BAMOS
Dec 2018
Research corner
with Damien Irving
The Research Police
You know who I’m talking about. I’m sure every research
community has them. Those annoying do-gooders who
constantly advocate for things to be done the right way. When
you’re trying to take a shortcut, it’s their nagging voice in the
back of your mind. You appreciate that what they’re saying is
important, but with so much work and so little time, you don’t
always want to hear it. Since I’m fond of creating lists, here’s my
research police of the weather, ocean and climate sciences:
Statistics
Dan Wilks is a widely regarded statistics guru in the atmospheric
sciences. He’s the author of the most clearly written statistics
textbook I’ve come across (Wilks, 2011), as well as articles such
as a recent essay in BAMS that is sure to make you feel bad if
you’ve ever plotted significance stippling (Wilks, 2016).
Data visualisation
Ed Hawkins’ climate spiral visualisation received worldwide
media coverage in 2016 (and even featured in the opening
ceremony of the Rio Olympics). He makes the list of research
police due to his end the rainbow campaign, which advocates
for the use of more appropriate colour scales in climate science.
Communication
David Schultz is the Chief Editor of Monthly Weather Review
and has authored well over 100 research articles, but is probably
best known as the “Eloquent Science guy.” His book is a must
read for anyone wanting to improve their academic writing,
reviewing and speaking (Schultz, 2009).
Programming
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to self-nominate here, as I’ve
been a strong advocate for computational reproducibility for a
number of years now (e.g. Irving, 2016). Now that I’ve formally
released a set of lesson materials with Data Carpentry, I’m
looking for other volunteer instructors in the community to get
involved (Irving, 2018).
I’d love to expand this list, so please let me know if you’ve got
any suggested research police.
References
Irving, D., 2016. A minimum standard for publishing
computational results in the weather and climate sciences.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 97(7), 1149–
1158.
Irving, D., 2018. Data Carpentry for atmosphere and ocean
scientists. Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and
Oceanographic Society, 31(3), 21.
Schultz, D. M., 2009. Eloquent Science: A Practical Guide to
Becoming a Better Writer, Speaker, & Atmospheric Scientist.
American Meteorological Society, 440 pp.
Wilks, D. S., 2011. Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric
Sciences. (3rd ed.) Academic Press, Oxford, 676 pp.
Wilks, D. S., 2016. “The stippling shows statistically significant
grid points”: How research results are routinely overstated
and overinterpreted, and what to do about It. Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society, 97(12), 2263–2273.
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