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Introduction to Scientific Work

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Ulrich Göhner
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 Technical Reports in Computing Science No. CS-01-2015

Introduction to Scientific Work

Lecture Notes Winter Semester 2014/2015
Ulrich Göhner

February 2015

Hochschule Kempten
University of Applied Sciences
Fakultät Informatik
TECHNICAL REPORTS IN COMPUTING SCIENCE NO. CS-01-2015, UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES KEMPTEN
Introduction to Scientific Work
Ulrich Göhner
(Lecture Notes WS 2014/2015)
Abstract—This paper gives a summary of a lecture called
’Introduction to Scientific Work’ [1], which was given during the
winter semester 2014/2015 at the University of Applied Sciences
Kempten. Participants were graduate students of the Master
course in Applied Informatics. During the course a scientific
project was being done in several groups consisting of two to
5 students. The results of the project was being summarized
in a scientific paper, which is to be published in this series of
university internal publications. All papers have been reviewed by
the author and selected papers will be submitted to appropriate
journals for external publication.
Index Terms—Lecture Notes, scientific project, introduction to
scientific work.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In the lecture, which was given in 2014 for the first time,
both theoretical lectures and practical exercises have been
done. The theoretical lessons given by the author include the
following topics:
1) scientific literature
• different kinds of scientific literature
• classification of scientific literature
• content and originality
• production
• quality control and review process
• literature search process
• citation style
• structure of a scientific publication
• basic approach to create a scientific paper
2) opportunitites for an academic career
3) overview of scientific project funding
• university research
• publically funded institutes
• industrial research
4) science theory
5) scientific methods
• theoretical proof
• heuristic methods
• experimental work
• models and validation
In the practical exercises first the students had to work
out a scientific project and have to explain the content and
present their scientific progress to the audience. After detailed
discussion about the scientific results achieved in the different
projects, the results are being written down in a scientific
paper.
II. T HEORETICAL PART OF THE LECTURE
In the theoretical part the students learn the basic concepts
applied in today’s scientific world. Also some methodology is
1
being presented, which helps the students to be consistent and
goal-oriented in their scientific project. Beyond the scientific
work itself also working conditions in different organizations
are being described. This chapter is restricted to the main
scientific organizations in germany, e.g. University Institutes,
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, DFG or DLR.
Also a short overview of the different ways to achieve scien-
tific grades is provided. The goal is to generate interest among
the audience to continue to work as an active researcher.
Also different research positions are being introduced and the
working conditions are being described. This part of the lecture
is partly dependent on personal experiences and valuations of
the author.
In the remainder of the theoretical part of the course a
basic mehtodology is given for either the scientific project
work itself and the manuscript creation process describing the
scientific results and achievements. The goals is, that after the
course the students are able to evaluate their scientific results,
discuss them with other researchers and defend the results
against external critisism or improve their scientific work and
write it down in a consistent and complete way.
Also Latex [3] and Citavi [2] are being introduced as tools
for the filing and management of their own ideas and other
interesting contributions of other international researchers
working in the topic of interest.
III. F IRST EXPERIENCES IN THE CLASS
In the first class a group of 26 students have been attending
during the complete semester. The students were very inter-
ested and dedicated to the course topic. Eight groups have been
working on totally different subjects, ranging from driving
assistance systems to genetic algorithms. In most cases the
students have already some experience in the topic they have
chosen from preceding projects. In some cases the results of
the bachelor thesis has been used as a basis for their project
work.
In all groups special emphasis was placed to determine new
potential scientific ideas within the project. This means, the
students have to find out, which parts of the results are a
real scientific progress, and which parts are just references to
known findings from other authors.
IV. R ESULTS FROM FIRST COURSE
All the time during the semester the students have been
very ambitious and committed. Their contributions to the sci-
entific discussions were objective and constructive. The project
progress has been monitored by regular pitch presentations of
the students. In these presentation not only results but also
difficulties ought to be presented and possible solutions have
TECHNICAL REPORTS IN COMPUTING SCIENCE NO. CS-01-2015, UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES KEMPTEN 2

been discussed in the audience. By this, the ability to discuss

problems on a scientific level is being practiced.
The paper creation process has been practiced by exercising
the different steps, which were proposed dunring the theoret-
ical lecture series. These steps form a basic approach from
idea collection to the complete paper manuscript.

V. E VALUATION AND IMPROVEMENTS

Part of the papers have been written in german language,
part in english language. This decision was based on the fact
that in some special areas it was more common to publish in
german language, other areas of interest english publications
are standard.
In future all papers will be in english language. The theo-
ritcal part will stay in german. All discussions will be held in
german language, too.

VI. T ECHNICAL R EPORTS IN C OMPUTING S CIENCE

As one result of the course in The winter semester
2014/2015 a new series of university internal publications
was found. The name of the publication series is: ’Technical
Reports in Computing Science’.
It is planned, that the papers resulting from the students’
scientific project can be published in the publication series
’Technical Reports in Computing Science’. A formal review
process is installed. After acceptance of the papers the papers
will be published both electronically and in printed form.

VII. C ONCLUSION
The newly created Master Course ’Introduction to Scientific
Work’ [1] was succesfully started. During the first course
eight interesting scientific papers have been submitted for
publication in ’Technical Reports in Computing Science’ of
the University of Appplied Sciences Kempten. In future this
course will serve as a source for further interesting pub-
lications. A selection of the papers will be submitted for
publication in international journals as well.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank all contributing students,
who did the main work for the interesting publications sub-
mitted to our newly established publication series ”Technical
Reports in Computing Science”

R EFERENCES
[1] U. Göhner, ’Einführung in das wissenschafltiche Arbeiten’, Lecture notes,
Kempten, 2015
[2] P. Meurer; M. Schluchter: ’Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten mit Citavi 4’,
2013.
[3] J. Schlosser: ’Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten schreiben mit LATEX. Leit-
faden für Einsteiger.’ 5. Auflage, mitp, 2014.

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