing.