The Graduate Program in Information Science (PPGCI) renamed through the CAPES Ordinance Nº 171 from September 4th, 2023, previously named as Graduate Program in Information and Knowledge Management (PPGIC), was created in 2015. The name change was fundamental to reflect the program’s growth by encompassing various research themes and welcoming new researchers into the teaching staff. The program's modality remained the same, which is aimed to the professional context, developing strategies to deal with issues arisen from the workplace and training professionals to conduct academic research.

The teaching staff is qualified and diverse, with PhD in different fields of knowledge: Librarianship; Social Communication - Journalism; Food Engineering; Computer Engineering; Administration; Production Engineering; Information Science; History; and Archival Science. The constitution of the student body also reflects this interdisciplinarity by welcoming professionals/students from various fields for the development of their research within the graduate program.

The PPGCI stricto sensu is linked to the Concentration Area "Information in Contemporary Society" and there are two research lines (1. Use, Communication, and Information and Knowledge Management, and 2. Organization, Mediation, Technology, and Society). The Concentration Area "Information in Contemporary Society" aims to address trends in theories, methodologies, and practices in Information Science. In this sense, it considers the problems inherent to the post-industrial society related to the production, organization, dissemination, access, and use of information and knowledge.

The in-person course, with morning and afternoon classes, lasts 24 months (for the master's degree) and 48 months (for the doctorate degree) and must be completed with 360 hours/classes taken with approval (6 subjects) and 540 hours/classes taken with approval (9 subjects), respectively. For the master's degree, a foreign language proficiency exam is required (English, Spanish, French or German), and for the doctorate degree, two languages are required, English being one of them. In both cases, master's and doctorate degrees, the student goes through a qualifying committee and must submit an article for the master's degree and two articles for the doctorate degree, in addition to the technical product (derived from the research) that is deposited in the UFRN Institutional Repository.

The selection process is annual, according to a specific public notice, generally published in the second semester, and offers positions for Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte employees, general competition demand, positions for Black, Brown, Indigenous people, and people with disabilities (PwD). The program may also establish agreements with other institutions interested in forming partnerships for the qualified training of their professionals.

Graduate Profile

The PPGCI graduate must be capable of being a high-level professional who contributes to the development of the Information Science field through the study of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological frameworks, reflected in the management, organization, and evaluation of information and knowledge in various informational environments.

Mission

The mission of the Graduate Program in Information Science (PPGCI-UFRN) is to train and qualify professionals and researchers of high academic standards in the area of concentration "Information in Contemporary Society," so they can develop work that is more aware of the ethical, social, political, cultural, educational, and economic role of information and knowledge. The interdisciplinary nature of Information Science contributes to constructing multiple perspectives on increasingly complex problems involving various informational processes: production, organization, transmission, flow, management, use, appropriation, mediation, as well as the ramifications of information and its relations in social, institutional, and individual contexts.

Vision

To be recognized socially, particularly at the regional and national levels, as a Graduate Program in Information Science (PPGCI-UFRN) of excellence in the training of professionals from diverse fields who contribute to improving society through the informational and knowledge dimensions, generating and disseminating new knowledge (conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and procedural), as well as in the development of products with applicability in specific contexts.

Research Lines

1. Use, Communication, and Management of Information and Knowledge

Information and knowledge management; data management; document management; information preservation; editorial management of scientific journals, government competitive, and business intelligence; information and knowledge audit; information flows in organizations; interfaces between information management and business process management (BPM); assessment of information system acceptance and use; information systems and technology management; strategic alignment and IT governance; information security management; data security and privacy; cybersecurity; studies of sociotechnical networks, social networks, and knowledge networks; organizational culture and communication; content curation; information literacy, information behavior, and information practices; decision-making; innovation.

Professors associated with line 1:

Dr. Andréa Vasconcelos Carvalho (leader)
Dr. André Luiz Dias de França
Dr. Daniel de Araújo Martins
Dr. Luciana de Albuquerque Moreira

2. Organization, Mediation, Technology, and Society

Historical, critical, epistemological, and applied studies of Librarianship and Information Science; Ethics, politics, and information regimes; Right to Information; Democratization of Information; Information Culture; Information Mediation and Cultural Mediation; Libraries as infocommunicational devices; Critical information literacy and Social Agency; Social memory and Cultural Heritage; Scientific communication and Open Science; Information metric studies and Information Visualization; Digital Humanities; Digital Repositories; Digital Information Architecture; Metadata and interoperability in Information Systems; Organization of Information and Knowledge.

Professors associated with line 2:
Dr. Gabrielle Francinne de Souza Carvalho Tanus (leader)
Dr. Alejandro Caballero Rivero
Dr. Fernando Luiz Vechiato
Dr. Ilaydiany Cristina Oliveira da Silva
Dr. Monica Marques Carvalho Gallotti
Dr. Nancy Sánchez Tarragó
Dr. Patrícia Ladeira Penna Macedo
Dr. Pedro Alves Barbosa Neto

Active Committees

Self-Evaluation Committee
Fernando Luiz Vechiato (president)
Andréa Vasconcelos Carvalho (regular member)
Gabrielle Francinne de S. C. Tanus (regular member)
Anthony Francis Nunes Teixeira (regular member)

Activity Dissemination Committee
Gabrielle Francinne de S. C. Tanus (president)
André Luiz Dias de França (regular member)
Nancy Sánchez Tarragó (regular member)
Patrícia Ladeira Penna Macedo (regular member)

Resource Management Committee
Gabrielle Francinne de S. C. Tanus (president)
Nancy Sánchez Tarragó (regular member)
Pedro Alves Barbosa Neto (regular member)

Event Organizing Committee for the 10th Anniversary of the Program
Gabrielle Francinne de S. C. Tanus (president)
André Luiz Dias de França (regular member)
Andréa Vasconcelos Carvalho (regular member)
Patrícia Ladeira Penna Macedo (regular member)

Special Committee for the Selection Process for Visiting Professor
Gabrielle Francinne de S. C. Tanus (president)
Luciana de Albuquerque Moreira (regular member)
Patrícia Ladeira Penna Macedo (regular member)

Events supported and organized by PPGCI

CCSA/UFRN Research Seminar (annual)
Information Science Research Colloquium (annual)
Academic Dialogues (semiannual)

Address:
Av. Sen. Salgado Filho, 3000, Lagoa Nova, Natal/RN, Brazil. ZIP 59078-900.
Classes for the program take place in Sector V, CCSA.

Contacts:
Email: ppgci@ccsa.ufrn.br
Phone and WhatsApp: +55 84 99229-6551
Program Secretary: Anthony Francis Nunes Teixeira