Premium
LA TECHNIQUE AU SERVICE DE LA RECHERCHE
Author(s) -
GIRARD JACQUES
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
canadian geographer / le géographe canadien
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.35
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1541-0064
pISSN - 0008-3658
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0064.1964.tb00577.x
Subject(s) - computer science , grasp , principal (computer security) , data science , context (archaeology) , service (business) , construct (python library) , scale (ratio) , software engineering , cartography , geography , economy , archaeology , economics , programming language , operating system
High quality standards in research may be more easily reached through the use of modern technical means. Scientific investigation is often handicapped by a laborious and time‐consuming handling of data. Yet, several techniques are available at relatively low cost. The author outlines the principal advantages of two such techniques: computer processing and cartography. Computer processing makes information more accessible and its handling more rapid. Clerical work is thus considerably reduced as is the risk of errors. The operation of electronic machines requires special training, but it is relatively easy for any potential user to familiarize himself with their possibilities. There are, however, certain indispensable prerequisites which the author outlines and discusses. Cartography is also part of the scientific equipment necessary to achieve a coherent system of geographic research. Through maps, the data, once assembled, may be better integrated with areal reality, and it is thus possible to secure a more objective knowledge of the context within which people live and to grasp more completely the varigated shading of that context. One of the essential conditions of usefulness in cartography lies in one's ability to construct base maps that are fully adapted to either specific or general purposes, on a global, regional, or local scale of representation. Emphasizing the wide range of useful possibilities offered by these two techniques, the author expresses the wish that geographers make more extensive use of them in all phases of their research.