Dr. Jodi Schneider's Information Quality Lab <https://infoqualitylab.org>
invites applications for fully funded PhD students in Information Sciences
at the School of Information Sciences (iSchool), University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.

Current areas of interest include:
* scientific information and how it is used by researchers and the public
* scholarly communication
* controversies within science
* potential sources of bias in scientific research
* confidence in applying science to public policy

Candidates should have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in any field (e.g.,
mathematics, sciences, information sciences, philosophy, liberal arts,
etc.). The most essential skills are strong critical thinking and excellent
written and spoken English. Interest or experience in research, academic
writing, and interdisciplinary inquiry are strongly preferred.

Students in the Information Quality Lab develop both domain expertise and
technical skills. Examples of relevant domains include public policy,
public health, libraries, journalism, publishing, citizen science,
information services, and life sciences research. Examples of technical
skills include knowledge representation, text and data analytics, news
analytics, argumentation analysis, document analysis, qualitative analysis,
user-centered design, and mixed methods.

Examples of current Information Quality Lab projects:
REDUCING THE INADVERTENT SPREAD OF RETRACTED SCIENCE: SHAPING A RESEARCH
AND IMPLEMENTATION AGENDA (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) -
stakeholder-engaged research to understand the continued citation of
retracted research, currently focusing on standards development and raising
awareness of what various stakeholders across scholarly communication can
do.

STRENGTHENING PUBLIC LIBRARIES’ INFORMATION LITERACY SERVICES THROUGH AN
UNDERSTANDING OF KNOWLEDGE BROKERS’ ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC
INFORMATION (Institute of Museum and Library Services Early Career
Development) - Scientific misinformation and pseudoscience have a
significant impact on public deliberation. This project will conduct case
studies on COVID-19, climate change, and artificial intelligence to
understand how journalists, Wikipedia editors, activists, and public
librarians broker knowledge to the public. We will develop actionable
strategies for reducing public misinformation about scientific and
technical information.

USING NETWORK ANALYSIS TO SUPPORT AND ASSESS CONFIDENCE IN RESEARCH
SYNTHESIS (National Science Foundation CAREER) - developing and testing a
novel framework to evaluate sets of expert literature for potential sources
of bias and to allow evidence-seekers to swiftly determine the level of
consensus within a body of literature and identify the risk factors which
could impact the reliability of the research.

Dr. Jodi Schneider studies the science of science through the lens of
arguments, evidence, and persuasion. She seeks to advance our understanding
of scientific communication in order to develop tools and strategies to
manage information overload in science, using mixed methods including
semantic web technology (metadata/ontologies/etc.), network analysis, text
mining and user-centered design. Her long-term research agenda analyzes
persistent controversies applying science to public policy. Prior to
joining the iSchool, Schneider served as a postdoctoral scholar at the
National Library of Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh Department of
Biomedical Informatics, and INRIA, the national French Computer Science
Research Institute. She is an NSF CAREER awardee and holds an Institute of
Museum and Library Services Early Career Development grant. Her past
projects have been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National
Institutes of Health, Science Foundation Ireland, and the European
Commission.

iSchool PhD PROGRAM
iSchool PhD students have backgrounds in a broad range of fields, including
the social sciences, sciences, arts, humanities, computing, and artificial
intelligence. Accepted students are guaranteed five years of funding in the
form of research and teaching assistantships, which include tuition waivers
and a stipend. Additional funding is available for conference travel.

Our PhD program in Information Science is the oldest existing LIS doctoral
program in the U.S. with 270 graduates. Recent graduates are now faculty
members at institutions such as the University of Michigan, University of
Washington, University of Maryland, Drexel, and UCLA, professionals at
Baidu, Google, Twitter, Uber and AbbVie, and academic library professionals
at the Library of Congress, Princeton University, and the University of
Chicago.

APPLICATION PROCESS
For more information about the application process, please visit:
https://ischool.illinois.edu/degrees-programs/phd-information-sciences/apply
Application deadline (For full consideration for nomination for a Graduate
College fellowship) is November 1, 2021.

For additional information about our PhD program, see
https://ischool.illinois.edu/degrees-programs/phd-information-sciences

An online PhD informational session is scheduled for Friday, October 15 at
12PM US Central Time:
https://choose.illinois.edu/register/?id=b1cbb82a-4c64-46b8-89de-c57dd8690b7f

For questions about the program, please contact Prof. Michael Twidale, PhD
Program Director, at [log in to unmask]

For questions, about the Information Quality Lab, please contact Dr. Jodi
Schneider at [log in to unmask]