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 on this blog, 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 is the author of the most clearly written statistics textbook I’ve ever come across, as well as great articles such as this recent essay in BAMS, which is sure to make you feel bad if you’ve ever plotted significance stippling.

 

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 and blog are a must read for anyone wanting to improve their academic writing, reviewing and speaking.

 

Programming

Unfortunately I’m going to have to self-nominate here, as I’ve been a strong advocate for publishing reproducible computational results for a number of years now (see related post and BAMS essay). To help researchers do this, I’ve taught at over 20 Software Carpentry workshops and I’m the lead author of their climate-specific lesson materials.

 

If I’ve missed any other research police, please let me know in comments!