Religion and Theology - Information Competency: Introduction

Welcome to this online course on Academic Skills for (Research) Master’s and PhD’s at Faculty of religion and Theology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Through a series of steps it will help you to find and evaluate scientific sources and data critically. The text blocks will guide your through the theory; exercises are inserted in order to check if you achieved proper understanding. Short clips put the theory in the broader context of today’s information society.

This course teaches you how to find and organize your literature. After finishing it you are able to:

• compose a reasoned bibliography;
• discover sources that are both relevant and reliable;
• assess their quality;
• orient yourself within the scientific debate in your field of research and articulate the most prominent perspectives;
• recognize the formal structure of academic literature and apply these standards in your paper.

This course, developed by information specialists at the VU University Library, is primarily meant for PhD’s of the Faculty of Religion and Theology. It is a direct follow-up to the module Research Design, designed by the Graduate School. Nevertheless, other PhD’s will also benefit from the tips and guidelines in the course.