Resources

This is a list of useful resources, mostly aimed at my postgraduate students... (Currently under maintenance)

Research Equipment information

Click here to see a list of equipment that I have along with supplier information

Judy Swan, Scientific Writing: Beyond Tips and Tricks (Youtube video: ~1h30m)
The Day You Became a Better Writer -- Writing Tips from Dilbert Creator Scott Adams
How to write a review rebuttal letter/response to reviewers (courtesy of PeerJ)
How to write backwards - an excellent short article by William Magnusson that explains how to focus your paper or chapter. ***A must read***
How to write a scientific paper in 11 steps. A basic outline to scientific writing.
Spell checker for South African species names (in your text editor!) - never spell Gymnosporia szyszylowiczii wrong again!!!
Lecture on Creativity by John Clease: The open and closed modes of creativity
11 steps to structuring a science paper editors will take seriously by Angel Borja
Thoughts on using "however" by Mignon Fogarty
Plant nomenclature: names are always changing, so which source should you use? The Plant List is becoming the standard system for journals, so you should use it too.
Consider uploading all of your Figures to FigShare

For capturing data off figures and images: webplotdigitizer .
CLAMP online : an interesting ecological avenue of research linking basic leaf anatomy to environment.
Canopy calculations: Leaf Area Index. Youtube lecutre by Dr Steve Garrity
Leaf Area calculations (for Specific Leaf Area)
- ImageJ software - download from here.
- Example Youtube video 1
- Example Youtube video 2
An excellent website summarising methods in ecology: Protocols in ecological & environmental plant physiology
A journal focused on current protocols, a good place to start...
Taking photographs with a reference scale - How to photo-print properly-sized reference scales

What is hidden in your data? Same mean and standard deviation = random points, stars, circles and T-Rex??? Why you must PLOT YOUR DATA!!!
Seeing theory: Designed especially to teach students (and lecturers) about statistics in a visual way!
Bob Hayden's excellent statistics site: Statland
Are your statistical analyses too fancy? Youtube interview with Ben Bolker and Mark Brewer.

Need to create a map of sampling localities or some such - use the online GPS visualiser site. Has an amazing array of backgrounds that you can use to make your maps aesthetically pleasing in a short amount of time.
Natural Earth : a great source of shape files, including shaded DEMs for terrestrial and oceanic topography

I strongly suggest joining the SAEON graduate student network where many of jobs and bursaries are advertised.
Create a profile on www.instrumentl.com - this website matches international project funding with your proposed project.

ARKive is a collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species.
The Oryx website has links to many very useful tools. Well worth a perusal.