Understanding Science
Science is a collaborative quest. Even though research, reading, and critical reflection are lonesome tasks, several authors’ ideas are flowing, competing, auxilia ting each other, strengthening arguments, or disproving other ideas. Ideas move actions, thus every transformation requires first and foremost a change in ideas and how knowledge is produced. Science enables sustainability, community-building, effective governing, and critical thinking. It provides understanding of hidden sociopolitical processes, comprehending the wonders of organic biochemical processes, and the magical physical metamorphosis of Earth and Universe elements. From the atoms to outer space, Science is the way through which we understand our own Nature, our environment, and what lies beyond the seeming’s. More importantly, Science is one for everyone.
Philosophy from Greece and the Mathematical principles from the Middle East have served as global scientific parameters. Such as Darwin have served as a general life theory over which other types of knowledge are construed. Hence, communication is essential for Science to achieve its goals. Communicating science is enhancing public policies and social projects; it is enabling improvements in social, economical, and health-related dimensions of life. Science needs the dialectics, the argumentation, the debate, the refuting feedback with the corroborative research note. The first University in the world, Al Qarawiynn University, was founded in 859 in Fez, Morocco, by Fatima Al-Fahri (yes, she was an Arab woman). Science has come a long way since then to cross national boundaries, cross-cultural barriers, and linguistic hindrances. From Arabic, then to Latin, and finally to English, over a 1.000 years have passed. It is not much about the power of English-speaking nations, but about the ease in which English language provides room for mutual understanding.
As a sociologist and English language teacher, I wonder whether Chinese would come to replace English as a Scientific language in case world power shifted. The fact that postgraduates, researchers, and academic teachers are required to handle at least two different languages means that internationalization is not only based on English language, but also on regional languages which impact publications and the reachable audience. Publications in Portuguese, for example, are reachable as far as people understand the language. Publications in Spanish shall reach a bigger audience. Being one single Science throughout the Earth, the farthest-reaching language for describing and debating social, physical, chemical, and biological laws of Nature (and of Humans within it) is English.
And this is crucial for scientists and academicians worldwide, including our undergraduate students. For those students who wish to pursue a career in Science or in the Academy, they should learn how to write manuscripts, from the abstract to the acknowledgements, going through the introduction, then to the theoreticals, and then to the methodology, before proceeding to the findings, then the discussion, to finish by the conclusion. Students need to understand that literature reviews are fundamental for any research project, for any publication whichever the topic is. Great scientists, Nobel prize and Pulitzer winners, they all start any project from a literature review. What are people talking about? How is my object of research, or my methodology, being approached by other scientists? How have other scientists dealt with my theoretical framework or a particular database?
Students need to understand that you never start writing to get it right, but to organize systematically the confused chaotic ideas from your head into textual discourse. Disparate and illogical sentences are going to appear. Several lines and small paragraphs will arise from the ideas. Then you start to have a general picture of what is in your head. You can start projecting, considering a line of rational thought throughout your text, when you sketch, erase, edit, cut, add, split, change, copy and paste. However ideas need to be clear, and this is quite a difficult task, practice and reading. Great writers are amazing readers.
Any manuscript begins with the outlining of central and secondary arguments, the hypo- theses, which should be in accordance with the objectives, and capable to be reached by the proper methodological procedures. Then you start writing an article from the methodology. It is easier to tell the procedures, the amount of samples, the steps, and the repetitions. In the case of literature Review, the methods would revolve around the database from which you se- arched the articles, the terms used for research, the period of time researched, the amount of articles and books and other pieces of literature found, etc. Then you have the findings, which are separate from the discussion. The findings depict solely the data discovered, without much deepening in their relations. A literature review would have qualitative findings, in-which each paragraph would summarize each piece of literature reviewed. The discussion is the section where the scientist applies all s/he knows, identifying causality, comparability, relation between elements, drawing inferences, and indicating breaches and opportunities for research, strengthening the legitimacy of his own research. Then you have it easier to develop the introduction/theoretical framework and the conclusion. With all the sections put together, you can now move on to the abstract.
As future scientists and academicians, they need to understand the process of publishing, the different journal editing policies, as well as differing formats and guidelines. The types of scientific publication, such as book re- view, literature review, research reports, Comments on research, methodological notes, original article, book section, event transcriptions (such as lectures, presentations, etc.), databases, simplified language abstract, among others. In this regard, the Conhecendo a Ciência – 1st Special Edition: a PIBi and ASSAII/UENF partner- ship is the product of our effort to bring under- graduate students to scientific and academic reality. They are students awarded for their re- search at undergraduate level in the disciplines of Civil Engineering, Biology, Veterinary Medicine, and History. They were encouraged to publish in collaboration to exercise teamwork, although two pieces of communication have a single authorship. This edition contains 3 literature reviews, 1 book review, and 1 full article from original research.
The internationalization of Universities is fundamental to grant the transnational communicational character of Science. Other than Students, technicians, administrative staff, teachers, and researchers should engage in the Internationalization efforts. It is not only about going abroad for an exchange experience, but also to teach classes in English within our public universities, to promote virtual international collaboration between laboratories, programs, students, and others. It is about promoting knowledge exchange, informational network, and research international objectives. Not to forget inserting the Latin-American and Global identities within the minds and hearts of our scholars, students, professors, and administrative staff. Having brought global awareness to our University community, knowledge shall know no frontiers and disregard any linguistic barriers.
I congratulate the International and Institutional Affairs Advisory (ASSAII-UENF) as well as the Program of Scientific and Technologi- cal Initiation (PIBi) for this innovative project in Campos dos Goytacazes. The joint effort in promoting knowledge and learning regarding scientific publications in English assures me that these undergraduate students will excel in their careers, despite the current struggle and challenges faced by public universities. It is in- deed a milestone for Science in Campos.
Prof. Humberto Fernandes
