Resources

Below is some absolutely necessary software (freeware):

• Search Everything by Void Tools. This tiny program runs in Windows in the background and provides instantaneous search results for the files on your computers. It has been around for ages, and nothing is faster. Key hack: set Ctrl-Alt-S to be a shortcut to opening the Search Everything window (Tools→Options→Keyboard→Show Window Hotkey: Ctrl-Alt-S.

• IrfanView by Irfan Skiljan. Another tiny program that is an outstanding image viewer. So many options and way faster than the built-in image viewer. Also download the plugins. It also supports batch edits to images (renaming, file resizing etc. etc.)

• Lupas Rename 2000 by Ivan Anton. For renaming lots of files. Especially handy of renaming photos to the YMD_HMS format e.g. "Replace with the text:"  option with 

<E:DateTime:Y>-<E:DateTime:M>-<E:DateTime:D>_<E:DateTime:H>h<E:DateTime:MM>m<E:DateTime:S>

will convert all of your photo filenames to the date and tim they were taken. 

• Zotero by Digital Scholar. A free and outstanding reference manager that integrates into Google Docs and Word.

• Handbook of Biological Statistics by John H. McDonald. A free fantastic online statistics textbook especially for biologists.

• An R Companion for the Handbook of Biological Statistics by Salvatore S. Mangiafico. An extension of the above book with all the R code and additional explanations you will ever need. 

• 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.

• How to write backwards - an excellent short article by William Magnusson that explains how to focus your paper or chapter. ***A must read***

• 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 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

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

A list of literature that - in my opinion - all scientists should read (in no particular order):

• Vines, Timothy H., Albert, Arianne Y.K., Andrew, Rose L., Débarre, F., Bock, Dan G., Franklin, Michelle T., Gilbert, Kimberly J., Moore, J.-S., Renaut, S. & Rennison, Diana J. (2014) The availability of research data declines rapidly with article age. Current Biology, 24, 94-97.

• Cumming, G., Fidler, F. & Vaux, D.L. (2007) Error bars in experimental biology. The Journal of Cell Biology, 177, 7-11.

• Ricklefs, R.E. (2012) Naturalists, natural history, and the nature of biological diversity. The American Naturalist 179, 423-435.

• Sagarin, R., Pauchard, A. (2009) Observational approaches in ecology open new ground in a changing world. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 8, 379-386.

• Sepkoski, D., (2014). Paleontology at the “high table”? Popularization and disciplinary status in recent paleontology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C, 45, 133-138.

Blog posts and online articles

• Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time!

• Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science? by Joel Achenbach

• Science’s Biggest Fail by Scott Adams (are his examples really from science?)

• 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 lecture 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

• Plant Trait Database: TRY

• 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

• 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. I think this is worth a look at.

• Look at storing your data online using Mendeley Data

• I strongly suggest joining the SAEON graduate student network where many jobs and bursaries are advertised.

• Create a profile on www.instrumentl.com - this website matches international project funding with your proposed project.

• Scientific Poster Design - Good and Bad Examples! (And some great suggestions) (Youtube video: ~10m)

• Some good basics from the American Journal Experts (Youtube video: ~10m)

• How to avoid death By PowerPoint by David JP Phillips (Youtube video: ~20m)