Duration
Support activities to bibliographic research : 6h Pr
Undergraduated final work :
Number of credits
| Bachelor in human and social sciences (New programme) | 5 crédits |
Lecturer
Support activities to bibliographic research : Collégialité, Adrien Mathy, Jérôme Nossent
Undergraduated final work : Collégialité, Julie Gérard
Coordinator
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
All year long
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
See the rules at the address: https://www.student.fass.uliege.be/cms/c_12915020/fr/reglement-tfb-2026-2027?details=true
Support activities to bibliographic research
The primary purpose of the course is the student's know-how and autonomy in the research, the evaluation and the use of scientific resources.
The skills acquired during this course (knowledge and know-how) will be useful all along university cursus as well as during the professional career.
Throughout the course, the student will learn to seek out and to select relevant scientific information. With a critical eye, the student will make the best use of available library and internet resources.
Different topics will be discussed during the course:Sources of scientific information;
- Specialized research tools in social and political sciences;
- Information research methods;
- Plagiarism;
- The open access;
- AI and document research issues;
- References management (ZOTERO).
Undergraduated final work
See the rules at the address: https://www.student.fass.uliege.be/cms/c_12728075/fr/reglement-tfb-25-26?preview=true&details=true
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
The TFB is a personal written composition on an object of your choice, which exercises in reading, writing, and analyzing empirical data in the context of social science research.
The objectives to be fulfilled are:
- show autonomy and initiative, in particular for the choice of a research object, making contact with a promoter, bibliographic research; empirical analysis;
- analyze the information from the chosen scientific references to formulate a research question on the chosen subject, which is stripped of any ideological or normative scope;
- develop a theoretical framework and define related concepts;
- present the chosen method and the type of materials used in relation to the hypotheses posed in the chosen research question;
- collect, produce, and process original qualitative or quantitative empirical materials or possibly already obtained and partially exploited in one of the Methods (Block2), Advanced Methods (Block3) courses or in a thematic course;
- present the results critically by confronting them with the selected literature;
- restore all of these elements in a structured document respecting precise formal instructions.
Support activities to bibliographic research
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Identify the main sources of information (database, catalog, etc.) and the essential documentary tools in the fields of political and social sciences.
- Elaborate research queries and to use a thesaurus in order to increase the efficiency of their documentary research.
- Research and to select appropriate and relevant resources
- Critically analyse their documentary research and its outcomes (ex: does this source meet my expectations? Is it relevant to the research question?)
Furthermore, students will be sensitized to issues about plagiarism, scientific edition and open access movement. Finally, student will receive training on bibliographic management software - ZOTERO.
Undergraduated final work
The TFB is a personal written composition on an object of your choice, which exercises in reading, writing, and analyzing empirical data in the context of social science research.
The objectives to be fulfilled are:
- show autonomy and initiative, in particular for the choice of a research object, making contact with a promoter, bibliographic research; empirical analysis;
- analyze the information from the chosen scientific references to formulate a research question on the chosen subject, which is stripped of any ideological or normative scope;
- develop a theoretical framework and define related concepts;
- present the chosen method and the type of materials used in relation to the hypotheses posed in the chosen research question;
- collect, produce, and process original qualitative or quantitative empirical materials or possibly already obtained and partially exploited in one of the Methods (Block2), Advanced Methods (Block3) courses or in a thematic course;
- present the results critically by confronting them with the selected literature;
- restore all of these elements in a structured document respecting precise formal instructions.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Support activities to bibliographic research
Basic computing skills
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Activities to accompany bibliographic research (BIBL0001-A) are organized in the form of work sessions (see CELCAT) and integrated into the module HTRA0020-1 "Bachelor's thesis". The evaluation of the effective participation in these activities will be taken into account in the final grade of the TFB (15%).
In addition to these three bibliographic research support sessions, follow-up and question-answer sessions will be given by the coordinator of the Bachelor's thesis and made available to the students (see CELCAT).
Support activities to bibliographic research
Course organization :
2 hours of introduction: on scientific information sources, obstacles and strategies to develop in the context of documentary research, internal and external evaluation of a scientific document, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the functioning of the editorial system, the issue of predatory journals, and the challenge of open science.
2 hours of in-depth and practical training: presentation of databases (with a specific focus on databases in the humanities and social sciences), formulation of a search equation, use of controlled language and a thesaurus; ars citandi, awareness of plagiarism, and use of bibliographic reference management software (with Zotero).
2 hours of practical work in groups (max. 10 students per group): 2 hours of supervised work, the objective of which is to identify ten relevant scientific resources on a given subject (their TFE subject), accessible (paper or digital) at the University of Liège, accompanied by an internal/external critique justifying the selection.
Undergraduated final work
Activities to accompany bibliographic research (BIBL0001-A) are organized in the form of work sessions (see CELCAT) and integrated into the module HTRA0020-1 "Bachelor's thesis". The evaluation of the effective participation in these activities will be taken into account in the final grade of the TFB (15%).
In addition to these bibliographic research support sessions, follow-up and question-answer sessions will be given by the coordinator of the Bachelor's thesis and made available to the students (see CELCAT).
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Further information:
Both the literature search activities and the follow-up and Q&A sessions are held face-to-face (unless restricted by the health crisis).
Support activities to bibliographic research
Face-to-face.
Undergraduated final work
Face-to-face course
Further information:
Both the literature search activities and the optional follow-up and Q&A sessions are held face-to-face.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Support activities to bibliographic research
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- MyULiège
Further information:
The slides will be provided after closing of the relevant session.
Assessment methods and criteria
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- Remote
written exam
Written work / report
Further information:
The work is evaluated by the advisor based on the achievement of the objectives defined above and compliance with the formal guidelines.
The work will be assessed based on the following criteria (for informational purposes only):
- the relevance of the sources used;
- mastery of the theoretical content addressed;
- the originality of the material analyzed;
- methodological rigor;
- the consistency of the proposed analyses and results in relation to the literature;
- the ability to provide a critical reflection on the work completed;
- the quality and care taken in writing the text (proper spelling, syntax, style, and structure);
- the evaluation of participation in the "Bibliographic Research Support Activities" (BIBL0001-A).
- BIBL0001-A-a: Bibliographic Research Support Activities (15%)
- HTRA0017-A-a: Bachelor's Thesis (85%)
However, any grade earned and passed in a learning activity is carried over to the second session.
Any instance of plagiarism will result in the work being deemed invalid and will prevent the student from earning the credits associated with the TFB (see the rules regarding plagiarism, available on the following webpage: https://my.student.uliege.be/cms/c_11161787/fr/mystudent-prevenir-le-plagiat ). We also refer students to the ULiège Charter on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Academic Work (see https://www.student.uliege.be/cms/c_19230399/fr/ faq-student-charte-uliege-d-utilisation-des-intelligences-artificielles-generatives-dans-les-travaux-universitaires). This charter outlines the distinction between what is permitted or desirable and what is not in the use of generative AI in an academic context (courses, assignments, exams, reports, and other learning activities). Students are therefore required to complete the declaration form regarding the use of generative AI in their work, available on the "Regulations" page of the Faculty's website: https://www.student.fass.uliege.be/cms/c_7151929/fr/reglements-et-formulaires.
The TFB must be uploaded to Ultra and submitted electronically via email or in hard copy to the advisor (as agreed upon with the advisor) no later than the date specified in the official schedule for the current academic year. The name of the PDF file uploaded and/or sent must include the student's first and last name, student ID number, and the designation "TFB." This information must also appear in the email subject line. Please note: only the version uploaded to Ultra is considered valid. To be considered eligible for submission, the TFB must include the declaration form regarding the use of generative AI in the work, duly completed (see Ultra).
The assessment and submission procedures are identical for both the first and second sessions. In the event of a failing grade in the first session, the TFB must be completed, amended, and corrected in accordance with the comments provided by the advisor. In other words, for the second session, the assessment (and submission) procedures will remain the same.
Support activities to bibliographic research
Written work / report
Further information:
Students will be evaluated on the basis of the participation in class, along with of a documentary report on the subject of their choice at the end of the practical course.
If the student uses artificial intelligence, they must declare their use in
the introduction to their work, stating the type of assistance requested (rewording,
synthesis, analysis, brainstorming, linguistic correction, documentary research,
etc.).
The assessment of actual participation in these activities is taken into account in the final score (15 %). The TFB score itself equals 85 % of the final score.
Undergraduated final work
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- Remote
written exam
Written work / report
Further information:
The work is evaluated by the advisor based on the achievement of the objectives defined above and compliance with the formal guidelines.
The work will be assessed based on the following criteria (for informational purposes only):
- the relevance of the sources used;
- mastery of the theoretical content addressed;
- the originality of the material analyzed;
- methodological rigor;
- the consistency of the proposed analyses and results in relation to the literature;
- the ability to provide a critical reflection on the work completed;
- the quality and care taken in writing the text (proper spelling, syntax, style, and structure);
- the evaluation of participation in the "Bibliographic Research Support Activities" (BIBL0001-A).
- BIBL0001-A-a: Bibliographic Research Support Activities (15%)
- HTRA0017-A-a: Bachelor's Thesis (85%)
However, any grade earned and passed in a learning activity is carried over to the second session.
Any instance of plagiarism will result in the work being deemed invalid and will prevent the student from earning the credits associated with the TFB (see the rules regarding plagiarism, available on the following webpage: https://my.student.uliege.be/cms/c_11161787/fr/mystudent-prevenir-le-plagiat ). We also refer students to the ULiège Charter on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Academic Work (see https://www.student.uliege.be/cms/c_19230399/fr/ faq-student-charte-uliege-d-utilisation-des-intelligences-artificielles-generatives-dans-les-travaux-universitaires). This charter outlines the distinction between what is permitted or desirable and what is not in the use of generative AI in an academic context (courses, assignments, exams, reports, and other learning activities). Students are therefore required to complete the declaration form regarding the use of generative AI in their work, available on the "Regulations" page of the Faculty's website: https://www.student.fass.uliege.be/cms/c_7151929/fr/reglements-et-formulaires.
The TFB must be uploaded to Ultra and submitted electronically via email or in hard copy to the advisor (as agreed upon with the advisor) no later than the date specified in the official schedule for the current academic year. The name of the PDF file uploaded and/or sent must include the student's first and last name, student ID number, and the designation "TFB." This information must also appear in the email subject line. Please note: only the version uploaded to Ultra is considered valid. To be considered eligible for submission, the TFB must include the declaration form regarding the use of generative AI in the work, duly completed (see Ultra).
The assessment and submission procedures are identical for both the first and second sessions. In the event of a failing grade in the first session, the TFB must be completed, amended, and corrected in accordance with the comments provided by the advisor. In other words, for the second session, the assessment (and submission) procedures will remain the same.
Work placement(s)
Support activities to bibliographic research
None
Organizational remarks
Once the topic and the advisor have been selected, a TFB information form, signed by the advisor to indicate agreement, must be submitted via Ultra no later than the dates specified in the FaSS's official timeline for the current academic year.
Both of these documents (the form and the schedule) can be downloaded from the "Regulations" page on the Faculty's website: https://www.student.fass.uliege.be/cms/c_7151929/fr/reglements-et-formulaires.
The TFB will not be accepted during the current academic year if the TFB information form has not been submitted to Ultra by the specified deadline. The TFB form must be submitted on Ultra at the start of each new academic year, even if the student presenting the TFB wishes to retain the same topic and advisor in the event of failure or non-submission the previous year.
Support activities to bibliographic research
Online registration to the practical courses via a Doodle link provided during the introductory session.
Undergraduated final work
Once the topic and the advisor have been selected, a TFB information form, signed by the advisor to indicate agreement, must be submitted via Ultra no later than the dates specified in the FaSS's official timeline for the current academic year.
Both of these documents (the form and the schedule) can be downloaded from the "Regulations" page on the Faculty's website: https://www.student.fass.uliege.be/cms/c_7151929/fr/reglements-et-formulaires.
The TFB will not be accepted during the current academic year if the TFB information form has not been submitted to Ultra by the specified deadline. The TFB form must be submitted on Ultra at the start of each new academic year, even if the student presenting the TFB wishes to retain the same topic and advisor in the event of failure or non-submission the previous year.
Contacts
Coordinator of the Final Year Work:
Julie GERARD: julie.gerard@uliege.be
Support activities to bibliographic research
Jérôme Nossent (pratictal course)
Responsable scientifique - Bibliothèque L. Graulich
Tél: 04 366 32 71
Jerome.Nossent@uliege.be
Adrien Mathy
Responsable scientifique - Bibliothèque 20-Août
Tél: +32 4 3665393
amathy@uliege.be
Undergraduated final work
Coordinator of the Final Year Work:
Julie GERARD: julie.gerard@uliege.be
First session: September 28, 2026 from 10am to 12pm.