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Document types in Infoscience

This page lists the types of documents accepted on the Infoscience platform, along with their definitions (primarily derived from the COAR "Resource types" vocabulary). They are grouped into categories: Publication, Dataset and other product, Patent.

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Publication

Books and Book part

Type Definition
Book / Monograph A non-serial publication that is complete in one volume or a designated finite number of volumes.
— Book part or chapter A defined chapter or section of a book, usually with a separate title or number.

Conferences, Workshops, Lecture Series, and Symposiums

Type Definition
Conference proceedings Conference proceedings is the official record of a conference meeting. It is a collection of documents which corresponds to the presentations given at the conference. It may include additional content.
— Conference paper A paper, published within a conference proceeding, typically the realization of a research paper reporting original research findings.
— Conference poster A display poster, published within a conference proceeding, typically containing text with illustrative figures and/or tables, usually reporting research results or proposing hypotheses, submitted for acceptance to and/or presented at a conference, seminar, symposium, workshop or similar event.
Conference output
— Conference paper not in proceedings A paper, typically the realization of a research paper reporting original research findings. Use this label when the paper is not published in a proceeding.
— Conference poster not in proceedings A display poster, typically containing text with illustrative figures and/or tables, usually reporting research results or proposing hypotheses, submitted for acceptance to and/or presented at a conference, seminar, symposium, workshop or similar event. Use this label when the poster is not published in a proceeding.
— Conference presentation A set of slides containing text, tables or figures, designed to communicate ideas or research results, for projection and viewing by an audience at a conference, symposium, seminar, lecture, workshop or other gatherings.
Lecture / Talk Transcription of an oral presentation/talk intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher.

EPFL Thesis

Type Definition
Doctoral thesis A thesis reporting the research undertaken during a period of graduate study leading to a doctoral degree.

Journal Articles

Type Definition
Journal article An article, typically the realization of a research paper reporting original research findings, published in a journal issue.
— Research article A research article is a primary source, that is, it reports the methods and results of an original study performed by the authors.
— Review article A review article is a secondary source, that is, it is written about other articles, and does not report original research of its own.
— Data paper A data paper is a scholarly publication describing a particular dataset or group of dataset, published in the form of a peer-reviewed article in a scholarly journal. The main purpose of a data paper is to describe data, the circumstances of their collection, and information related to data features, access and potential reuse.
— Software paper A software paper should include the rationale for the development of the tool and details of the code used for its construction.
Editorial A brief essay expressing the opinion or position of the chief editor(s) of a (academic) journal with respect to a current political, social, cultural, or professional issue.

Newspaper, Magazine, or Blog post

Type Definition
Blog post A piece of writing or other item of content published on a blog.
Magazine A popular interest periodical usually containing articles on a variety of topics, written by various authors in a nonscholarly style or a trade publication, unlike a consumer publication, covers a specific topic for people who work in that particular field or industry.
Newspaper article A non-peer reviewed periodical, usually published daily or weekly, consisting primarily of editorials and news items concerning current or recent events and matters of public interest.

Preprints and Working papers

Type Definition
Preprint A preprint is a scientific manuscript without peer-review and has not yet been accepted by a journal, typically submitted to a public server/repository by the author.
Working paper A working or discussion paper circulated publicly or among a group of peers. Certain disciplines, for example economics, issue working papers in series.

Reports, Documentation and Standards

Type Definition
Report A report is a separately published record of research findings, research still in progress, policy developments and events, or other technical findings, usually bearing a report number and sometimes a grant number assigned by the funding agency. Also, an official record of the activities of a committee or corporate entity, the proceedings of a government body, or an investigation by an agency, whether published or private, usually archived or submitted to a higher authority, voluntarily or under mandate. In a more general sense, any formal account of facts or information related to a specific event or phenomenon, sometimes given at regular intervals.
— Clinical study A work that reports on the results of a research study to evaluate interventions or exposures on biomedical or health-related outcomes. The two main types of clinical studies are interventional studies (clinical trials) and observational studies. While most clinical studies concern humans, this publication type may be used for clinical veterinary articles meeting the requisites for humans.
— Data management plan A formal statement describing how research data will be managed and documented throughout a research project and the terms regarding the subsequent deposit of the data with a data repository for long-term management and preservation.
— Policy report A policy report presents what is known about a particular issue or problem. It assembles facts and evidence to help readers understand complex issues and form a response. It might aim to be neutral, or it might aim to persuade readers in a particular direction.
— Research protocol The protocol is a detailed plan of the research study including a project summary, project description covering the rationale, objectives, methodology, data management and analysis, ethical considerations, gender issues and references.
— Research report It is a publication that reports on the findings of a research project or alternatively scientific observations on or about a subject.
— Technical report A document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research.
Technical documentation or standard Technical documentation refers to any type of documentation that describes handling, functionality and architecture of a technical product or a product under development or use.

Student works

Type Definition
Student work A book authored by a student containing a formal presentation or research output submitted for examination in completion of a course of study at an institution of higher education, to fulfil the requirements for an academic degree. Also known as a dissertation.
— Bachelor thesis A thesis reporting a research project undertaken as part of an undergraduate course of education leading to a bachelor's degree.
— Master thesis A thesis reporting a research project undertaken as part of a graduate course of education leading to a master's degree.
— Semester or other student projects A document containing a project report, intended to be delivered to a customer or funding agency describing the results achieved within a specific project.

Dataset and other product

Datasets and Code

Type Definition
Dataset A collection of related facts and data encoded in a defined structure.
— Aggregated data Statistics that relate to broad classes, groups, or categories. The data are averaged, totaled, or otherwise derived from individual-level data, and it is no longer possible to distinguish the characteristics of individuals within those classes, groups, or categories.
— Clinical trial data Data resulting from a research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes.
— Compiled data Data collected or assembled from multiple, often heterogeneous sources that have one or more reference points in common, and at least one of the sources was originally produced for other purposes. The data are incorporated in a new entity.
— Encoded data Qualitative data (textual, video, audio or still-image) originally produced for other purposes into quantitative data (expressed in unit-by-variable matrices) by using coding techniques in accordance with pre-defined categorization schemes.
— Experimental data Data resulting from the experimental research method involving the manipulation of some or all of the independent variables included in the hypotheses.
— Genomic data Genomic data refers to the genome and DNA data of an organism. They are used in bioinformatics for collecting, storing and processing the genomes of living things. Genomic data is a more extensive term than sequencing data. However genomic data mostly come from sequencing techniques. It may include non-sequencing data such as data from microarrays, data from real-time PCR panels and data from pharmacogenomics studies.
— Geospatial data Geospatial data are any type of data with spatial coordinates that allow them to be mapped to the Earth's surface. They can represent physical objects, discrete areas or continuous surfaces. Discrete geospatial data are usually represented using vector data consisting of points, lines and polygons, while continuous geospatial data are usually represented by raster data, consisting of a grid of cells that each has its own value.
— Laboratory notebook A laboratory notebook (colloq. lab notebook or lab book) is a primary record of research. Researchers use a lab notebook to document their hypotheses, experiments and initial analysis or interpretation of these experiments. This label is used both for traditional and electronic laboratory notebook.
— Measurement and test data Data resulting from assessing specific properties (or characteristics) of beings, things, phenomena, (and/or processes) by applying pre-established standards and/or specialized instruments or techniques.
— Observational data Data resulting from observational research, which involves collecting observations as they occur (for example, observing behaviors, events, development of condition or disease, etc.), without attempting to manipulate any of the independent variables.
— Recorded data Data registered by mechanical or electronic means, in a form that allows the information to be retrieved and/or reproduced. For example, images or sounds on disc or magnetic tape.
— Simulation data Data resulting from modeling or imitative representation of real-world processes, events, or systems, often using computer programs.
— Survey data Data resulting from a survey, defined as an investigation about the characteristics of a given population by means of collecting data from a sample of that population and estimating their characteristics through the systematic use of statistical methodology. Included are censuses, sample surveys, the collection of data from administrative records and derived statistical activities as well as questionnaires.
Software A computer program in source code (text) or compiled form.
— Research software Software that is used to generate, process or analyse results that you intend to appear in a publication (either in a journal, conference paper, monograph, book or thesis). Research software can be anything from a few lines of code written by yourself, to a professionally developed software package.
— Source code Source code is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text.

Images, Videos, Interactive resources, and Design

Type Definition
Design Plans, drawing or set of drawings showing how something e.g. building, product is to be made and how it will work and look.
— Industrial design Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of industrial products and handicrafts. They refer to the ornamental or aesthetic aspects of a useful article, including compositions of lines or colors or any three-dimensional forms that give a special appearance to a product or handicraft.
— Layout design Layout-design (topography) means the three-dimensional disposition, however expressed, of the elements of an integrated circuit (at least one of which is an active element) and of some or all of the interconnections of an integrated circuit, or such a three-dimensional disposition prepared for an integrated circuit intended for manufacture.
— Sound document A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Image
— Moving image A moving display, either generated dynamically by a computer program or formed from a series of pre-recorded still images imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession.
— — Video A recording of visual images, usually in motion and with sound accompaniment.
— Still image A single static visual representation, either generated dynamically by a computer program or stored as a fixed image.
Interactive resource A resource requiring interaction from the user to be understood, executed, or experienced. Examples include forms on Web pages, applets, multimedia learning objects, chat services, or virtual reality environments.
— Website A collection of related web pages containing text, images, videos and/or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network.

Teaching materials

Type Definition
Teaching material A digital resource that can be reused to enhance teaching and learning.

Patent

Type Definition
Patent
— PCT application A patent or patent application.
— Design patent A patent granted to any person who has invented any new and non-obvious ornamental design for an article of manufacture. The design patent protects only the appearance of an article, but not its structural or functional features.
— Plant patent A patent granted to anyone who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced any distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber-propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state.
— Plant variety protection Plant variety protection, also called a "plant breeder's right" (PBR), is a form of intellectual property right granted to the breeder of a new plant variety. According to this right, certain acts concerning the exploitation of the protected variety require the prior authorization of the breeder. Plant variety protection is an independent sui generis form of protection, tailored to protect new plant varieties and has certain features in common with other intellectual property rights.
— Software patent In order to obtain a patent, a software invention must not fall under other non-patentable subject matter (for example, abstract ideas or mathematical theories) and has to fulfill the other substantive patentability criteria (for example, novelty, inventive step [non-obviousness] and industrial applicability [usefulness]).
— Utility model A special form of patent right granted by a state or jurisdiction to an inventor or the inventor's assignee for a fixed period of time. The terms and conditions for granting a utility model are slightly different from those for normal patents (including a shorter term of protection and less stringent patentability requirements). The term can also describe what are known in certain countries as "petty patents," "short-term patents" or "innovation patents."

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