| CODE | GSC3405 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Short Review Paper | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Geosciences | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The study-unit focuses on providing the candidates with the essential skills required in order to assess the validity of research work and to be able to communicate the findings in appropriate ways. This will be carried out by requiring the candidates to carry out a short literature review on a topic in the general field of geosciences and to present the results in the form of a scientific paper and a short seminar. Formal teaching will be provided on all aspects, including how to carry out a literature review using the available tools, identifying the origins of the fundamental ideas, selecting the appropriate references, organise the work in a coherent way, and conform to writing a report in a paper format. Study-unit Aims: The study-unit is meant to act as an introductory study unit in research methods for students studying geosciences. In this context, this study-unit will: - train the candidate in the use of search facilities available for the purpose of carrying out a literature review in the scientific area of geosciences; - train the candidate in identifying appropriate references to use for a scientific literature review in geosciences; - train the candidate in identifying common features in different publications pertaining to the area of geosciences; - foster a critical understanding of the reviewed work; - instruct the candidate on the use of measures of correlation and dispersion as applicable to geosciences generated data; - train the candidate on the use of a reference manager; - instruct the candidate on proper formatting rules; - discuss the need of appropriate structuring of one's work in order to make it appealing to the people working in geosciences; - train the candidate in the writing of a scientific paper; - discuss best practices when presenting work. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - appreciate the importance of critical reviews in geosciences research; - assimilate and understand the background geoscience information relevant to the assigned literature review. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - carry out a literature review on a topic related to a geosciences area; - use the available search facilities to find and retrieve documents on a specific subject; - identify publications that can act as appropriate references for the specific geosciences subject; - distinguish between the validity of models based on geosciences data using measures of agreement and dispersion; - provide a written summary of a literature review, making use of standard referencing techniques; - write a well-structured scientific paper on a geosciences topic, including the application of proper referencing, formats, and avoidance of plagiarism; - communicate clearly the scientific results obtained in both an oral and written form to a targeted audience. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main text: Notes will be provided. Bibliography: - Tan, W.C.K., 2017. Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Students and Researchers. World Scientific Publishing Company. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-Requisite qualifications: A background in geosciences | ||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Sebastiano D'Amico Pierre Sandre Farrugia Anthony Galea Aaron Micallef |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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