Apologies for the third post about open access publishing in a row. Normal service will resume shortly! I wanted to bring attention to a second open letter published, inspired by our first one to the Association for the Advancement of American Science (AAAS). This letter was aimed at a smaller society, the Society for Neuroscience, and spearheaded by Erin McKiernan, who was also a signatory on the ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Continuing the battle for open access that’s good for science, not publishers’ profits
Two developments since the last post regarding open access things for anyone interested! First, is a little interview I had with the Open Access Button folk about er, open access: http://blog.openaccessbutton.org/2014/08/19/every-time-you-hit-a-paywall-thats-a-publisher-announcing-that-their-role-is-to-prohibit-the-progress-of-science-as-much-as-possible/ Second, is that our open letter to the AAA ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
GfGD Conference
Register for the 2nd GfGD Conference by the end of August and you’ll be given the chance to win this attractive 60 x 40 cm canvas of geology related pictures. A winner from those registering before 31st August, and in attendance, will be drawn on the day itself. Registration is reasonably priced and easy to do, and we’re expecting a great day. Do let us know if you have any questions o ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Swing and a miss by the AAAS for open access
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest scientific organisation, recently announced their latest journal, the fully open access ‘Science Advances‘. While superficially this seems like a good move for them, digging into the details reveals many inherent flaws with the journal, that at worst portray the AAAS as a money-grabbing organisation and ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
There’s (volcanic) dust in the archives
There’s not much that beats the thrill of discovery.. particularly when it turns up in your own backyard. This summer, I have been on the hunt for records and reports of the 1902 eruptions of St Vincent, a lush volcanic island in the Eastern Caribbean. There are indeed many reports from this eruption, carefully documented in official records from the time. But, more surprisingly, there are ...[Read More]
VolcanicDegassing
Summer Reading – H is for Hawk
Much of my time is consumed with reading, but it is almost always for a purpose: essays, assignments, proposals, drafts of papers, re-drafts of papers, papers for classes, for review.. This almost always means reading fast, with a goal: to measure, assess, hone, distil, critique and rewrite. Often, it means hacking through tangled and cumbersome layers of scientific prose, to reveal the central ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Plastic packaging – a horror film
Zero Waste Week is an opportunity to reduce landfill waste & save money. In its seventh year, the week runs 1st – 7th September 2014. The theme is “One More Thing” – what one more thing could YOU do? Find out more at http://www.zerowasteweek.co.uk/ or on Twitter using #zerowasteweek Ever since I spent a summer working on a landfill site, I think twice before putting any ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
A much shorter review of flood stratigraphies in lake sediments
Earlier this year my PhD supervisors and I (Daniel) had a paper accepted for publication in Earth-Science Reviews entitled ‘Flood stratigraphies in lake sediments: A review’ (Schillereff et al., 2014). It’s been fairly popular in terms of downloads but it occurred to me the other day that many of those prospective readers may be put off somewhat by its hefty word count. Thus, putting together a sh ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
GeoPoll #3 – What got you interested in geology?
After a bit of an opinion hiatus I am back with the third geopoll. Every day I go to work at a university department filled with geologists. All of us are tackling different questions, but in the beginning we all started at the same place. Namely, not knowing anything about geoscience. In my conversations with colleagues over the years it appears that there is no single way to get into geology. We ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Summer Opportunity – Write a Hazard Factsheet
We’re currently looking for some students on their summer break (or PhD students/recent graduates) to help us write factsheets on hazards in specific countries. Countries we are interested in include the Philippines, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Columbia and Peru. As these factsheets will be reviewed, formatted, printed and sent to NGOs – this is a great opportunity to utilise your geologic ...[Read More]