Searching & Managing Scientific Information

This is our biannual introductory training series for PhD students and other affiliates of the four federal research institutes Eawag, Empa, PSI & WSL. The series covers a whole variety of topics such as basic & advanced searching, scientific publishing, research evaluation, Open Access & copyright, literature management with Endnote and with Zotero, writing with LaTeX and research data management. This spring we will also offer a new module on Git and two modules on AI in scientific research.

Useful information

Course description

The spring training series 2025 will be split in eleven modules (3-6h each) that can be booked individually. On request, students attending four or more modules will receive a recommendation for 1 ECTS credit point. Modules 4a,b, 7a,b, and 8a,b count as separate modules. Course slides will be available below a couple of days prior to each session. Course slides and corresponding material of previous sessions can be found here.

course-description-series

Each venue is open to all members of the 4 research institutes Eawag, Empa, PSI and WSL. Most modules are offered on-site at Eawag-Empa Dübendorf, PSI Villigen and WSL Birmensdorf.
Registration closes ca. a week prior to each event.
All modules are held in English. No course fees apply.
Presentations/Workshops with examples and exercises. The course notes, presentation slides, and other course material will be available below a couple of days prior to the sessions.
Max. 20 participants for sessions of modules 1-3 & 5-8 (please bring your laptop).
Max. 12 participants for sessions of module 4a (computers provided) and module 4b (please bring your laptop).
For module 4b: Please bring your laptop with the latest Zotero release installed. Brief installation instructions can be found below ca. 1 week prior to the sessions. Contact us prior to the course should you require assistance with your installation.
For module 5: Please bring your laptop with a working LaTeX installation. Brief instructions for example installations can be found below ca. 1 week prior to the sessions. Please contact us should you require assistance with your installation.
For module 6: Please read our info sheet Topic Search prior to the session, particularly if you have not previously attended Lib4RI's module 1 «Searching Scientific Information».
For module 7a: Depending on the venue an expert from Eawag, Empa, PSI or WSL will be joining.
For module 7b: Remember to bring your laptop with a working Git installation and have an account created for the Git service Codeberg. Please send us your user name to @email. This is needed for the exercises. Contact us prior to the course should you require assistance with your installation. Course slides will be available on our training website a couple of days prior to the course.
For modules 8a & 8b: Please create a (free) ChatGPT account before the lecture.

In module 1, «Searching Scientific Information», you become skilled in finding relevant scientific information using suitable tools offered by Lib4RI.

How to use Lib4RI’s resources for quick information retrieval
Formulating systematic search queries including Boolean operators, wildcards and truncations
Examples/exercises from the swisscovery library catalogue, Scopus and Web of Science

Trainers: Stephanie Hofmann, Bobby Neuhold

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Thu, 12.06.2025 9:00-12:00	Register
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/EG6A	Fri, 23.05.2025 9:00-12:00	Register

In module 3, «Open Access & Copyright» you gain knowledge on the principles of Open Access (OA) publishing and learn how to deal with copyright questions related to scientific works.

Apply Open Access to your publications and gain more impact for your research
Funding opportunities for Open Access publications
How to make your publications Open Access in the repository DORA
Principles of copyright and their applications in science
Creative Commons (CC) licences and how to use them
Copyright transfer agreements and author rights

Trainers: Jochen Bihn, Michael Bachmann

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Thu, 15.05.2025 13:00-16:00	Register
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/OG10	Thu, 08.05.2025 13:00-16:00	Register

In module 4a, «Literature Management with EndNote», you get introduced to scientific literature management with EndNote.
Introduction to literature management
How to import and organise literature information including fulltext PDFs
Citing references and creating bibliographies in your scientific document using EndNote's Cite-While-You-Write (MS Word plugin)
How to modify/create output styles using EndNote's style editor
Trainers: Stephanie Hofmann, Bobby Neuhold
See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions Date & Time Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf
Forum Chriesbach
Room FC-B15
Tue, 13.05.2025
9:00-12:30

Register

In the new module 4b, «Literature Management with Zotero», you get introduced to scientific literature management with Zotero.

Introduction to literature management
How to import and organise literature including fulltext PDFs
Citing references and creating bibliographies on the fly in your preferred text editor
Course slides (Autumn 2024 using Zotero 6)

Trainers: Janina Radny, Stephanie Hofmann

Note: Please bring your laptop with the latest Zotero version (7.0+) installed. Please contact us should you require assistance with your installation.

Eawag: Zotero 7 is available in Baramundi.
Empa: Download Zotero 7 and the Zotero Connector from Zotero.org. If you encounter problems or require an admin account to correctly install Zotero, get in touch with your IT department.
PSI: Download Zotero from the institutional software list (Zotero 7 is available from late February on). Make sure the plug-in for your text processor is working correctly. Go to Zotero.org to install the browser connector if this is not automatically included in your download.

Screenshot of Zotero in MS Word — If you see this tab, Zotero is working in your text editor.

System requirements for Zotero 7 can be found here.

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Tue, 29.04.2025 9:00-12:00	Register
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/EG6A	Wed, 23.04.2025 9:00-12:00	Cancelled

In module 5, «Getting Started with LaTeX», you are guided in creating your first LaTeX document, with special attention to scientific writing oriented features. The course is for LaTeX beginners.
A not so short summary of LaTeX basics
Tables, figures and formulae
The LaTeX error log and common errors to avoid
BibTeX and citation styles
Material:
Welcome
What is LaTeX?
LaTeX Basics
Figures, Tables, Formulae
Dealing with Errors
Citing with BibTeX
LaTeX installation guide and useful resources
Cheat sheets
Exercises & Examples
Trainers: Federico Cantini, Frank Hösli
Note: Please bring your laptop with a working LaTeX installation. Brief instructions for example installations are given above ca. 1 week prior to the sessions. Please contact us should you require assistance with your installation.
See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions Date & Time Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf
Forum Chriesbach
Room FC-D24
Thu, 10.04.2025
9:00-16:00

PSI Villigen
PSI Education Center
Room OSGA/EG6A
Wed, 02.04.2025
9:00-16:00

In module 6, «Work on Your Own Project», you work on your own literature project receiving individual assistance.

Develop your search strategy and set up your systematic topic search with bibliographic databases such as Scopus & Web of Science
Critically evaluate your search results
Tweak your reference management & citation tools (particularly EndNote)

Trainers: Stephanie Hofmann, Bobby Neuhold

Note: Please read our info sheet Topic Search prior to the session, particularly if you have not previously attended Lib4RI's module 1 «Searching Scientific Information».

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Thu, 19.06.2025 9:00-12:00	Register
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/EG6A	Fri, 06.06.2025 9:00-12:00	Register

In module 7a, «Research Data Management - The Basics», you learn essential strategies for managing research data and code.

Apply the Research Data Management Life Cycle and FAIR principles
Document and publish data using metadata, READMEs, and repositories
Develop Data Management Plans and use institutional data infrastructures
Material:
RDM course slides (Eawag-Empa )

Trainers: Moushumi Ulrich-Nath, Fabian Felder (Lib4RI). Depending on the venue an expert from Eawag, Empa, PSI or WSL will be joining.

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Mon, 07.04.2025 9:00-12:00
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/OG09	Tue, 25.03.2025 9:00-12:00
WSL Birmensdorf Flurysaal	Tue, 01.04.2025 9:00-12:00

In module 7b, «Make Your Life Easier with Git», you will be introduced to the concept of version control and learn how to implement it using Git, the de facto standard software for version control.

Version control: what it is and why it will make your life easier
Git, the most widely used version control software
Tracking changes
Pulling and pushing changes to a remote repository
Concurrent changes with branches
Merging branches
Material:
- Presentation
- Example repository

Trainers: Federico Cantini, Frank Hösli

Note:
Remember to bring your laptop with a working Git installation and have an account created for the Git service Codeberg. Please send us your user name to @email. This is needed for the exercises.

Contact us prior to the course should you require assistance with your installation. Course slides will be available on our training website a couple of days prior to the course.

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Fri, 09.05.2025 9:00-12:00	Register
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/EG6A	Tue, 15.04.2025 9:00-12:00

In module 8a, «AI Made Easy: A Beginner‘s Toolkit for Streamlining Your Projects», you get an understanding of AI, how AI models work and what the most important AI tools are. Image/video generation will not be covered in this lecture. This lecture is for beginners. Please create a (free) ChatGPT account before the lecture.

Introduction to AI
Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Large language models (LLMs)
Applications with (mainly) publicly available AI tools
Course slides

Trainer: Corin Otesteanu (external speaker)

Please create a (free) ChatGPT account before the lecture.

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-D24	Wed, 26.03.2025 9:00-12:00
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/OG10	Wed, 19.03.2025 9:00-12:00
WSL Birmensdorf EP D1	Fri, 21.03.2025 9:00-12:00

In module 8b, «AI in Research & Scientific Writing», you get an overview of the opportunities, downsides, and ethical concerns when using AI tools (text and image generation) in research and scientific writing, as well as current guidelines. Locally deployed AI tools and image generation will be covered in this lecture. This lecture is for beginners. Please create a (free) ChatGPT account before the lecture.

Current guidelines from most common publishers
How generative tools work (focussed on image generation)
Literature search tools
Applications with publicly available AI tools
Introduction to locally deployed AI tools for privacy

Trainer: Corin Otesteanu (external speaker)

Please create a (free) ChatGPT account before the lecture.

See Organisation & Requirements for additional information!

Optional Locations & Sessions	Date & Time	Registration
Eawag-Empa Dübendorf Forum Chriesbach Room FC-C24	Wed, 04.06.2025 9:00-12:00	Register
PSI Villigen PSI Education Center Room OSGA/EG6A	Wed, 21.05.2025 9:00-12:00	Register
WSL Birmensdorf Flurysaal	Wed, 28.05.2025 9:00-12:00	Register

Searching & Managing Scientific Information

Spring 2025 training series «Searching & Managing Scientific Information»

Useful information

Course description

Course description

Organisation & Requirements

Module 1: Searching Scientific Information

Module 2: Scientific Publishing - From Writing to Sharing

Module 3: Open Access & Copyright

Module 4a: Literature Management with EndNote

Module 4b: Literature Management with Zotero

Module 5: Getting Started with LaTeX

Module 6: Work on Your Own Project

Module 7a: Research Data Management - The Basics

Module 7b: Make Your Life Easier with Git

Module 8a: AI Made Easy: A Beginner‘s Toolkit for Streamlining Your Projects

Module 8b: AI in Research & Scientific Writing