Green Tea and Velociraptors

Green Tea and Velociraptors

The rise of open research data

This was originally posted at: http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2015/08/26/the-rise-of-open-research-data/ As a junior researcher in the UK, it has given me great pleasure over the last few years to see the dramatic development of open access publishing. Most major research funders in the UK now require public access to published research articles in one form or another, and many other …[Read More]

New open access journal to publish entire research cycles

Say hello to Research Ideas & Outcomes (RIO), a new open access journal, formally open for business today! The new journal represents a useful addition to traditional publishing, in that it will publish research from all stages of the research cycle, across a broad suite of disciplines, from humanities to science. Traditionally, journals accept articles that are the final …[Read More]

Dinosaur Britain airs tonight!

A fantastic new series on Dinosaurs of the British Isles airs tonight on ITV! It stars Dean Lomax, a professional palaeontologist based pretty much everywhere in the UK. It seems to be based off a book of his, published via Siri Press. I’ve seen a copy, and it’s pretty much the best illustrated guides to …[Read More]

Welcome to guest blogger Dr. Sabine Lengger!

Welcome to guest blogger Dr. Sabine Lengger!

Hi readers of “Green tea and Velociraptors”, my name is Sabine Lengger, I am a scientist, and I am an avid reader of Jon’s blog too. I started out my scientific career as a chemist / biochemist, and became more and more fascinated by the fields of environmental chemistry and molecular palaeontology. Since Jon spends …[Read More]

Lizard lizard on the wall

Lizard lizard on the wall

When you think about fossils, lizards might be not be one of the first groups that springs to mind. However, they do have a pretty neat fossil record, stretching back over 150 million years. One group of lizards, iguanians, are still around today and comprises about 1700 different species! One sub-group of these iguanians, acrodonts, …[Read More]

SVPCA 2015

This year, the 63rd Symposium for Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy is taking place alongside the 24th Symposium of Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation with the Geological Curators’ Group (what a mouth-full..), at the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton. I don’t have much to say about this conference, as I’m heading to it’s international cousin, SVP (Society for …[Read More]

A thought on impact factors

OK, bear with me on this one. It’s a bit of a thought dump, but it would be interesting to see what people think. You can’t go anywhere in academia these days without hearing about impact factors. An impact factor is a metric assigned to a journal that measures the average number of citations per …[Read More]

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 2015

It’s conference season! Wooooo!! The annual meeting for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is looming, and is taking place in Dallas this year. Damn I love Texas! This meeting represents the bringing together of the finest minds around the world in vertebrate palaeontology, and covers the whole spectrum of this vast field. The abstract book …[Read More]

The Open Research Glossary round 2

A few months ago, we published the crowd-sourced Open Research Glossary, details of which can be found here. We’ve taken this to the next level now, and published the updated and much prettier version of this resource on Figshare. This means it is now openly licensed for re-use, and can also be cited like any …[Read More]

OpenCon 2015 Applications are Open!

See this post about Open Con 2014 for more information Applications to attend OpenCon 2015 on November 14-16 in Brussels, Belgium are now open! The application is available on the OpenCon website at opencon2015.org/attend and includes the opportunity to apply for a travel scholarship to cover the cost of travel and accommodations. Applications will close …[Read More]