Sig Figs

Pick what you want to round to and report the same throughout.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFfSbpbAYRc

Make sure you got it right:
https://ostermiller.org/calc/significant_figures.html

QuickTime and a decompressor are needed to see this picture....

My professors have not appreciated opening up my most recent word doc draft of a manuscript and where the figure should go, getting this:

I have attempted to circumnavigate this problem by also providing them with a .pdf version of my drafts (which you can add notes to), but my profs have pointed me to better solution available at Aric's Tech Blog.

The problem is caused by creating a document in Mac Microsoft Word 2008 and opening in anything else.

The most easy fix is to insert the figure using the "Insert" menu.  That is, "Insert/Picture/From File...". Instead of just copying and pasting the figure.

Good news for those who wish to irritate their professors less.

Despite versus In Spite Of?

Answer: does not matter.

References:
English4all
Grammar Girl

One of the shortest posts of all time! No, this is too short. Lets try another one.

Irregardless versus Regardless

Answer: regardless, because irregardless is not a word. This is elegantly pointed out several times in the 2006 cinematic masterpiece "Puff, Puff, Pass" by the character played by Danny Masterson.

Clarification
Irregardless is a nonstandard word. Meaning it is in the dictionary as common use, but not a proper word. Check out the Grammar Girl post on dictionary word usage stemming from the irregardless debate.

Commentary Pieces

I recently came across a post on a colleague's blog asking what "hard skills" training do you wish you had learned as PhD student? Not surprisingly, the first skill the professor identified was effective writing. Digging deeper I noticed that effective writing was not just limited to peer reviewed manuscripts, but what might be considered commentary pieces. Commentary pieces can be best defined as your opinion on a given subject. Certain disciplines are more akin to this type of writing than others. political science and economics jump to mind. These disciplines often have a fast paced structure where opinions are expected to influence decisions. Fields like geology have their heyday whenever there is an earthquake or a volcano and someone from the USGS comes and assures us its not the end of the world, otherwise, commentary articles in geology seem to move at a glacial pace compared to political science.

If you find yourself in a situation where you think that your opinion is valuable to an ongoing debate, proceed with caution. Think hard about what format (e.g., blog, op-ed) you want to your opinion in and who your audience will be. Also, writing a commentary piece is different than writing a manuscript. Check out this commentary piece writing guide by the Pembina Institute on when to use commentary pieces, tips, and writing process.

Impact Factors

Deciding on which academic journal to submit your research to can be tough.  Several influences can play into this decision.
A good series of questions to when considering a journal might be as follows:
-How much does it cost to publish?
-Does your paper have color figures?  If so, does this cost more?
-Do they provide open access?
-Do you know any of the editors? Does your professor know/is an editor?
-Are they a predatory publisher?
-Likely the most important question to be asking yourself is what journal Impact Factor (IF) will you be going for? This is a question that I think you should have as a discussion with your supervisors. So you don't come to the discussion empty handed I would suggest creating a list like to the one below for your field. Make sure to include the journals that your supervisors publish in.  Short list a few, discuss further, and pick a winner.

List of Suitable Journals for Paleolimnology with Impact Factors (IFs) (5 year average when available)

-Journal of Paleolimnology (IF: 1.89)

-Environmental Reviews (IF: 3.77)

-Canadian Journal of Forest Research (IF: 1.95)

-Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (IF: 3.021)

-Canadian Journal of Earth Science (IF: 1.16)

-Boreas (IF: 1.91)

-Geology (IF: 4.03)

-The Holocene (IF: 2.56)

-Quaternary Research (IF: 2.58)

-Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology (IF: 2.99)

-Climate of the Past (IF: 2.82)

-Conservation Biology (IF: 3.90)

-Journal of Quaternary Science (IF: 2.31)
-Conservation Letters (IF: 4.08)
-Landscape Ecology (IF: 3.06)
-Ecography (IF: 4.188)
-Nature Geoscience (IF: 8.115)
-Ecosystems (IF: 3.50)

-Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (IF: 2.213)

Remembering Daily Oral Language (DOL)

I recently stumbled on an article that took me back to the days of Elementary School.  Remembering back to 4th grade where my biggest daily fear took place.  Not the rope in gym class, the dreaded Daily Oral Language or DOL.  At the beginning of every English class we would take out our journals and stare into the overhead at we memorized and were tested on some aspect of grammar.  I hated it.

While I hated DOL, it has been shown to be an effective way to teach grammar rules.  Since I graduated Elementary School some teachers have had the notion that grammar can be taught as a co-benefit in teaching other Elementary School English subjects like vocabulary, sentence structure, or style. Not the case, teaching grammar rules explicitly like in my hated DOL past has been shown to be the best approach for grammar knowledge overtime. So, thank you Miss. Johnson.  I owe you what foundational grammar knowledge I have.  I still hate the gym rope.

Read the article here.

I have informed you thusly. Merry Xmas.

Sheldon is a character on the hit TV show "The Big Bang Theory" and upon being proved right in a episode he exalted, "I have informed you thusly", instead of the usual, "I told you so" (buy the T-Shirt here). The word "thusly" protrudes from this exhalation like a sore thumb. Is thusly even a word?  Turns out, thusly is a word, just a superfluous one. Thusly stands out as one of those words that gets circled in your 100-level undergraduate essay with the marking,  "non-standard" or "colloquial".  If your teacher has marked your essay in this way because they believe thusly not to be a word, then they are perpetuating a semantic misconception.  Thusly is not the only example of this.  Funnest is perhaps the most funnest of the semantic misconceptions.  There are more, along with a a host of common English usage misconceptions found in this well constructed Wikipedia page.  The page even explains the misconception, "Xmas" is a secular plan to take the Christ out of Christmas.

Science and the English Language

A good reminder about writing and communication skills from political writer George Orwell distilled by blogger Lewis Spurgin.

-Skip to the end for list

The Art of Memo Writing

Your relationship with your PhD supervisor is not likely one just based on yearly reviews, rather bi-weekly or monthly supervisory meetings (aka progress reports) and memos.  Memos are meant to update your supervisor with your work and allow him or her to provide direction on a particular issue you might be having.

 Recently, supervisor Mark Jaccard in another research group (EMRG) in my department, had these 6 guidelines on memos.

Good memos share similar characteristics in that they:
1) are short and to the point
2) remind the advisor of what you are working on
3) identify the specific issue
4) present some pros and cons on the issue
5) present a recommendation (while identifying uncertainty)
6) use excellent tables/figures where applicable.

Following these guidelines will help ensure that your professor is making efficient use of their time, while continuing to to make sure that you have enough direction and support to make timely progress on your research.

Shut up and Write!

An interesting idea I saw recently on The Thesis Whisperer blog is the shut up and write concept.  Basically, it turns what usually is a solo activity into a group event.  Check it out, maybe writing by yourself in a group setting is what can work for you.

15 Grammatical Errors that Make you Look Silly

A great infographic from copyblogger.

This can also be found here. A lot of grammar goofs that I have covered in recent posts and some new ones.

How to Publish a Discoverable Journal Article

SAGE connection recently posted a blog on tips for you, the author, on things to do to make sure your article is being cited as much as possible. For example, did you know that you should be using your full name? Google suggests being as verbose a format as possible. Check out the prezi and the rest of the article here.

Vote for me in PhD Comics 2-minute Thesis Competition

I am entered in the PhD Comics' 2-minute thesis competition. If you've got a moment -- well, two minutes -- have a listen and click on "vote".

http://www.phdcomics.com/tv/2minute/#165

If I win I get an animated comic of my thesis done by the illustrator of PhD Comics.

Thank you very much for your vote!

Crowdfunding your Research

While reading the Science of Blogging blog, part of the 17 Must Read Science Blogs by Next Scientist, I managed to find something very interesting, a potential new source of funding! Raising money through crowd funding, Petridish does for struggling scientists what Kickstarter does for struggling artists.  In the process of putting your project up for public funding, you will likely create some interesting media that will help in enhancing your digital footprint while promoting your project to a wider audience.

Writing a literature review?

A very dull and very informative article on how to write a narrative literature review.  Thank you to REM EMRG John Axen for pointing this one out.

Baumeister and Leary, 1997

Need motivation for writing your thesis? Write a blog.

Next Scientist makes creating a science blog easy. Writing a science blog could even save your PhD. Check out the full story here and be sure to checkout the hyperlink on the aforementioned destination document about the 5 Phases of PhD Motivation. You can also find the 5 Phases of PhD Motivation by this absolute link: http://juliopeironcely.com/archives/5-phases-of-phd-motivation-explained-the-roller-coaster-curve.html
Hyperlink definitions:
Hyperlink: a highlighted word or group of words that when clicked on sends the user to another page, website, document, or part of different part of the same document. Synonym: link, HTML link
Destination Page: The page being linked to, i.e. you click a hyperlink in the source page to go to the destination page.
Absolute Link: An absolute link (or "absolute URL link") contains a complete internet address, just the same as if you typed the address into your browser's address bar. It doesn't matter where the source page is in relation to the destination page, the link will always work as long as the destination page exists. Most absolute links begin with "http://".
-Source: Media College

Make sure everyone can see your figures

A popular comment to make when critiquing other people's presentation is, "you know people who are color blind cannot read your figure". One way to quickly avoid this comment is to not use red/green to distinguish between data points on your figure. Another way is to check your figure using Vischeck. Vischeck not only checks for red/green color blindness, but also blue/yellow color blindness (Tritanope) and a less common red/green color blindness (Protanope). If you do not know if you are color blind, google "Ishihara Color Test".

Letter to your Congressperson/Member in Parliment

Every now and then an issue comes along where you need to voice your opinion. A great way to do that is to write your congressperson/member of parliament. One issue that has recently surfaced that I feel the need to voice my opinion is the closure of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA). Luckily, I didn't have to slave over writing a letter to my congressperson/member of parliament as someone already has. This particular letter I find well crafted because it is simple, includes necessary statistics, and ends with how to proceed with the next necessary action.

(, [, {, or angle bracket?

There are four generally accepted different parentheses or braces that one can use. For most uses, unless specified otherwise by author submission guidelines, the curved brackets or parentheses (...) are preferred. The square brackets [...] are used to include information from an outside source or author. The curly braces {...} are used in prose to display a list of equal choices. Angle brackets <...> are used when one would want to highlight information. Parentheses are great, just don't over use them (know what I mean). References: Scribendi, Grammar Girl

Why do a PhD?

Inevitably, the question always arises from family and friends, "Why are you doing a PhD again?" Well, now you simply have to choose a category that you fit in and tow the party line says an article from The Guardian. Are you doing your PhD because: a) You are genuinely interested in your chosen field, b) You want a higher salary and or/job advancement, or c) Prestige. Categories make things so easy.