The article will talk about scientific information. We will find out what it happens, what are the sources of its receipt and how it is collected and analyzed. And also get acquainted with the features of the search for scientific information.
What it is?
We start directly with the definition. In modern sources, there are a lot of diverse interpretations of the term information, which only partially reflect the general approach to interpretation. Consider the basic interpretation.
So, information is certain information about the world around us and the processes that occur in it. They can be perceived by humans or special devices. Also, through the information, various messages are received that inform the person about something. But it must be understood that scientific information is one of the main objects of study in many sciences. For example, the theory of information, cybernetics, semiotics, and the theory of mass communications deals with these issues. In computer science, they most often use the term “information”, which refers to some data about our world that must be properly stored, transformed, transmitted and used.
Types of Scientific Information
There are several main types of information that are classified by the methods of its display, encryption or storage. Consider the main ones:
- Graphic - this is information that was originally transmitted in the form of some kind of diagrams on the rocks, and then converted into canvases, drawings, photographs. This view implies that all data and information is reflected in a pictorial form.
- Sound is information that is transmitted or stored using sound recording devices. Its separate form is musical information, which allows you to encode data using certain characters, which practically equates it in terms of efficiency with audio and graphic information.
- Textual, for which a coding method using human speech is used. We operate with letters and various symbolic groups to reflect what we want to say. This type of information gained maximum development after the possibility of printing books was invented and paper appeared.
- Numeric is a modern type of information that measures everything and represents it in the form of numbers. It reached its peak during the heyday of trade relations, money and the economy. As with text data, special coding methods are required here. Operating characters are numbers.
- Video is a way of storing information that uses certain media. The peculiarity of the method is that it allows you to capture like living pictures.
Other species
There are also other types that mankind still cannot code or store in a certain way. These include tactile information that can only be transmitted through sensations, but which cannot be encoded and transmitted to someone else in their original form. There is also organoleptic information. It lies in the fact that we can convey certain messages with the help of smell and taste.
Also, light devices were used to transmit data at some distances. Light signals allowed the military to transfer particularly important data to other objects. After electricity was invented, signal transmission became possible by wire. This greatly facilitated communication. Later, radio waves began to be used.
Who stood at the origins?
In the scientific world, it is believed that the author of theories about digital communication and information is Claude Shannon. The popularity and fame brought him the book, which he wrote in 1948. It was called the Mathematical Theory of Communications. In his fundamental work, the scientist was one of the first to substantiate the theory that we can use binary code in order to transmit information.
His thoughts were reinforced after computers appeared, because they were the means that allowed to process numerical information. But much later, when computers spread widely and flooded the whole world, they began to be used not only for processing, but also for safety, movement, and finding any type of data. In this case, initially for safety, tapes, magnetic disks, laser disks, flash memory were used. Naturally, these methods have gradually progressed, and today we almost do not use the listed media. They were replaced by capacious memory cards that are capable of storing terabytes of data.
Features of modern data
Functions of information processing, consisting in the fact that it is reproduced, converted, transmitted and recorded, are assigned to the computer processor. We are addressing this issue because technology today is making tremendous strides, and to trace the history of scientific information, one should turn to the origins. By the way, recently, researchers came to the conclusion that it is necessary to separate information from the Web into a separate subspecies. Indeed, for its processing and movement completely unimaginable volumes and capacities are used.
Sources
Sources of scientific information are carriers that contain specific information. The main sources include dissertations, manuscripts, reports on any research work, design developments, translations, reviews and analytical materials. All of the above are documentary sources, which are divided into primary and secondary.
The primary documents include material containing basic information that directly conveys the essence of the results of scientific research. Secondary documents talk about how the information received by the researchers was analyzed, what logical connections were found, and so on. Secondary documents perform only two functions. They allow you to quickly obtain data about any process or event, and also allow you to briefly study the main points.
Classification of sources
The main types of sources:
- A monograph is a book publication that contains a complete examination of a particular process or phenomenon. Most often written by a team of authors.
- An abstract is a brochure that contains the main thoughts about the study. There is also an abstract of a dissertation, which represents the thesis content of a dissertation written for a degree.
- A preprint is a work containing some data that has not yet been published, but will soon be published to the public.
- A collection of works is a collection that contains basic materials on research carried out on a particular topic.
- Materials on the conference of the meeting are non-periodical collections that contain the results of a scientific event.
- Abstracts are a summary of basic information on a particular issue, which contains materials that have not yet been published.
- Popular science publications is a publication containing a number of experimental and theoretical questions, submitted in a form accessible to the average reader. An example of a collection of such works is the electronic library ELibrary. Here everyone can find the answer to any question of interest, justified from a scientific point of view. The electronic library ELibrary enables any person to plunge into the world of science and realize the main points and ideas without going too deep.
Classification
Consider a variety of classifications that allow us to sort information. Note that typology is important when collecting scientific information, because without it you will get chaos.
So, the distribution according to purpose:
- Bulk. This is information that contains ordinary, but important for the public information. She operates in simple language and simple concepts that are understood by most.
- Special. It lies in a specific data set that is inaccessible to most people. But this information is intended for narrow circles of professionals.
- Secret Huge centers operate to store and transmit information. This data is transmitted only to a small number of people through fully secure channels. Special research centers ensure complete secrecy and inaccessibility of these data to the bulk of the population.
- Personal, or private, information is information about a particular person who has a private character.
Analysis
Analysis of scientific information occurs after all the data has been collected and processed. After analysis, the information is classified according to the following criteria:
- Actual. This is the information that is most important in the present moment.
- Authentic. Information that is obtained by objective methods and does not contain a certain amount of distortion.
- I see. This is information that is transmitted in a coding language that is understandable to the addressee.
- Complete. This information, which is presented in its entirety, can be used to make serious global decisions.
- Useful. The degree of usefulness of certain data is determined by the specific entities that receive and use them for their intended purpose.
Also note that the processing of scientific information is impossible without its classification into false and true. So, at the stage of separating false data from true data, a lot of additional research is carried out. This is very important, because if you make a mistake, the final research results will be distorted.
Scientific and technical information
It consists of data that are used for scientific and technical purposes. In other words, it is necessary for the development of scientific and technological progress. Its importance in the world is enormous, as lack of it leads to the fact that many studies are duplicated. This suggests that scientists spend extra time to find those patterns and features that have been previously studied and studied by other scientists. Note that the number of repeated experiments in some areas reaches 65%. In addition to being a waste of time, it is also a loss of billions of dollars each year.
In our country, the information resources of science and technology are formed by the State Committee on Technology and Science, which was created in the 1960s. This system includes a huge number of special organizations and services that are actively functioning.
Treatment
The processing of scientific information most often consists in reading the sources of which we spoke above. Textbooks, monographs, scientific articles - all this allows us to find out the desired information. Therefore, it is very important to focus on the genre of the book and its content. Also, before studying, it is worth paying attention to the table of contents in order to familiarize yourself in detail and understand the structure of the book. This will allow the author to understand and briefly review the range of problems that he will explore.
Reading
When studying scientific literature, it is worth remembering that there are different types of reading, the choice of which depends on the initial goals of your research. We list:
- Introductory reading, which is characterized by a fluent and partial familiarization with the material and is necessary in order to focus on the main thoughts, ideas and postulates.
- High-speed reading, which should be studied separately with a specialist, allows you to study all the material at once, but do it pretty quickly, while comprehending each paragraph.
- The analytical reading, which is most often used by scientists in the study of important materials.
Subspecies
Analytical reading has several subspecies:
- Latching. It consists in the fact that the entire text is studied, with particular attention to links and footnotes.
- Explanatory. It lies in the fact that incomprehensible information is specified with the help of directories or consultants that allow you to understand all the difficult points.
- Critical Its essence is that we do not just study the material, but try to analyze it, investigate sources, compare our position and thoughts of the author.
- Creative. It is based on the fact that in the course of reading you form your own view of the problem, trying to create an original approach to the issue.
Summing up, we note that the information can be very different. Carefully approach its study and contact scientific centers if necessary.