ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The Programa de Pós-Graduação stricto sensu em Ciência da Informação [Post Graduate Program in Information Science] at Universidade Federal Fluminense – PPGCI / UFF aims to train researchers committed to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Information Science. The Program is composed by Academic Master (MSc) and Doctorate (PhD), in addition to offering post-doctoral research facilities.

Grade of Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Capes (https://www.capes.gov.br/): 4

THE PROGRAM

Goals

The Program’s objectives are organized into four main components:

a) Undertake teaching and research actions in Information Science aiming to establish conditions of generation, processing and access to information, favorable to the social, economic, educational and cultural development and equilibrium of Brazilian society;

b) Contribute to the consolidation of the scientific field of Information Science in its cognitive, communicational, economic, social, political, aesthetic, ethical and legal dimensions, encouraging Brazilian research in the area, its themes, methodologies and approaches;

c) Train researchers and high level professionals, capable of contributing to the directions, potentialities and informational choices of Brazilian society, particularly in their field, and of applying and evaluating cutting-edge information technologies;

d) Promote reflection and debate on the relationships between information, science, technology, culture and society to broaden the multidisciplinary spectrum of Information Science.

The Program is developed in a continuous process of creation and implementation of several lines of action, such as:

• National and international cooperation agreements, with frequent exchange of professors and students of engaged institutions to share experiences and promote mutual collaboration;

• Encouraging academic teaching and student production in print and virtual publications of recognized quality, aiming at both the qualification of the faculty, and the visibility of the area and the Program;

• Continuous organization of scientific meetings that promote dialogues of internal and external nature in Information Science, enhancing the multidisciplinary aspect of the field;

• Editing printed and digital sources with student participation as a learning and qualification process;

• Constant support to the permanent professors of the Program for post-doctoral fellowships in national and international institutions, increasing the quality of the faculty;

• Qualified expansion of the staff from the entrance of PhD professors in the framework of the Departamento de Ciência da Informação [Departament of Information Science];

• Strong links with extension, supporting actions that promote social insertion resulting from research and teaching projects planned and carried out by the faculty and students;

• Administrative management organized around a collegiate system and commissions for organization, dissemination, systematization and evaluation of the Program actions and its faculty. This aims at strengthening Information Science as a scientific field, and effectively links the Program to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal do Nível Superior(CAPES) of the Ministério da Educação(MEC) and the area of ​​Applied Social Sciences.

History

The Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) is one of the largest Brazilian universities, with excellence in research in several areas. It has more than 80 postgraduate degrees, including degrees in Library Science (since 1963) and Archival Science (since 1979). These two degrees gave rise to the current Departamento de Ciência da Informação (GCI), core of the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação [Post-Graduate Program in Information Science] (PPGCI / UFF).

The Program originates from the lato sensu postgraduate courses promoted by CGI since 1984. In 2003, the PPGCI stricto sensu was created, by virtue of the UFF’s agreement with the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia [Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology] (IBICT),
enabling the Master’s and Doctorate degrees. The agreement, which ended in 2008, led to the training of several master’s and PhDs, and encouraged GCI professors, with large experience and number of titles and honors, to develop their own postgraduate degree.

PPGCI / UFF was created in 2008, with a Master’s degree whose first class began in March 2009. In 2013 CAPES authorized the implementation of the Doctorate degree, whose first class began in March 2015. Having already completed a decade, the Program has as its main objective the “high level training and
strengthening of professionals committed to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Information Science” and the social, economic, educational and cultural development and equilibrium of the Brazilian society.

Concentration Area and Research Lines

The PPGCI is structured as follows: a ​​concentration area named CONTEMPORARY DIMENSIONS OF INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE, which is described as: Diversity in the modes of production, processing and access to information and knowledge is one of the characteristic features of the contemporary era.
Various informational structures, services, processes and products, involving diverse subjects in State and society, mobilize a wide range of scientific, technological, economic, political and cultural demands and resources. In this historical framework, new contours, objects, agendas, dialogues and themes tend to emerge in the Information Science panorama. Identifying and analyzing, from the perspective of Information Science, the multiple contemporary dimensions of information and knowledge implies recognizing them historically and invites the construction of scenarios.

There are two lines of research under this concentration area:

RESEARCH LINE 1 – INFORMATION, CULTURE AND SOCIETY

It researches information as a socio-historical process and product, analyzing its constitution as a disciplinary and policy object, both at the micro-institutional and macro-social dimensions at national and global levels. Relational aspects of information are addressed in their socio-cultural developments – interpretative, memorial and pedagogical processes; socio-political – agencies, agents, policies and right to information; and historical-epistemological – socio-historical constitution of the informational field and its transformations.

 

RESEARCH LINE 2 – SOCIO-TECHNICAL INFORMATION FLOWS AND MEDIATIONS

It investigates informational and communicational processes, considering the relationships between information and communication technologies and the different fields of scientific and technical knowledge, their standards, demands and use of information. The generation, organization, representation and
management of information are researched, with focus on the socio-technical mediations of information and communication in these processes. This includes studies of Informetry. 

In both lines of research, information and communication products and processes are present, with distinct but articulated approaches. While Line 1 focuses on epistemological aspects as well as the social functions of information and Information Science, Line 2 emphasizes the design and implementation of information
services, systems and networks.

The course curriculum consists of two required classes: Ciência da Informação: trajetos e horizontes epistemológicos [Information Science: Epistemological Paths and Horizons], and Metodologia da Pesquisa em Ciência da Informação [Information Science Research Methodology]; ten optional classes in Line 1 and eleven optional classes in Line 2.

Both lines of research also integrate two classes entitled Special Topics, offered to address themes and the interfaces between information, culture and society in the case of Line 1, and themes and interfaces between communication, management, technology and information usein the case of Line 2.

The curricula of the two courses include also Programmed Activities, offered within the research line chosen by the student and under the supervision of their advisor, including preparation and participation in publications or research seminars conducted under the PPGCI, supervised studies and Seminars for
Dissertation/Thesis Production, defined with the advisor, centered on the specific object of the study and within the research line chosen by the student.

ALUMNI PROFILE

The Program aims at the high level training and strengthening of researchers and professionals able to contribute to the management, potentialities and informational choices of Brazilian society, particularly in their field of activity, and to apply and evaluate cutting-edge information technologies; promote reflection
and debate on the relationships between information, science, technology, culture and society to broaden the multidisciplinary spectrum of Information Science; provide the Master’s and PhD student a training linked with the knowledge produced by the research lines projects, encouraging him to reflect and have a
purposeful attitude about the field of knowledge to which he belongs; promote theoretical and methodological exchanges through disciplines and activities with shared content in the research lines.

 

INTEGRATION WITH THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

Integration with undergraduate studies is supported by the existence of two undergraduate courses (Library Science and Archival Science). The courses have classes taught by program professors. Students benefit from the orientation of professors in scientific initiation. Events such as lectures and seminars are
widely attended by undergraduate students.

PPGCI-UFF RULES

The Rules of the PPGCI/UFF are available here to all professors, students and visitors.

 

INTERNATIONALIZATION

The PPGCI/UFF currently has agreements with relevant academic and scientific institutions in Brazil and elsewhere in the world. These agreements allow the cooperation, mobility and exchange of professors and students, aiming at improving research, making classes available, carrying out events and other types
collaboration. PPGCI/UFF currently has agreements with the following institutions:

• Carlos III University of Madrid
• University Complutense of Madrid
• University of Valencia
• University of Salamanca
• University of São Paulo