2017–2026

2026 124

October 2026

1. 30 OctI have a backlog of stupid Friday linkfests that should comfortably outlast civilization
2. 28 OctDo you want me to compile data on last year’s N. American ecology faculty job market? Take the poll!
3. 26 OctNo true Scotsman, doing ANOVA by hand, the hippopotamus major, and AI
4. 23 OctDynamic Ecology, an experimental project to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern blogging industry, makes this Friday linkfest
5. 21 OctEcology is now ready for “Big Code” and the errors it hides
6. 19 Oct“[T]hrowing people into the deep end is a great way to find out if they can swim, but a poor way to teach them to swim”: Bethann Garramon Merkle and Stephen Heard on teaching scientific writing
7. 16 OctThis Friday linkfest is built with next-gen adherence to our industry-leading ethical principles
8. 15 OctAs a journal editor, I’ve started using Claude to help find reviewers
9. 13 OctIt’s time to do away with minor revisions, major revisions, and rejection with resubmission permitted
10. 9 OctFriday linkfests apparently cause cancer
11. 7 OctGo east, young ecologist
12. 5 OctStop publishing lists of important ecological questions
13. 2 OctWhen are Friday linkfests needed to answer causal questions?

September 2026

1. 30 SepEcology vs. phonics (or, what if your entire field studies nothing but small effects?)
2. 28 SepNew journal: Systems Ecology
3. 25 SepFriday linkfests come by their obnoxiousness honestly
4. 23 SepGreat moments in overthinking it, blog commenting edition
5. 22 SepIs there negative frequency dependence in science?
6. 21 SepZombie ideas about hypoxia thresholds in ecology?
7. 18 SepStop trying to rehabilitate the reputation of Friday linkfests
8. 15 SepMore data on how far N. American TT ecology hires move to take up their TT jobs
9. 14 SepDid you start your PhD by reading and thinking widely and exhaustively for a year?
10. 11 SepThis is the most bullshit Friday linkfest you’ve ever seen. You’ll be actively angry it exists.
11. 8 SepThe political geography of TT ecology faculty hires in the US post-Trump
12. 4 SepDiversity is variance, and Friday linkfests are built to minimize variance

August 2026

1. 31 AugPoll results on sending revised mss back out for review
2. 28 AugFriday linkfests are mostly fine
3. 25 AugThe corporatization of universities in both mission and governance
4. 24 AugWhat if publication bias isn’t that? At least not always?
5. 21 AugOne of the most prominent Friday linkfest items might be wrong
6. 20 AugAs an editor, do you send revised mss back to the reviewers? (includes short poll)
7. 19 AugSpoiler: the Easter egg in my new book
8. 14 AugA wind-powered herd of beach animals merge into a Friday linkfest (UPDATED)
9. 14 AugNeither the publisher nor the editor has confidence in this Friday linkfest
10. 7 AugJeremy decided normal Friday linkfests would not cut it
11. 6 AugPoll results on up front reference letters for faculty positions: almost everybody dislikes them, but the people who dislike them most are the people who don’t have to write them
12. 4 AugESA 2026 reflections

July 2026

1. 25 JulCome find me at the ESA meeting to tell me what you thought of my book, and I’ll give you a signed bookplate!
2. 24 JulThis is a very normal Friday linkfest which is not drawing any special attention to itself whatsoever
3. 22 JulOn unrealistic extreme scenarios in ecology
4. 20 JulPoll on up front reference letters for faculty positions
5. 17 JulThe decline of Friday linkfests (UPDATED)
6. 10 JulFriday linkfests look bad every 50 years or so
7. 8 JulWhere to eat and drink (and run and bike) in Salt Lake City for the 2026 ESA meeting
8. 6 Jul‘Then a miracle occurs’: share your creative ways to relieve student anxiety about exams and other assignments
9. 3 JulWhere to find the Friday linkfests your screen can’t show you

June 2026

1. 30 JunRachel Germain reviews The Ecology of Ecologists in BioScience
2. 29 JunPoll results: acknowledgements in scientific papers are the least controversial topic in the world
3. 26 JunI beg you to read this Friday linkfest, even if you will be rude to me in the comments
4. 24 JunHow many recent TT ecology hires in N. America got their bachelor’s and PhD degrees at the same place?
5. 22 JunThe first citation of The Ecology of Ecologists! And some new reviews!
6. 19 JunFriday links: RIP Stephen Fretwell, and more
7. 17 JunWhen is it inappropriate to acknowledge people and organizations in a scientific paper, if ever? Take our poll!
8. 15 JunHow I use Claude
9. 12 JunFriday links: RIP Peter Klopfer, and more
10. 11 JunRobert Ricklefs – in memoriam
11. 10 Jun“I’ve come to see the lack of model validation in ecology as shocking and embarrassing”: interview with Peter Adler on applying modern coexistence theory
12. 9 JunScientific answers vs. doing science
13. 8 JunDefining preregistration down
14. 5 JunFriday linkfests are 15% straight-up entertainment, and that’s OK
15. 3 JunI used to think that I could tell which TT jobs I had a really good shot at, and which TT jobs were longshots for me. I was wrong every time.
16. 1 JunIs there any such (one) thing as disturbance ecology any more?

May 2026

1. 29 MayThe fall of the Friday linkfest economy
2. 26 MayAre academic labs kind of like baseball teams?
3. 22 MayIt’s hard to see how all the social structures that support Friday linkfests will avoid major disruption over the next few years
4. 20 MayEven microcosm experiments can be difficult to replicate
5. 19 MayA striking retraction from Ecology Letters
6. 18 May“Designing a statistics project to show that we ecologists are doing something wrong is not my idea of fun”: interview with Scott Peacor on meta-analysis in ecology
7. 15 MayWhy did it take so long to invent Friday linkfests?
8. 13 MayOn rejection and ways academia is like baseball
9. 11 MayAI and robustness checks
10. 8 MayThe greatest lie that textbooks teach is that the hard part is coming up with a Friday linkfest. No, the hard part is usually coming up with a worthwhile title.
11. 4 MayOn Venn diagrams of knowledge
12. 1 MayFriday linkfests never die. They merely become embarrassing.

April 2026

1. 29 AprEvolutionary biology vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi
2. 27 AprHot potatoes
3. 24 AprI have seen the future of science. It is ruled by Friday linkfests.
4. 22 AprWhich US colleges and universities hire the most ecologists and evolutionary biologists? Which hire the most relative to their enrollment? (UPDATED with additional results)
5. 20 AprYou’re not being unfair if you treat mentees differently
6. 17 AprLaziness, impatience, and hubris, the basis of good Friday linkfests
7. 15 AprI’m much less sure about where to submit my papers than I used to be
8. 13 AprBacking in to experimental design: how to design experiments (and other studies) in the face of constraints
9. 10 AprConfusing the normal Friday linkfest for the exceptional
10. 8 AprHow often, and how far, do N. American ecologists typically move before landing a TT job? (UPDATED with new data and analyses)
11. 6 AprJust for fun: share your highly specific teaching tips
12. 3 AprFriday linkfests are hard, and people, scientists or not, like to avoid hard things

March 2026

1. 30 MarThe art of teaching is learning how to selectively lie
2. 27 MarFriday linkfests are akin to life forms from another planet
3. 25 MarThe geography of US EEB faculty job applications, take 4: everyone wants to work at my alma mater, apparently. And also hates crab cakes and cheese steaks, apparently. (UPDATEDx2 with additional analysis and a very minor correction)
4. 23 MarIt’s okay to try things again that have failed in the past
5. 20 MarFriday links: RIP Paul Ehrlich and Robert Trivers (UPDATEDx2)
6. 18 MarThe majority of new TT ecology hires in N. America have master’s degrees–with one exception
7. 16 MarOn re-evaluating sabbatical goals and doing sabbatical wrong
8. 13 MarThis Friday linkfest is not LLM-friendly, but arguably it should be
9. 11 Mar“If you keep your mind too open, your brain falls out”: interview with theoretical ecologist Chuliang Song
10. 9 MarWhat’s the best example of ecological research that’s of both great fundamental interest AND has direct applications?
11. 6 MarLarge parts of the surviving Friday linkfest corpus are neglected
12. 4 MarPosts I haven’t written (yet), and posts I never will
13. 2 MarIs the peer review system going to melt down? If so, when?

February 2026

1. 27 FebWhat shape do you think of when you think of Friday linkfests?
2. 23 FebThe geography of North American EEB faculty job applications (take 3)
3. 20 FebHow to make a living writing Friday linkfests
4. 18 FebThe reviews are in on The Ecology of Ecologists! (well, one review anyway)
5. 17 FebThe value of close replications and how to get more of them: interview with Kate Laskowski
6. 13 FebYou can get an extension on reading this Friday linkfest if you’re competing in the Olympics
7. 12 FebVisiting assistant professor positions in the US and Canada hardly ever convert into tenure-track positions
8. 10 FebIntroduction section hot takes
9. 6 FebA Friday linkfest is not a thing but an aggregation of billions of decisions, each made on the basis of incentives, opportunities and desires
10. 4 FebHow often should scientific results to be ‘marked to market’?

January 2026

1. 30 JanHow the Friday linkfest became list slop
2. 28 JanHow to make your sample size sound more impressive than it actually is
3. 23 JanFriday linkfests will eat themselves
4. 22 JanSurvey on number of applicants to tenure-track ecology faculty positions advertised in N. America over the last five years
5. 21 JanA great conference to go to this summer – who could oppose unifying ecology on multiple scales?
6. 19 JanThe long slow decline of this blog (which can’t be blamed on the pandemic)
7. 16 JanFriday linkfests are tools with collaborator-like affordances
8. 15 JanConfirmed: science (all of it) really did peak in 2021
9. 14 JanScience (all of it) peaked in 2021
10. 12 JanDo you use generative AI to help identify literature you missed? If so, how?
11. 9 JanThis Friday linkfest will teach you how much you should suffer
12. 8 JanThere’s an Easter egg in my new book
13. 7 JanA statistical summary of the teaching experience of ecologists hired into TT faculty positions in N. America during the 2024-25 job season
14. 5 JanSpread the word about The Ecology of Ecologists and get a free signed bookplate! (UPDATED)
15. 2 JanThe man who mistook his Friday linkfest for the truth

2025 146

December 2025

1. 23 DecHappy Hogswatch!
2. 22 DecIn case you didn’t know: tenure-track faculty positions in North America ordinarily start with an initial fixed-term contract
3. 19 DecEverything I need to know I learned in Friday linkfests
4. 18 DecIs it true that you can’t get hired as a TT prof at a purely teaching-focused undergraduate college if you’ve published too much research? (UPDATED)
5. 17 DecData on the career paths of newly hired TT ecologists who took more than six years post-PhD before landing a TT job in N. America
6. 15 DecIt’s hard for tenured profs to move to a different TT job. But if you want to try, here’s some advice.
7. 12 DecThis Friday linkfest is a Christmas movie
8. 11 DecI just got my copy of The Ecology of Ecologists, now get yours–for 30% off!
9. 10 DecWeird PhD defense rules are fine
10. 5 DecPeople believe in Friday linkfests and are willing to pay for them
11. 1 DecStudents: here are protips for meeting one-on-one with visiting speakers

November 2025

1. 28 NovBlack Friday linkfest
2. 24 NovLong-term trends in the number of ecology PhDs awarded in the US (UPDATED)
3. 21 NovNo need to publish this Friday linkfest
4. 20 NovShould scientific papers be written more like blog posts?
5. 18 NovAre R^2 values declining in every scholarly field? And if so, what could or should be done about that? (UPDATE: link fixed)
6. 17 NovWould 2004 me get hired in today’s ecology faculty job market?
7. 14 NovThis is where Friday linkfests are produced and sustained
8. 12 NovHow many people are on the North American ecology faculty job market at any one time?
9. 10 NovThe 2024-25 North American ecology faculty job market: same as it ever was
10. 7 NovWhat in the actual hell is going on with this Friday linkfest?
11. 5 NovDon’t try to follow up a faculty interview by providing a better answer to a question you flubbed
12. 3 NovDid I just make one of the most impressive forecasts in ecological history, only to bury that fact in a paper that’s not even about forecasting? (includes poll)

October 2025

1. 31 OctFriday linkfests are more important than ever
2. 28 OctWho would you nominate for the 2027 Crafoord Prize? (UPDATED)
3. 24 OctYour carefully crafted Friday linkfest? The primary reviewer read it thoroughly. The other two panelists skimmed it. Everyone else glanced at the summary.
4. 22 OctAll of our awesome interviews, now in one place!
5. 21 OctInterview: Robin Snyder on modern coexistence theory, how to write a gripping introduction section, R as a quilting aid, and more
6. 17 OctHave our Friday linkfests become pathological?
7. 14 OctWhy don’t ecologists predict probability distribution shape more often?
8. 10 OctThis Friday linkfest has achieved the goals of both political tribes simultaneously, without any of the ideological warfare (UPDATED to fix incorrect link)
9. 9 OctYou heard it here first: sample sizes of ecological correlation coefficients are declining
10. 6 OctPoll results: geographically restricted job searches by people on the North American ecology faculty job market
11. 3 OctReplacing Friday linkfests with AI is harder than it seems (UPDATED)
12. 2 OctI updated my crude analysis asking whether the pandemic reduced the number of EEB faculty job seekers and/or the number of jobs they’re applying for

September 2025

1. 30 SepPoll on geographically restricted job searches by people previously or currently on the North American ecology faculty job market
2. 29 SepWhat would you like to know about the North American ecology faculty job market, that my previous data doesn’t address?
3. 27 SepBelated perfect pop song of the week
4. 26 SepThis Friday linkfest is performance art
5. 24 SepTransparency vs. trust
6. 22 SepYawn: when “best practices” become standard practice
7. 19 SepThe desperation of Friday linkfests in ecology
8. 17 SepWhat’s the core of ecology?
9. 15 SepAre recent TT ecology hires at “elite” R1 universities different in any measurable way from recent hires at “non-elite” R1s?
10. 12 SepWhy Spanish Friday linkfests rarely start with F
11. 10 SepWho are the top science influencers on YouTube, TikTok, and podcasts? And are any of them scientists?
12. 8 SepHighlights from recent comment threads
13. 5 SepThis Friday linkfest can sing all the lyrics to “It’s the End of the World” (UPDATEDx3)
14. 4 SepI wish journals didn’t ask for ms revisions with tracked changes
15. 2 SepStudies that didn’t start bandwagons, even though you’d think they would have (UPDATED)

August 2025

1. 29 AugThis Friday linkfest can swim at a low Reynolds number
2. 25 AugBleg: how do you tell a funding agency about your most significant research contributions over the last six years, when the biggest one is a book that hasn’t come out yet?
3. 22 AugFriday linkfests peaked in 1958-1963
4. 18 AugNoble lies about the sixth mass extinction
5. 15 AugThe tower of Friday linkfests
6. 12 AugYou wanna be where everybody knows your name
7. 11 AugHere’s the first copy of my book!
8. 10 AugCome find me at the ESA meeting, especially if you want to talk about my book. ;-)
9. 10 AugWhere to eat and drink in Baltimore for the ESA meeting
10. 8 AugTenure-track Asst. Professor of freshwater ecology at the University of Calgary – please apply!
11. 1 AugThis Friday linkfest is a criminal enterprise run by monkeys

July 2025

1. 31 JulCan you schedule individual presentations in the ESA 2025 meeting app? And do you really need to get a new login link via email every time you log in?
2. 29 JulPre-order The Ecology of Ecologists from University of Chicago Press at the ESA meeting and get a 30% discount and free US shipping! You can do this even if you won’t be at the meeting! Plus, check out the great blurbs from Mark Vellend and Stephen Heard! (UPDATED)
3. 28 JulScience finally retracted that controversial arsenic-based life paper from 15 years ago. Does that really “draw a line” under the controversy?
4. 27 JulTom Lehrer, RIP
5. 25 JulMost Friday linkfests become Friday linkfests because they want to be Friday linkfests, not because they want to share links
6. 24 JulGenerative AI vs. graduate supervisory committees
7. 22 JulDifferent ecological studies of the “same” thing typically give very different results. What would it look like for ecologists to get serious about explaining that variation? (UPDATED)
8. 18 JulThe Friday linkfest sings of love
9. 17 JulUnreplicable results are an open secret
10. 17 JulList your job talks on your CV as invited seminars, just like any other invited seminar
11. 16 JulI milk my ideas for 25% of what they’re worth. I wish it was 100%. (UPDATED)
12. 11 JulFriday linkfests haven’t changed in 20 years
13. 10 JulNo, not everyone can be a hunter-gatherer. But should we consider the possibility anyway?
14. 8 JulGet to the point
15. 4 JulThis Friday linkfest is American

June 2025

1. 27 JunMost Friday linkfests aren’t real
2. 24 JunDemystifying ecological theory: interview with Rachel Germain
3. 20 JunThis is an award-winning Friday linkfest
4. 19 JunHave you received a peer review that appeared to have been written by AI?
5. 17 JunBleg: Sources of long transect data, and/or big grid data, for any ecological variables? Looking for some illustrative examples for an upcoming talk.
6. 16 JunThe Second Science*
7. 13 JunWhy Friday linkfests explain more than we think
8. 10 JunYou’re probably why it takes so long for your paper to get reviewed and your excuses are bad
9. 9 JunPeer review protip: even if you’re SURE the author made an elementary mistake, hedge your review
10. 6 JunThis Friday linkfest is wreaking a tremendous amount of carnage. What it is not doing, however, is winning.
11. 5 JunWhere to eat and what to do in Sherbrooke during the CSEE annual meeting
12. 3 JunDo ecologists all study the “same” topic? And if so, is that a problem?
13. 2 JunFaculty: you should attend your institution’s graduation ceremony

May 2025

1. 30 MayFeed in data, pull crank, get a Friday linkfest
2. 29 MayJeremy’s forthcoming book has a cover!
3. 23 MayFriday linkfests are down a long way over the past fifteen years, particularly in Alberta
4. 21 MayA high-profile fraud in economics research
5. 16 MayWill you be replaced by a Friday linkfest in the near future? (UPDATED)
6. 13 MayCommitments vs. meta-commitments, scientific edition
7. 9 MayThe problem with actually existing Friday linkfests is that they have little internal variety
8. 8 MayHighlights from recent comment threads
9. 6 MayCan you use LLMs to improve the accessibility of the scientific literature?
10. 6 MayDo ecology grad students need different coursework or training than they used to?
11. 2 MayOlder Friday linkfests affected a Latinate style (UPDATED)

April 2025

1. 30 AprTwo-year fixed term teaching faculty position at the University of Calgary for intro-level biology courses including ecology. Please apply!
2. 30 AprHorseshoe theory (scientific edition)
3. 25 AprThis is a Friday linkfest for an alternate timeline (UPDATED)
4. 22 AprI still think that trait-based ecology needs population ecology
5. 18 AprImagine spending a couple of years on a mountaintop with this Friday linkfest
6. 16 AprThe best time to integrate mathematical modeling into ecology was a century ago. The second best time is right now. (updated)
7. 14 AprIs the storage effect overrated? Interview with Simon Stump and David Vasseur
8. 11 AprOne has to have more courage than Hamlet to always be guided by a Friday linkfest
9. 7 AprForget about whether ecologists argue with each other about ecology any more. Do they even talk about ecology with each other any more?
10. 4 AprThis Friday linkfest is a pretty flower that smells bad

March 2025

1. 31 MarDon’t hate the player, hate the game (faculty job ad edition)
2. 28 MarThe question isn’t the quality of this Friday linkfest, it’s what depending on this Friday linkfest does to us (UPDATEDx2)
3. 25 MarShould I include “in prep” manuscripts on my CV?
4. 21 MarHow many pop artists’ careers did this Friday linkfest kill?
5. 17 MarHere are some of the best lines from my forthcoming book, The Ecology of Ecologists, in my totally biased opinion :-)
6. 14 MarFriday linkfests are cultural and social technologies
7. 10 MarWhich cities originate the most Dynamic Ecology traffic? (UPDATED)
8. 7 MarBoring Friday linkfests are flying with big tech in the AI boom
9. 6 MarDoes anyone care about graphical abstracts?
10. 4 MarYou can now pre-order The Ecology of Ecologists!
11. 3 MarOn which ecological topics is the consensus opinion most likely to be dubious, overstated, or just plain wrong?

February 2025

1. 28 FebBut how is this Friday linkfest – which so far must seem to you more like a curious sort of “literary” journal – used in intellectual production?
2. 27 FebHoisted from the comments: the ESA meeting vs. the AGU meeting
3. 26 FebHoisted from the comments: what the ESA annual meeting could learn from ASM meetings
4. 25 FebPoll results: Are you going to ESA 2025? If not, why not?
5. 24 FebAre chaotic population dynamics common after all? Interview with Tanya Rogers and Stephan Munch
6. 21 FebThe problem, for detractors, is that this Friday linkfest is not analytic or detached or cynical or knowing.
7. 19 FebAre you planning to attend the 2025 ESA meeting in Baltimore? If not, why not? Take our short poll! (UPDATE: poll now closed)
8. 18 FebThe post-book doldrums
9. 14 FebThis Friday linkfest is returning to orality
10. 10 FebYet another sign that I’ve gotten old: I don’t get invited to give seminars any more
11. 7 FebThere’s no such thing as a Friday linkfest
12. 5 FebMany profs who give good talks are nervous about giving talks
13. 3 FebHow to earn authorship on many authored papers?

January 2025

1. 31 JanPeople claim to care about this Friday linkfest. But people claim to care about a lot of things.
2. 29 JanScientific talks should be entertaining
3. 27 JanReminder: No one will ever look back at your lab notebook and think you wrote too much!
4. 24 JanThis Friday linkfest is a hidden gem
5. 20 JanIs sublinear growth the skeleton key to all of ecology? Or even all of biology? Interview with Ian Hatton.
6. 17 JanWe should be taught what Friday linkfests sound like
7. 14 JanThe mighty pomodoro
8. 13 JanASN Asilomar 2025 review
9. 10 JanIt’s hard to explain why this Friday linkfest is wrong
10. 9 JanJeremy’s book has a title!
11. 7 JanNew feature: interviews with authors of really interesting papers! This week: Shaw et al. (2024) on the different “personas” you can adopt as a theoretician.
12. 3 JanThis is a very mediocre Friday linkfest with a very good publicist

2024 150

December 2024

1. 21 DecThe Dead of Winter
2. 20 DecThis Friday linkfest is structured to improve rather than degrade learning
3. 13 DecFor the first time, we have non-human, non-intelligent Friday linkfests, that can generatively enact ritual at high speed and industrial scale
4. 9 DecHow does your college/university teach Intro Bio?
5. 6 DecThis Friday linkfest is so bourgeois
6. 2 DecAs a prof, why did you take on an administrative or leadership role? How did it go? What lessons did you learn? Please share your stories!

November 2024

1. 29 NovFriday links: just make it stop (scientific research edition), and more
2. 26 NovThe subject areas of EEB jobs haven’t really changed over the past 10 years
3. 22 NovFriday links: 1986 called, it wants its data mining Easter egg back, and more
4. 18 NovThe (political?) geography of EEB job applications
5. 15 NovFriday links: statistical inference vs. bridges, AI vs. time wasting, and more
6. 13 NovDid the pandemic reduce the number of EEB faculty job seekers? Or reduce the number of faculty positions a typical job seeker applies for? Or both? Or what? (UPDATED with an additional year’s worth of data)
7. 8 NovFriday links: in case you’re just joining us (#pruittdata edition), ChatGPT vs. Nickleback, and more
8. 7 NovAs an ecology faculty job applicant, is it worth applying for a position in the same department that didn’t hire you last year?
9. 6 NovNo one has ever torn down a scientific Tower of Babel by writing a review paper (so are you sure you should bother trying?) (UPDATED)
10. 4 NovLet’s remember some ecology blogs
11. 1 NovFriday links: certainty vs. uncertainty, stupid bugs, and more

October 2024

1. 30 OctWhat are your favorite scientific book covers?
2. 28 OctWhat are your favorite campus novels?
3. 25 OctFriday links: the purpose of statistics, 30 years of notebooks, and more
4. 23 Oct13 ways of looking at my forthcoming book
5. 21 OctAs an ecology faculty job applicant in North America, should you ever provide the search committee with additional materials, besides those requested in the ad?
6. 18 OctFriday links: when to open the black box, don’t fight the power (analysis), and more
7. 16 OctThe ecological literature grows by at least 5.7% per year. What drives that growth?
8. 14 OctIs ecology ready for big code and the errors they hide?
9. 11 OctFriday links: EEB Mentor Match, book title poll (but not for Jeremy’s book), and more
10. 8 OctTenure-track asst. professor position in data-driven modelling for ecology and water conservation, University of Calgary
11. 7 OctThe cybernetic roots of (some important bits of) ecology
12. 4 OctFriday links: the hurdle model of great bloggers, and more (UPDATED)
13. 2 OctAs a ecology faculty job seeker, don’t apply only to the jobs you think you’re “competitive” for

September 2024

1. 30 SepPreregistration comes of age (in the worst way possible)
2. 27 SepFriday links: the best ecological novelist you’ve never heard of (?), pandemics vs. preprints, and more
3. 25 SepAs an ecology faculty job applicant, can you tell if the search to which you’re applying “failed” last year? And should you care if it did?
4. 23 SepHow to interpret an ecology faculty job ad that says the department is “particularly” interested in candidates in a specific subfield
5. 20 SepFriday links: evidence vs. scientific reforms, p-values vs. speed limits, Delft Daphnia, and more (UPDATED)
6. 18 SepComputing ponds
7. 17 SepHow to start a blog
8. 13 SepFriday links: infinite anatomy, taking joke courses seriously, time series guessing game, and more (UPDATEDx2)
9. 10 SepCitation metrics as accountability sinks
10. 9 SepHighlights from recent comment threads
11. 6 SepFriday links: nepo babies (academic and otherwise), and more
12. 5 SepHere are some AI-generated titles for my book. Please vote for your favorite!
13. 3 SepWe are all ducks

August 2024

1. 30 AugFriday links: conflicting incentives in scientific research, science vs. pasta, and more
2. 26 AugHere are some of our best lines
3. 23 AugFriday links: stats humor, regress in writing about progress, and more
4. 22 AugGuest post: doing ecology on the coast of Ecuador (Haciendo ecología en la costa de Ecuador)
5. 20 AugGuest post: doing ecology in Taiwan
6. 19 AugHere are a few ideas for making the ESA meeting more fun and interesting. Please share yours!
7. 16 AugFriday links
8. 15 AugWhere would be good places to hold future ESA meetings? (UPDATED)
9. 14 Aug#ESA2024 thoughts: where is everybody?
10. 12 AugAsk us anything: what breakthrough in ecological theory could have the biggest impact for applied conservation?
11. 1 AugMinima, maxima, and thinking about fall schedules

July 2024

1. 31 JulI finished a draft of my book! Now help me decide what to call it.
2. 26 JulFriday links: the piranha principle, and more
3. 24 JulWhat kind of Twitter/X profile do recently hired North American tenure-track ecology profs typically have?
4. 22 JulAsk us anything: is modern coexistence theory backed by data?
5. 19 JulFriday links: against the burden of knowledge, Triassic kraken, and more
6. 16 JulA tale of two pyramids: professional baseball vs. academia
7. 12 JulFriday links: the latest on Pablo Escobar’s hippos, academia vs. weird nerds, and more (UPDATED: link fixed)
8. 11 JulAsk us anything: are ecological systems random, or deterministic, or what?
9. 9 JulAre you changing anything about your fall teaching in response to generative AI?
10. 8 JulAsk us anything: laws of succession, and the weather in Calgary
11. 5 JulFriday links: scientific book sales, when fringe science goes mainstream, and more
12. 3 JulAsk us anything: Some leading ecology journals rank surprisingly low in impact factor. What does that say about ecology as a scientific field?

June 2024

1. 28 JunFriday links: Geragnostus waldorfstatleri, the biased Living Planet Index, and more (UPDATED)
2. 26 JunCall for guest posts on doing ecology around the world
3. 24 JunAsk us anything!
4. 21 JunFriday links: “these 400 rabbits are hungry for meat,” the taxicab fallacy, and more
5. 20 JunHoisted from the comments: non-science activities that made our commenters better scientists
6. 19 JunWhat non-science activities have made you a better scientist?
7. 17 JunHoisted from the comments: non-science books for becoming a better scientist
8. 14 JunFriday links: an admirable retraction in ecology, AI vs. mathematics, and more
9. 13 JunOn the rise of “best practices” in ecology
10. 11 JunThe best non-science books to read if you want to become a better scientist?
11. 7 JunFriday links: boring grants vs. interesting science, and more
12. 4 JunEcologists don’t argue any more. (Do they?) Why not?
13. 3 JunA guide to scheduling committee meetings

May 2024

1. 31 MayFriday links: #pruittdata post-credits scene, and more
2. 24 MayFriday links: against prediction markets, memory vs. history, the scientific method vs. Trident gum, and more
3. 20 MayThe two business models of science?
4. 17 MayFriday links: regime shift liveblogging, RIP Jim Simons, and more
5. 16 MayWhy doesn’t Hollywood make more mass extinction films? Is that the right question to ask? And are we sure we’ll like the answer?
6. 15 MayHow, and why, to list preprints on your cv as a faculty job applicant
7. 13 MayIn class debates: looking for thoughts on topics & structure!
8. 10 MayFriday links: RIP Diana Wall, late bloomers, and more
9. 6 MayGuest post: one local’s suggestions on where to eat and drink in Vancouver for the 2024 CSEE meeting
10. 3 MayFriday links: RIP John Damuth, Gates Foundation vs. article processing charges, and more (UPDATED)
11. 2 MayHow many papers do you typically need to receive an NSERC CGS, PGS, or post-doctoral fellowship? Here’s the data. (UPDATED)

April 2024

1. 29 AprThe state of academic publishing in 3 graphs, 6 trends, and 4 thoughts
2. 26 AprFriday links: RIP Daniel Dennett, rewilding the internet, and more
3. 25 AprOn the joy of field work–and lab work
4. 22 AprLive peer review, leadership roles, and handling hard better
5. 17 AprThe nuts and bolts (and emotions!) of responding to reviewers
6. 15 AprA very brief interview with ecoevojobs.net organizer Anonymous Potato
7. 12 AprFriday links: Remembering Frans de Waal, replicating hot dogs, and more
8. 11 AprHighlights from recent comment threads
9. 10 AprPoll results: contrary to what most of our readers think, sample sizes in ecology have not increased over time
10. 9 AprHow rigorous are the arguments in favor of “rigor-enhancing” scientific practices?
11. 8 AprDoes publication of a meta-analysis (or other review paper) encourage or discourage publication of further studies? The cases of local-regional richness relationships and metacommunity variance partitioning.
12. 5 AprFriday links: evolutionary biology startup, the problem with specialized researchers, World Wide Web time capsule, and more
13. 3 AprPoll results on sending thank you notes after a campus interview for a faculty position (plus a brief navel-gazing postscript on the influence of this blog) (UPDATED)
14. 1 AprShould publishers flag replication failures in the same way they flag retractions?

March 2024

1. 29 MarFriday links: presentation exchange, things unexpectedly named after people, and more
2. 28 MarElevator (and Boat Launch!) Pitches Revisited
3. 26 MarAre there big ideas or new big questions in ecology any more?
4. 25 MarScientists who were also great novelists
5. 22 MarFriday links: Priyanga Amarasekare interview, ChatGPT vs. peer review, and more (UPDATEDx2 and comments closed)
6. 20 MarPoll: have sample sizes increased over time in ecology?
7. 18 MarPlease share your favorite examples of ecologists selecting (or failing to select) among the available questions, methods, research approaches, and results!
8. 15 MarFriday links: fruitful scientific controversies, the power of bored undergraduates, and more (UPDATEDx2)
9. 13 MarPoll: As a faculty job applicant, do you send thank you notes after a campus interview? As a search committee member, do you expect to receive them?
10. 12 MarPoll results: should the Introduction section of a scientific paper end with a statement of the main results?
11. 11 MarSpread Sunshine
12. 8 MarFriday links: Son of the Return of the Ecology Blogosphere, mapping college closures, and more (updated)
13. 7 MarPlease share your favorite examples of complementary studies or research approaches in ecology!
14. 5 MarPoll: should the Introduction section of a scientific paper end with a statement of the main results?
15. 4 MarConvey the key message of your figure in the first sentence of the legend (Updated!)
16. 1 MarFriday links: the latest on Dan Ariely, love vs. your job, and more

February 2024

1. 28 FebPseudoreplication vs. publication bias?
2. 26 FebAs a researcher, you’re Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Embrace it.
3. 23 FebFriday links: the end of Voyager 1, the end of the Duke herbarium, people vs. opportunities, and more
4. 21 FebPoll results: How have departmental seminar series changed pre- vs. post-pandemic?
5. 19 FebNon-definitive guides on developing a reading habit & generating project ideas
6. 16 FebFriday links: preregistration prevalence, superforecasters, and more
7. 14 FebQuantifying “researcher degrees of freedom” in ecology: comments on the new(ish) preprint by Gould et al. (UPDATED)
8. 13 FebNo statistics in the Kingdom of God?
9. 12 FebThe 13 emotional stages of being an academic
10. 9 FebFriday links: major inertia, Excel autofill vs. your data, and more
11. 7 FebHow has your department or institute’s seminar series changed pre- vs. post-pandemic? Please take our poll!
12. 6 FebAre cats successful? What does that question even mean?
13. 5 FebQuitting as a virtue
14. 2 FebFriday links: the art of the controlled meltdown, remembering Paul Keddy, and more
15. 1 FebWhy do we number dissertation chapters the way we do?

January 2024

1. 31 JanWhy do faculty search committees sometimes wonder whether the applicant really wants the job? And how should applicants respond?
2. 30 JanHeads up: our spam filter is blocking some non-spam comments
3. 29 JanIt’s time to stop making postdocs move for just two years
4. 26 JanFriday links: OpenAI + Arizona State University, Canada vs. international students, and more
5. 24 JanThe effect (or lack thereof) of social media on ecology blog traffic
6. 22 JanIt’s fine to go to graduate school just because you want to do scientific research for a few years (UPDATED)
7. 19 JanFriday links: Priyanga Amarasekare reinstated, economic ornithology, and more
8. 17 JanShow up!
9. 15 JanGenerative AI & graduate training in ecology
10. 12 JanFriday links: long live online writing, why climate doomers are wrong, and more
11. 8 JanJabberwocky Ecology is back too!
12. 8 JanDynamic Ecology is back!
13. 6 JanDynamic Ecology
14. 5 JanDynamic Ecology
15. 5 JanDynamic Ecology

2023 3

March 2023

1. 5 MarPrediction Ecology Conference

January 2023

1. 26 JanUCLA has suspended award-winning ecologist Priyanga Amarasekare without pay, apparently for speaking out against discrimination. Here are some ways you can help. (UPDATEDx2)
2. 9 JanThe 2021-22 N. American TT ecology faculty job market was a lot like the pre-pandemic market. Here are the data. (UPDATED with a bit of additional data)

2022 11

November 2022

1. 16 NovSo meta: Jeremy’s new ecological meta-meta-analysis is now published

October 2022

1. 22 OctUniversity of Calgary ecology faculty searches extended until Oct. 30. Please apply!

August 2022

1. 30 AugUniversity of Calgary hiring two tenure-track ecology profs
2. 24 AugTenure-track faculty position in applied data science at UCalgary (with a super-short application deadline; sorry!)
3. 14 AugJeremy Fox seeking 1-2 graduate students to start in F 2023 or W 2024
4. 10 AugInstitutional investigation finds star marine ecologist Danielle Dixson guilty of serial data fabrication

July 2022

1. 13 Jul#pruittdata latest (and last?): Jonathan Pruitt resigns from McMaster University (UPDATEDx2)

March 2022

1. 24 MarShameless self-promotion alert: my lab’s new Ecology paper shows that the truth does not “wear off” in ecological research (at least, not usually)
2. 9 MarI think we need a “shrink ray” for estimated mean effect sizes in ecological meta-analyses, but I’m not sure how to build one. Can you help?

February 2022

1. 19 FebScience issues Expression of Concern for Dixson et al. 2014, a major behavioral ecology paper for which Science’s own reporters uncovered evidence of data fabrication
2. 3 FebProminent botanist Steven Newmaster seems to have faked and exaggerated his work for many years, according to a major investigation by Science (UPDATED)

2021 115

December 2021

1. 28 DecE. O. Wilson has passed away
2. 21 Dec#pruittdata latest: another one bites the dust
3. 21 DecThe Dead of Winter
4. 3 DecLast minute Zoom seminar/discussion announcement: Tim Parker on reliability of ecological knowledge, today at noon Mountain Time!

November 2021

1. 29 NovTwo openings for ecology grad students in Jeremy Fox’s lab at the University of Calgary for Sept. 2022 or Jan. 2023
2. 29 Nov#pruittdata latest: Did Jonathan Pruitt just quietly lose his Canada 150 Chair? (UPDATE: yes he has–temporarily, pending “further notice” from McMaster University)
3. 25 NovHere’s a video of Jeremy’s recent seminar on how higher order interactions don’t matter in species-rich communities
4. 18 NovI’m giving an online seminar on higher order interactions on Tue. Nov. 23 at 5 pm UTC. Please come!
5. 16 NovBIG #pruittdata news: McMaster U investigation concluded. Jonathan Pruitt placed on paid administrative leave “until the process is complete”. Pruitt has no access to students or research funds while on leave. (UPDATED)
6. 11 NovA bit of #pruittdata news: Jonathan Pruitt’s doctoral dissertation has been withdrawn from Tennessee’s institutional repository; he still holds his PhD (post title updated x2, post updated x3)

October 2021

1. 13 OctWas the 2020-21 N. American ecology faculty job market different from the pre-pandemic job market? Yes and no. (updatedx2)

September 2021

1. 16 SepDynamic Ecology archives, organized by topic
2. 13 SepIn which we stop spelling banana
3. 10 SepFriday links: the perfect scientific crime, pollinator action movie, and more
4. 3 SepFriday links: Josh Van Buskirk 1959-2021, and more
5. 2 SepMost tenure-track ecology profs hired around 2015 still hold the same positions in 2021
6. 1 SepWhat’s the public face of ecology?

August 2021

1. 31 AugTimely posts for the start of the academic year
2. 30 AugData on the life histories of ecological research programs (and their meta-analyses)
3. 27 AugFriday links: dAlice/dt in Wonderland, 100 things a scientist should know, and more
4. 26 AugWhat did you, or will you, say to your students upon returning to face-to-face teaching?
5. 25 AugScientific fraud vs. art forgery (or, why are so many scientific frauds so easy to detect?)
6. 24 AugPoll results: here’s what (some) ecologists think about retracting old and superseded papers
7. 23 AugWhat should you do when you get a result that seems wrong, but you can’t find any problems in the underlying data or calculations?
8. 20 AugFriday links: a major case of fake data in psychology, the Avengers vs. faculty meetings, and more (UPDATEDx2)
9. 18 AugShould old or superseded papers ever be retracted?
10. 17 AugTuesday blast from the past: theory vs. models in ecology
11. 16 AugMeaning in the music: when science songs are more than their words
12. 13 AugFriday links: Rawls vs. mongoose, and more
13. 6 AugFriday links: tell me again what “biodiversity” is and why we want to conserve it?

July 2021

1. 30 JulFriday links: the story of Walter Pitts, how to apply to grad school in EEB, and more
2. 28 JulStage-setting readings and videos to kick off an intro biostats course: here are mine, please share your suggestions
3. 24 JulSaturday blast from the past: what is, or will be, your old school science cred?
4. 23 JulFriday links: science is “interesting” but not “awesome”, evolution of peer review, and more (UPDATED)
5. 19 JulVideo: most meta-analyses in ecology are too small (for most purposes)
6. 17 JulSaturday links: how to be a productive researcher (?), and more
7. 11 JulHeads up: you aren’t supposed to upload a prerecorded talk for ESA 2021. You’re supposed to record it using the ESA’s online system.
8. 9 JulFriday links: Richard Lewontin 1929-2021, and more
9. 8 JulWhy do ecologists publish so many more meta-analyses than evolutionary biologists?
10. 2 JulFriday links: a very concerning cross-paper data duplication in EEB, and more (updated)

June 2021

1. 25 JunFriday links: antiques vs. New Order, and more
2. 22 JunBook review: The Knowledge Machine by Michael Strevens
3. 21 JunThe death knell for the “one right way” approach to statistics? and the need for Sturdy Statistics
4. 18 JunFriday links: Fast Grants, NIH vs. harassment, and more
5. 17 JunScientific bets vs. scientific influence
6. 11 JunFriday links: CSEE award winners, the most irrational number, and more
7. 10 JunWhat conclusions should you draw from a dataset when different analysts reach different conclusions?
8. 4 JunFriday links: critiquing your own papers, why scientists lie (?), and more

May 2021

1. 28 MayFriday links: replicability vs. citations, EcoEssays, and more (UPDATED)
2. 26 MayNobody writes papers complaining about the state of ecology any more (do they?)
3. 21 MayFriday links: academic pariahs (except not really), publish and perish, and more
4. 17 MayWhat the heck is up with the many ecological meta-analyses that have inverted funnel plots?
5. 14 MayFriday links: behind the scenes of the first 17 months of #pruittdata, another serious data anomaly in EEB, and more (UPDATED)
6. 12 MayPost-publication review (and accusations of misconduct): signs of the times
7. 11 MayHelp Jeremy find some new blogs/articles/essays to read
8. 7 MayFriday links: tell me again what “follow the science” means, another serious fraud accusation in ecology, and more (UPDATED)
9. 6 MayA case study in how to choose one’s methods when there’s no agreed “best” method (or, how should I estimate heterogeneity in a random effects meta-analysis?)
10. 5 MayWe all want to write papers that synthesize, make connections, and fill in gaps. But what if sometimes we need to do the opposite?
11. 4 MayGood essays on the diversity of research “cultures” within scholarly fields?
12. 3 MayTypes of ecology paper

April 2021

1. 30 AprFriday links: remembering David Schindler, outsourcing peer review, science communication is unteachable (?), and more
2. 29 AprGreat moments in random knowledge
3. 28 AprBlast from the past: the most controversial ideas in ecology
4. 26 AprBest tv and movie portrayals of academia?
5. 26 AprTenure-track asst. professor position in Applied Data Science at the University of Calgary. Please apply!
6. 23 AprFriday links: RIP Philip Grime, the end (?) of #pruittdata at Am Nat, negative logging, and more
7. 22 AprWant to read some Terry Pratchett, or get some for a kid, but don’t know where to start? I’m here to help!
8. 19 AprWhat are the best humorous portrayals of evolution?
9. 16 AprFriday links: 2021 Guggenheim Fellows, climate change > climate economics, and more
10. 13 AprHave any ecologists or evolutionary biologists ever switched from one sort of research to a totally different sort?
11. 12 AprPoll results: which ecological concepts are the equivalent of phlogiston?
12. 9 AprFriday links: a major scientific fraud case (no, not that one), vaccines vs. on-campus classes, and more
13. 8 AprPoll: which ecological concepts are the equivalent of phlogiston?
14. 2 AprFriday links: Epstein fallout continues at Harvard, memes vs. intro biostats, and more (includes quick poll) (UPDATED)
15. 1 AprI’ve been thinking about this a lot lately

March 2021

1. 29 Mar50% of the heterogeneity in ecological meta-analyses is within studies, not among studies. Here’s why that should worry you. (UPDATED)
2. 26 MarFriday links: gut microbiome vs. securities fraud, rethinking graduate admissions essays, and more
3. 23 MarBest examples of moderator variables explaining variation in effect size in ecological meta-analyses?
4. 19 MarFriday links: statistical intuition vs. Covid-19, imposter syndrome (but not that kind), and more
5. 17 MarWhat I learned about scientific misconduct from reading the NSF OIG’s semiannual reports
6. 15 MarHow long do institutional investigations into accusations of serious scientific misconduct typically take? Here’s some data. (UPDATED)
7. 12 MarFriday links: philosophy vs. carbon capture, the history of =, data that resemble study sites, and more
8. 11 MarEcologists like robustness checks–especially if other people do them
9. 10 MarShould your paper include alternative analyses as “robustness checks”? If so, where? Take a quick poll!
10. 8 MarCiting “personal communication” is no longer much of a thing in ecology
11. 5 MarFriday links: all-virtual #ESA2021, Swanne Gordon interview, and more
12. 4 MarWhat makes for good exploratory research?
13. 3 MarIt’s fine to read your talk (if that’s what works for you)
14. 1 MarWhat is your favorite clever/funny experimental design in ecology?

February 2021

1. 26 FebFriday links: a striking correction in ecology, the greatest female scientific illustrators, and more
2. 25 FebWhat are the most influential opinion/perspective papers in ecological history?
3. 23 FebDoes the sampling variance of ecological studies generally improve over time?
4. 19 FebTenure-track faculty position in eukaryotic genetics available in the Dept. of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary
5. 19 FebFriday links: the history of lecturing, and more
6. 18 FebDid ecologists cherry-pick all the big effects years ago, so that now we’re stuck studying small effects?
7. 17 FebAre most ecological effects consistently positive, or else consistently negative?
8. 16 FebRecent ecological meta-analyses don’t cover longer time periods than older ones. Which is kind of interesting.
9. 12 FebTechnician and lab manager positions available in the Duffy Lab at Michigan!
10. 12 FebFriday links: Youyang Gu interview, #pruittdata retractions and EoCs keep rolling in, and more
11. 10 FebWhy do so many ecologists overestimate how informative small meta-analyses are about the mean effect size?
12. 9 FebPostdoc positions available in the Duffy Lab at Michigan!
13. 5 FebFriday links: marking Black History Month in ecology, financial crisis at Laurentian University, #pruittdata latest, and more
14. 3 FebHow many effect sizes estimates are “enough” for an ecological meta-analysis? Way more than many ecologists think!

January 2021

1. 29 JanFriday links post up now!
2. 29 JanFriday links: the ecology of GameStop!
3. 28 JanPhD and postdoc openings in McGill lab at UMaine and postdoc opening in Niles and Gotelli labs at UVM
4. 27 JanHow big does an ecological meta-analysis have to be to be “big enough”? Take our poll!
5. 22 JanFriday links: regression to the mean vs. the Dunning-Kruger effect, #overlyhonestsyllabus, and more
6. 21 JanWhat questions would be interesting to ask with a database of over 114,000 ecological effect sizes from 470 meta-analyses?
7. 15 JanFriday links: Covid-19 vs. BES journals, Charles Darwin board game, and more
8. 11 JanHow has the frequency of “but see” citations changed over time in ecology and evolution?
9. 8 JanFriday links: vaccine prioritization vs. conditional probability, Am Nat vs. PubPeer, and more
10. 7 JanSubtle biases with important consequences
11. 6 JanOne year into #pruittdata, how have citing authors reacted? Here are the numbers.
12. 1 JanFriday links: what was blogging, and more

2020 200

December 2020

1. 22 DecThe Dead of Winter
2. 21 DecI cannot be arsed to do a year in review post this year, so here’s some Christmas music I like
3. 18 DecFriday links: regrets about quitting academia, and more
4. 15 DecDon’t be so quick to recommend “best practices” in science or academia
5. 11 DecFriday links: modeling the light at the end of the tunnel, and more (UPDATED)
6. 10 DecThe worst forecasting failures and what we can learn from them
7. 9 DecThat sucked
8. 7 DecI miss serendipity
9. 4 DecFriday links: “is the semester over yet?” edition
10. 3 DecAfter slogging through 5 exams, each two weeks apart, how did Intro Bio students feel about frequent exams?
11. 2 DecPoll: can you guess which ecological meta-analyses exhibit a decline effect?

November 2020

1. 30 NovJeremy officially becomes a philosopher (at least in his own mind)
2. 27 NovFriday links: free online textbook on ecology with R, blogging lives again (?), and more
3. 25 NovWhat should I ask Anonymous Potato?
4. 23 NovPoll results on co-authorship of papers using publicly available data
5. 20 NovFriday links: yet another retraction for Jonathan Pruitt, and more
6. 18 NovPoll on co-authorship of papers using publicly available data
7. 17 NovThe opposite of the decline effect?
8. 13 NovFriday links: philosopher vs. baseball, following Am Nat’s lead on data sharing, and more
9. 11 NovScientific fraud vs. financial fraud: is there a scientific equivalent of “control fraud”?
10. 9 NovThe story and lessons of the NutNet experiment: an interview with Elizabeth Borer
11. 6 NovFriday link: Am Nat gives its data sharing policy teeth
12. 2 NovWhat’s the “greatest” scientific fraud of all time? (UPDATE: comments now closed)

October 2020

1. 30 OctFriday links: Trump vs. NOAA, the (bleak?) political context for Canadian higher ed, and more
2. 29 OctScientific fraud vs. financial fraud: is there a scientific equivalent of a “market crime”?
3. 28 OctWhen, and why, the US and Canadian ecology faculty job market first got so competitive
4. 26 OctAre there any measurable predictors of how many interviews or offers an ecology faculty job seeker will receive in the US or Canada?
5. 23 OctScary Friday links
6. 22 OctIn contrast to some other fields, TT faculty hiring in ecology doesn’t have much to do with where you got your PhD. Here’s the data.
7. 21 OctHow much do TT ecology faculty job seekers customize each application? And how much customization do search committee members want to see? Here are the data.
8. 20 OctHow productive a researcher do you have to be to be competitive for a TT ecology faculty position in the US or Canada? Here are the data.
9. 19 OctVery few TT ecology faculty positions in the US and Canada are filled by “insiders” (however defined), and as an applicant you can’t tell which ones will be
10. 16 OctFriday links: when popular science distorts science, and (a bit) more
11. 15 OctWhat teaching experience do newly-hired TT ecology profs tend to have? Here’s the answer.
12. 14 OctHow to interpret an email encouraging you to apply for a tenure-track faculty position
13. 13 OctIn which I shamelessly use the upcoming US election to trick you into reading about the Price equation
14. 10 OctPumpkin mascarpone pie!
15. 9 OctFriday links: the knowledge machine, Fat Bear Week, and more (UPDATED)
16. 7 OctGuest post: Undergraduate mentorship in the time of COVID-19: What we’ve learned
17. 5 OctHow much damage do retracted papers do to science before they’re retracted, and to whom?
18. 2 OctFriday links: RIP Charles Goodnight, and more

September 2020

1. 29 SepWhat is an ecologist in your language and country? (includes poll)
2. 25 SepFriday links: RIP Georgina Mace, is vs. ought (online learning edition), and more
3. 24 SepWhat unsolved problems will (or should) ecologists focus on in future, and how would you identify them today?
4. 23 SepPoll results: how replicable do ecologists think ecology is, and why?
5. 21 SepHoisted from the comments: Tim Parker on replicability in ecology vs. the social sciences
6. 19 SepDon’t forget to take our short poll on the replicability of ecology!
7. 18 SepFriday links: life after scientific misconduct, Comedy Wildlife Photography awards, and more
8. 17 SepHow replicable is ecology? Take the poll!
9. 11 SepFriday links: de-extinction (of board games about extinction), and more
10. 10 SepHere we go again – the planet is practically dead
11. 8 SepJeremy Fox’s lab seeking three new grad students for 2021
12. 5 SepSaturday blast from the past: the times, they are a changin’ (when it comes to post-publication review)
13. 4 SepFriday links: RIP Joe Connell, and more
14. 4 SepThursday evening blast from the past: remembering Tony Ives’ legendary MacArthur Award lecture
15. 3 SepWelp, it’s not as if anyone’s going to come to my office anytime soon
16. 2 SepWhat was the best year for ecology?
17. 1 SepOn what important ecological research topic do non-experts have the most outdated view?

August 2020

1. 31 AugEmbracing the Paradox: Lessons Learned from Teaching Virtual Field Courses
2. 28 AugFriday links: #pruittdata rolls on, philosophy vs. Jeremy’s papers, Kate Winslett vs. Mary Anning, and more
3. 24 AugHelp me redesign the scientific paper
4. 21 AugFriday links: four (!) more #pruittdata papers, remembering Ben Nolting, and more
5. 20 AugPassing the mutualism buck: why have theoretical textbooks largely ignored mutualism?
6. 19 Aug#macgyverteaching and #macgyverscience vs. Covid-19
7. 14 AugFriday links: Remembering Michael Soulé, and more (UPDATE: link fixed)
8. 12 AugSupporting BIPOC researchers in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
9. 10 AugWhat happens to serial scientific fraudsters after they’re discovered? (UPDATED)
10. 7 AugFriday links: experiments vs. observations vs. p-hacking, Andrew Gelman vs. Nate Silver, new Expression of Concern for Jonathan Pruitt, and more
11. 4 AugAsk us anything: recent community ecology research that belongs in the textbooks
12. 3 AugRandom thoughts about the virtual #ESA2020 meeting (UPDATED with my own slides)

July 2020

1. 31 JulFriday links: two more retractions for Jonathan Pruitt, and more
2. 29 JulAsk us anything: what will the short- and long-term academic job market in EEB look like?
3. 24 JulFriday links: another retraction for Jonathan Pruitt, journal cover art, and more
4. 22 JulAsk us anything: the future of machine learning in ecology
5. 20 JulAsk us anything: when did you realize you’re a “mid-career” researcher?
6. 18 JulSaturday blast from the past: what is, or will be, your old school science cred?
7. 17 JulFriday links: (re)claiming scientific identity, RIP Joanna Cole, and more
8. 15 JulAsk us anything: what theories should a beginning ecology student read up on, and how?
9. 13 JulAsk us anything: should you contact news media to promote your own research?
10. 10 JulFriday links: bad news vs. good news (UPDATEDx2)
11. 3 JulFriday links: I want to work but I can’t, fame vs. h-index, and more

June 2020

1. 29 JunAre you planning to get creative with your prerecorded #ESA2020 presentation?
2. 26 JunFriday links: a listing of upcoming online ecology seminars, RIP Slate Star Codex, and more
3. 25 JunAcademic Parenting During a Pandemic
4. 24 JunThe most, and least, influential calls for future research in ecology
5. 23 JunGuest post: 8 Lessons for Teaching over Zoom
6. 22 JunDoes publication of a meta-analysis encourage or discourage further studies?
7. 20 JunSaturday blast from the past: helping grad students prepare for non-academic careers
8. 19 JunFriday links: an open letter to the EEB community from BIPOC ecologists, how to teach online, and more
9. 18 JunGoing back to (a new) normal: reflections from three academics as universities and society begin to re-open
10. 17 JunAsk us (well, Brian and Jeremy) anything!
11. 15 JunWhat, if any, are the circumstances in which the authors’ background or expertise should inform journal publication decisions? (UPDATED)
12. 12 JunFriday links: reproducibility vs. mental health, and more (UPDATED with breaking news)
13. 8 JunEcological forecasting ethics: lessons for COVID-19
14. 5 JunFriday links
15. 1 JunHow (if at all) will the coronavirus pandemic permanently change science and academia?

May 2020

1. 30 MaySaturday blast from the past: the best movies about scientists
2. 29 MayFriday links: how anger can lead to understanding, major revamp and expansion of NSF proposed, and more
3. 28 MayPoll: are you planning to register for the virtual #ESA2020 meeting?
4. 25 MayWhat are the most important, influential review papers in the history of ecology?
5. 23 MaySaturday blast from the past: practical tips for academics, from the world of business
6. 22 MayFriday links: the counted, and uncounted, toll of COVID-19, university funding apocalypse, and more (UPDATED with bonus link)
7. 21 MayPoll results: which ecological and evolutionary “laws” actually deserve that title? (UPDATED)
8. 19 MayA raspberry of an idea: How to do inspired science as a group
9. 15 MayFriday links: teaching the students you have vs. creating the students you wish you had, and more
10. 14 MayWhat are you doing for socially distanced lab meetings?
11. 13 MayGuest post: four drafts of Acknowledgments
12. 11 MayPoll: which ecological and evolutionary “laws” actually deserve that title?
13. 9 MaySaturday blast from the past: the intermediate disturbance hypothesis vs. Zeno’s paradox of Achilles and the tortoise
14. 8 MayFriday links: new National Academy members, pandemic vs. new profs, and more (UPDATED)
15. 6 MayGuest Post: A personal account of why science needs inclusion
16. 4 MayHoisted from the comments: what recent(ish) research should be taught in intro bio courses, or intro ecology courses, but isn’t?
17. 2 MaySaturday blast from the past: weird equipment purchases
18. 1 MayFriday links: planning for the fall semester, a taxonomy of zoomers, and more

April 2020

1. 30 AprGuest post: What if my hobby — what I do for “fun” — is being a workaholic?
2. 29 AprRIP Bob May, 1936-2020
3. 28 AprWhat’s the latest career stage at which a researcher has completely changed fields, and made important contributions to their new field?
4. 27 AprThe scientific road not taken: knowing what you know now, if you had to start over again and pick a totally different research area, which one would you pick?
5. 25 AprSaturday blast from the past: the (r)evolution of ecology in the 1950s and ’60s
6. 24 AprFriday links: t-shirts vs. coronavirus, cafeteria menus vs. scholarly papers, and more
7. 23 AprGuess the Dynamic Ecologist quiz answers: apparently we’ve typecast ourselves :-)
8. 21 AprQuiz time! Can you guess the Dynamic Ecologist?
9. 18 AprSaturday blast from the past: in praise of side projects
10. 17 AprFriday links: RIP John Conway, cartoons vs. coronavirus models, and more
11. 16 AprWhat are you doing about graduate admissions for the fall?
12. 15 AprWhat’s your biggest worry about possibly having to teach all your courses online in the fall?
13. 13 AprGuest Post: Balancing academia and chronic illness
14. 11 AprSaturday blast from the past: building your own scientific gear
15. 10 AprFriday links: an EEB retraction, the best/worst abstract ever, and more
16. 9 AprHow do you quantify the contribution of “structural” causes to the occurrence of some particular event?
17. 7 AprOpen discussion thread: field-based courses in the time of coronavirus
18. 6 AprMy best idea for coping with social distancing: zooming old baseball games with my family and friends
19. 4 AprSaturday blast from the past: why Meghan almost quit grad school
20. 3 AprSocially…distanced…Friday…links
21. 1 AprA remembrance of my dad, the best field assistant anyone could hope for
22. 1 AprDynamic Ecology escapism week: who is ecology’s nearest equivalent of Paul Erdős?

March 2020

1. 31 MarDynamic Ecology escapism week: do bird papers have the best figures?
2. 30 MarDynamic Ecology escapism week: fun ways of deciding authorship order
3. 28 MarSaturday blast from the past: the best movies about scientists
4. 27 MarFriday links: COVID-19 totally proves that you were right about everything all along [eyeroll], and more
5. 26 MarScientific fraud vs. financial fraud: the “snowball effect” and the Golden Rule of fraud detection (Or, should we be suspicious of any researcher who publishes a lot?)
6. 25 MarScientific fraud vs. financial fraud: the “fraud triangle”
7. 23 MarHow should comment-reply exchanges be structured? Thoughts inspired by a recent exchange of comments on a high-profile conservation paper. (UPDATED)
8. 21 MarWhile you’re stuck at home, why not participate in a live natural history trivia quiz on Twitter? (UPDATED with improved link)
9. 21 MarSaturday blast from the past: don’t introduce your next paper by saying that many people have long been interested in the topic
10. 20 MarFriday links: a cat tale (of possible scientific misconduct), COVID-19 vs. everything, and more
11. 20 MarThe most important part of remote lecturing via Zoom…
12. 18 MarBeating cabin fever: quarantine reading suggestions for scientists
13. 18 MarBest examples of ecological theory “anticipating” future data?
14. 16 MarGuest post: Suggestions from a Wellness Counselor on Coronavirus and Managing Mental Health
15. 16 MarGuest post: Personal journeys towards developing quantitative skills
16. 16 MarEcologists discussing science of coronavirus pandemic – open thread
17. 15 MarSome Advice for PhD Students and Their Mentors in the Time of Coronavirus
18. 15 MarOnly a few days left to apply to the TT asst. professor position in evolutionary/comparative biomechanics at the University of Calgary!
19. 15 MarHere’s the letter Jonathan Pruitt’s lawyers have been sending to journals and his former collaborators #pruittgate #pruittdata (UPDATED)
20. 14 MarTentative thoughts on how I’m going to teach the rest of my large intro biostats course online (UPDATED)
21. 13 MarFriday links: junk science then and now, so you suddenly have to teach online for the rest of the term, and more
22. 12 MarWhat is your college or university doing about its ongoing faculty searches in light of the COVID-19 outbreak?
23. 11 MarStill time to apply! Two postdoc positions available in the Duffy Lab at Michigan! (UPDATE: There are also technician & lab manager positions!)
24. 10 MarOn 50 years of the Price equation: looking back vs. looking ahead
25. 7 MarSaturday blast from the past: in praise of showmanship in scientific presentations (includes polls!)
26. 6 MarFriday links: RIP Freeman Dyson, Marie Curie biopic, R 1.0.0 turns 20, and more
27. 5 MarRecording lectures is good for students, good for instructors, and good for public health
28. 4 MarScientific fraud vs. financial fraud: the “Canadian paradox”

February 2020

1. 29 FebSaturday blast from the past: what’s the biggest recent conceptual advance in ecology?
2. 28 FebFriday links: RIP Katherine Johnson, #PeepYourScience, and more
3. 26 FebBlog post ideas I will probably never get around to writing up
4. 24 FebThe history of retractions from ecology and evolution journals (UPDATED)
5. 22 FebSaturday blast from the past: is autocorrelation your friend or foe?
6. 21 FebFriday links: proof that hindsight really is 20:20 vision, lizard art, and more
7. 19 FebProductivity, planning, and self-care: work-life balance requires planning ahead
8. 18 FebTwo postdoc positions on host-symbiont interactions available in Meghan Duffy’s lab at Michigan!
9. 17 FebSome data and historical perspective on scientific misconduct (UPDATEDx4 with additional data)
10. 15 FebSaturday blast from the past: I have data ESA, I promise!
11. 14 FebFriday links: ASN Young Investigator Award winners, and more (UPDATED)
12. 11 FebTenure-track asst. professor position in evolutionary/comparative biomechanics at the University of Calgary
13. 10 FebWho are the most accomplished scientist-politicians in history? (UPDATED)
14. 8 FebSaturday blast from the past: Can you describe your research using only the 1000 most common English words? And should you even try?
15. 7 FebFriday links: concrete ideas for improving data integrity, SoftBank vs. multilevel selection, and more
16. 3 FebWhat prof-specific topics would you like us to blog about?
17. 1 FebSaturday blast from the past: what’s the origin of the term “field work”?

January 2020

1. 31 JanFriday links: Jonathan Pruitt retraction fallout, AE “malpractice” at JTB, and more (UPDATEDx9)
2. 29 Jan2020 reader survey results
3. 28 JanGraduate student mental health at Michigan: some key factors & potential things to address
4. 27 JanRecommendations for good videos and interactive online resources for teaching introductory statistical concepts?
5. 24 JanFriday links: how to stop freaking out about climate change, a rare EEB retraction, and more
6. 22 JanWhen writing a grant proposal, do you first think of the topic? The experiments? The preliminary data? Something else?
7. 21 JanWhat debate topic would you like to see at the next ASN standalone meeting?
8. 20 JanWhich ecologists (or other scientists) are remembered for one discovery or idea, but really ought to be remembered for others too?
9. 19 Jan“A data-based guide to the North American ecology faculty job market” now published
10. 17 JanFriday links: advice for white academics mentoring students of color, a personal view of the Australian bushfires, and more
11. 16 JanDo we need replication studies in theoretical ecology?
12. 14 JanDynamic Ecology reader survey!
13. 13 JanOn reaching one’s destination and realizing it’s a starting point
14. 10 JanFriday links: love letters to trees, are invasive species bad, ASN Young Investigator Award applications due soon, Barbara Kingsolver vs. Mary Treat, and more
15. 9 JanThoughts from the ASN standalone meeting in Asilomar
16. 7 JanSome things that helped me make it through a particularly busy semester
17. 6 JanHow much evidence is there that we should aim to write every day? And are their downsides to suggesting that people aim for that?
18. 3 JanFriday links: how to make a billion dollars from student evaluations, faculty vs. baby Yoda, and more
19. 2 JanDynamic Ecology year in review

2019 197

December 2019

1. 20 DecFriday solstice link: The Dead of Winter
2. 19 DecThursday links!
3. 18 DecAre there any examples of a single question/method/approach taking over an entirely scholarly field, to the field’s detriment?
4. 17 DecWhat is the typical effect size of an ecological study?
5. 16 DecHow many times should you expect to move before obtaining a TT asst. professor position in ecology?
6. 13 DecFriday links: Haeckel vs. Christmas cards, green + bond = green bond, phylogeny of baked goods, and more
7. 12 DecWhat are some good examples of ecologists using multiple models to bracket reality?
8. 11 DecWhat are the best examples of scientists “playing against type”?
9. 9 DecWhat are you looking forward to as a semester break treat?
10. 6 DecFriday links: David Attenborough vs. The Apprentice, science says you should quit Facebook, and more
11. 5 DecIt’s hard to systematically improve K-12 student outcomes by improving teaching. Are there implications for universities?
12. 4 DecUpdate on recording office hours: It seems to be working!
13. 2 DecOn a bad argument for grant lotteries

November 2019

1. 29 NovFriday links: Dr. Doom vs. your thesis proposal, can your teacher make you taller, and more
2. 27 NovIn praise of Slow Boy science
3. 26 NovHow do ecological controversies typically end?
4. 22 NovFriday links: do people really object to experiments, decline effect redux, Darwin vs. trees, and more (UPDATED)
5. 21 NovMy (and other people’s) best random R tips
6. 21 NovApplications now open for the NextProf Science Future Faculty workshop at UMich!
7. 19 NovWho’s up for a study of researcher degrees of freedom in ecology? (UPDATEDx3–turns out others are already doing this, which is great, so I’m not going to)
8. 18 NovAs an instructor, what do you do about the fact that students are likely to share your assignments online?
9. 15 NovFriday links: statistics vs. the humanities, ecology vs. conservation, and more
10. 12 NovDid you know that there are fields in which everybody talks up their favorite faculty job candidates on social media?
11. 11 NovNominate somebody for International Biogeography Society Awards!
12. 8 NovFriday links: the evolutionary ecology of scooters, statistics > Big Data, and more
13. 6 NovAn incomplete list of things that blow the minds of Intro Bio students
14. 4 NovPoll results: the many ways ecologists seek generality (and why some are much more popular than others)
15. 1 NovFriday links: eagles vs. roaming charges, should you worry about getting scooped, and more

October 2019

1. 31 OctA brief history of ecologists’ disagreements about “generality”, in quotes
2. 29 OctPoll: should ecologists seek generalities, and if so, how?
3. 25 OctFriday links: string cheese graphs, interview with Tarana Burke, and more
4. 23 OctShould we judge a scientific field by its classic papers, its typical current papers, or its best current papers?
5. 22 OctGender balance of the faculty and chairs of N. American EEB departments
6. 18 OctFriday links: Blackboard vs. baby clothes, Bayesian vs. Bayesian, and more
7. 16 OctEquity and diversity targets in science, part II: views depend on identity (guest post)
8. 11 OctFriday links: the AAU vs. Canada, death vs. scientific progress, and more
9. 10 OctHow often do TT ecology profs get hired near where they did their PhDs?
10. 9 OctA good idea for a research project: endogenize the exogenous
11. 7 OctPlease submit nominations for the Mercer Award, and other ESA awards! Deadline Nov. 7.
12. 4 OctFriday links: Cormac McCarthy vs. academic writing, Fat Bear Week, and more
13. 3 OctAre there any generalities about ecology profs who move from one TT position to another?

September 2019

1. 30 SepOn getting a sense of perspective…or not
2. 27 SepFriday links: 2019 MacArthur Fellows, how to choose a research project, and more
3. 26 SepPlease help Jeremy identify TT asst. professors of ecology hired in the US and Canada in 2018-19
4. 25 SepWhy aren’t ecologists prouder of putting old wine in new bottles?
5. 23 SepA simple “age”-structured model of the N. American ecology faculty job market
6. 20 SepFriday links: the incredible shrinking George Washington University, The Far Side is coming back (?!), and more
7. 20 SepDid North America really lose 3 billion birds? What does it mean?
8. 18 SepAsk us (well, Brian) anything: generalities about trait-based community ecology?
9. 16 SepNSERC Discovery Grant application tips
10. 13 SepFriday links: science like somebody is watching, active learning vs. turnips, and more
11. 12 SepPreprint: a data-based guide to the N. American ecology faculty job market!
12. 11 SepAsk us anything: what’s your role in your community, and in society?
13. 10 SepOn overdetermining success, embracing messiness, getting ducks in a row, and changing course
14. 9 SepEquity and diversity targets in science: Your thoughts, please (guest post with poll)
15. 6 SepSurvey of theoreticians on how their work is cited by non-theory papers
16. 6 SepFriday links: how to teach paper writing, chill out about self-citations, and more
17. 5 SepAsk us anything: is there a place for “hot takes” in ecology?
18. 4 SepGuest post: How to be an ally
19. 3 SepEEB seminar series are almost gender balanced
20. 2 SepIs Dynamic Ecology entering senescence?

August 2019

1. 30 AugFriday links: RIP C. S. “Buzz” Holling, when whistleblowers get it wrong, and more
2. 29 AugCreating environments where it’s okay to make mistakes and ask questions
3. 28 AugWhat unusual skill or past experience helps you be a better ecologist?
4. 26 AugPoll: guess the gender balance of N. American EEB seminar series
5. 23 AugFriday links: the gender gap in political science, birds=rabbits, cartoon vs. Jeremy, and more
6. 21 AugChanges I made the last time I taught that I think were useful
7. 19 AugAsk us anything: the “perfect” intro biostats course
8. 16 AugFriday links: James Bond should be played by a burrowing owl, and more
9. 14 Aug#EEBMentorMatch is live! Sign up now if you’re a prospective or current EEB grad student who’d like additional mentoring!
10. 13 AugHow I think the start of the semester will go vs. how it actually goes
11. 12 AugWriting for your students: some suggestions from Overconfident Greg (guest post)
12. 10 AugWhat to see and do (and where to drink bourbon and beer) in Louisville for #ESA2019
13. 9 AugFriday Links: cool postdoc opportunity, there’s life on the moon now (?), a very British tenure, and more (UPDATED)
14. 8 AugWhere to eat and drink in Louisville for #ESA2019
15. 7 AugAll (ok, some) of the advice you need to get ready for #ESA2019
16. 6 AugAsk us anything: should ecologists devote more effort to framework-building and unification?
17. 5 AugAsk us anything: finding ecology PhD positions, and improving the graduate admissions process
18. 2 AugAsk us anything: writing descriptive or exploratory papers
19. 1 AugAsk us anything: how can ecologists from developing countries be competitive on the international academic job market?

July 2019

1. 31 JulAsk us anything: good advice for today’s ecology faculty job seekers
2. 30 JulAsk us anything: what if a disgruntled committee member is going behind your back to wreck your career?
3. 29 JulAsk us anything: allocating your time between research projects
4. 26 JulFriday links: Montpellier > everywhere else (apparently), how to be a journal editor, and more
5. 25 JulAsk us anything: do EEB profs make the best administrators?
6. 24 JulIf we already understood community ecology, would we even know it? (includes poll)
7. 22 JulStatistical Balkanization – is it a problem?
8. 19 JulFriday links: does ecology need more theoreticians, tell me again what “open science” is, and more
9. 17 JulHow badly do authors want open access? What priorities do authors really have? Bringing data to the discussion
10. 15 JulDoes the media seize on cases where humans benefit nature?
11. 12 JulFriday links: star economist suspended for sexual harassment, and more
12. 11 JulJob Announcement: Intro Bio Lab teaching position at the University of Michigan!
13. 10 JulA crude statistical summary of the teaching experience of recently-hired N. American TT ecology faculty
14. 9 JulWhy teaching Intro Bio makes me think we need to radically change qualifying exams
15. 8 JulHappy 7th birthday to us!
16. 5 JulFriday links: the Democratic primary field as history department, changes coming to the ESA meeting, and more
17. 2 JulAsk us (well, Brian and Jeremy) anything and we’ll answer! (UPDATE: comments now closed)
18. 1 JulHow many N. American TT ecology asst. profs leave for another TT job within their first two years? (includes poll) (UPDATED)

June 2019

1. 28 JunFriday links: regression to the mean vs. the purple-snouted crompus, profs vs. meetings, and more
2. 27 JunDoes your graduate program have a professional skills course? If so, how useful do you find it?
3. 26 JunDoes evolutionary biology have any influential, intuitively appealing verbal hypotheses? And if so, how have they fared?
4. 25 JunGuest post: advice for winning more awards
5. 24 JunWhat ecological questions or topics require no further research?
6. 21 JunFriday links: guess the trend game, Evolution 2019 grad student bingo, and more
7. 20 JunA statistical profile of how Twitter users engage with Dynamic Ecology
8. 19 JunCohort-based mentoring for graduate students: a “bright spot” worth emulating?
9. 17 JunTo be sure: advice for writing discussions
10. 14 JunFriday links: a sobering story about publicizing scholarship on social media, polynomial cows, and more (UPDATED)
11. 11 JunGuest post: Two tenures
12. 10 JunFaculty: you should attend your institution’s graduation ceremony, it’s great
13. 10 JunOn getting—and giving—well-meaning but bad advice
14. 7 JunFriday links: why higher education costs so much, statistics vs. knowledge, statistics vs. judges, and more
15. 5 JunPoll results: Good news! Listing parental or family leave on your CV seems more likely to help than to hurt. More committees should give applicants opportunities to list major life events.
16. 3 JunPoll results: what are the biggest problems with the conduct of ecological research?

May 2019

1. 31 MayFriday links: is bad preregistration good, RIP Murray Gell-Mann, the evolution (?) of Godzilla, and more (UPDATED)
2. 30 MayWhat do you most think you should know but don’t?
3. 28 MayA quick introduction to anchoring, or, why I am still trying to get Nature Biotechnology to correct the Evans et al. paper more than one year later
4. 24 MayFriday links: feedback invited on ecoevojobs.net, when (not) to write a review paper, and more
5. 23 MayPoll: which purported problems with ecological research are actually problems?
6. 22 MayMaking office hours more accessible: should we be calling them student hours and recording them? What else can we do?
7. 20 MayPoll: Parental leave and CVs
8. 17 MayFriday links: do blind orchestra auditions really benefit women, advice vs. coaching, machine learning vs. eggnog, and more
9. 15 MayWant to write a guest post for us on where to eat and drink in Louisville for #ESA2019?
10. 14 MayWhat overused, vague, or otherwise unhelpful phrases would you like to ban from ecology papers?
11. 13 MayHas ecological theory exhausted the space of mathematically tractable models? And does it matter if it has?
12. 10 MayFriday links: quantifying Lakatos, tell me again what “relevant” research is, and more
13. 8 MaySeagulling, ego itching powder, supporting one another, and happiness
14. 6 MayOn listening and responding to students: A small shift I made to be more encouraging to students who ask questions
15. 3 MayFriday links: different universities are different, make ALL the mtcars jokes, and more
16. 1 MayQuantifying the life histories of ecological ideas (UPDATED)

April 2019

1. 29 AprEngaging students by increasing curiosity: have I actually been making students *less* engaged with some of my in class activities?
2. 26 AprFriday links: why zombie ideas persist, environmentalism vs. the Notre Dame fire, Thanos the ecologist, and more
3. 25 AprThe Folk Theorem of Alternative Hypotheses In Ecology
4. 24 AprAre our students reading the textbook? And, if they are, is it helping them?
5. 22 AprWho is doing interesting system-based research? And what is a model system anyway?
6. 19 AprFriday links: ESA award winners, RIP Robert Mark, Johnny Depp vs. academia, and more
7. 17 AprWhich bits of science and academia are just fine?
8. 16 AprAm I frantically juggling when I should be letting things go off the edge of a cliff?
9. 15 AprRecommitting to email boundaries
10. 12 AprFriday links: RIP for-profit universities, should I stay or should I go (faculty edition), and more
11. 11 AprBold opinion pieces, RIP?
12. 9 AprWhat fraction of ecology PhD recipients go on to TT faculty positions? (UPDATED)
13. 5 AprFriday links: cell biology vs. Brexit, the human rights of nature (?), and more (UPDATED)
14. 3 AprPoll results: are EEB faculty job seekers receiving good advice about the EEB faculty job market?
15. 1 AprGuest post: Strategies for helping your research reach a wider audience

March 2019

1. 29 MarFriday links: how to make science more accessible and posters more effective, and more
2. 27 MarFirst cut results of poll on manuscript rejections: we deal with a lot of rejection
3. 25 MarIf your field experiment has few replicates (and it probably does), intersperse your treatments rather than randomizing them
4. 22 MarFriday links: zombie ideas in the humanities and social sciences, fantasy birding, Rhesus pieces, and more
5. 20 MarA statistical profile of recent EEB faculty job applicants (UPDATED)
6. 18 MarPoll: are EEB faculty job seekers receiving good advice about the EEB faculty job market?
7. 15 MarFriday links: statistical significance vs. statistical “clarity”, philosophy of science vs. cell biology, and more (UPDATED)
8. 14 MarOnly a few days left to apply to the TT position in evolutionary/comparative biomechanics at the University of Calgary!
9. 13 MarHow pragmatism resolved the age old battle between rationalism and empiricism (or what is the scientific method?)
10. 11 MarPoll on manuscript rejections
11. 8 MarFriday links: University of California vs. Elsevier, Archimedes screamed hi, and more
12. 6 MarWhen, and why, the ecology faculty job market first got so competitive
13. 4 MarHere’s some data on how many people apply for N. American TT faculty positions in ecology and allied fields!
14. 1 MarFriday links: Jeremy gets out of his reading rut, and more.

February 2019

1. 28 FebWhy don’t ecologists have more debates about alternative ways of studying X?
2. 27 FebBuilding confidence, building resilience, and building CVs
3. 25 FebSurvey on number of applicants for recently-advertised tenure-track N. American faculty positions in ecology and allied fields
4. 22 FebFriday links: ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Awards announced, Tony Ives vs. reproducibility, and more
5. 20 FebWho is surprisingly well represented in your reference manager library?
6. 18 FebIn which my ink runs out and I realize there are lots of things that are interesting and important, and I cannot do them all
7. 15 FebFriday links: Science Kombat, #rstats Valentines, you vs. your productivity, and more
8. 13 FebTenure-track position in evolutionary/comparative animal biomechanics at the University of Calgary (UPDATED)
9. 13 FebManuscraps: on partially killing one’s manuscript darlings
10. 12 FebHappy Darwin Day from Charles Darwin himself!
11. 11 FebWhy I told a room of 300 people that I see a therapist
12. 8 FebFriday links: financial engineering vs. lynx, debating de-extinction, and more
13. 7 FebWhy should species diversity be highest where organismal performance is highest? (UPDATEDx2)
14. 6 FebA statistical profile of recently-hired TT Canadian ecologists
15. 5 FebShould we aim to leave students feeling empowered to tackle climate change? Should we try to give them hope? And, if so, how?
16. 4 FebWhen did you realize you work on climate change?
17. 1 FebFriday links: View From the Park lives (!), gifs vs. the government shutdown, and more

January 2019

1. 31 JanThe hardest thing about spelling banana, and also about blogging
2. 30 JanGuest post: Advice I’d give to a young ecologist considering a career in US government science, in light of the recent government shutdown
3. 29 JanGreat-but-uninfluential scientists?
4. 28 JanComparison of ways of visualizing individual-level Likert data: line plots and heat maps and mosaic plots, oh my!
5. 25 JanFriday links: peer review vs. hats, asking the right question for the wrong reasons, and more
6. 24 JanAs a grad student, I didn’t challenge the idea that one should be willing to move wherever for a TT job. Now I do.
7. 23 JanWhat’s the biggest change of mind any ecologist has ever had about any ecological idea?
8. 21 JanPaired line plots (a.k.a. “reaction norms”) to visualize Likert data
9. 18 JanFriday links: #academicKonMari, fundamentals of data visualization, and more
10. 17 JanHoisted from the comments: evolution music!
11. 16 JanNobody shares our posts on Facebook any more
12. 15 JanGuest post: I am a scientist. Ask me what I do, not where I am from “originally”.
13. 14 JanDid the other reviewer notice things you didn’t? That doesn’t mean you did a bad job.
14. 11 JanFriday links: 50 years of the tragedy of the commons, biostatistical baking, and more
15. 10 JanPreventing grade grubbing
16. 9 JanTeaching science writing in university courses (poll results and commentary)
17. 8 JanGuest post: A tenure debacle and the invisible support network that kept me upright
18. 7 JanI couldn’t make it in academia without my invisible support network
19. 6 JanESA seeks input on gold OA, Plan S and the future of publishing
20. 4 JanFriday links: planning as an act of hope, academic robes vs. robes, and more
21. 3 JanStigma associated with seeking mental health treatment: do students think others are judging them more than they actually are?

2018 199

December 2018

1. 28 DecFriday links
2. 21 DecThe dead of winter
3. 21 DecFriday links: #metoo in economics, Word = LaTeX, and more
4. 20 DecThe trajectory of ecology – poll results
5. 19 DecOpen access and the reality of getting from here to there.
6. 18 DecApply for the ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Awards! Deadline Jan. 15, 2019
7. 17 DecDynamic Ecology year in review
8. 14 DecFriday links: hermit crabs vs. game theory, the truth about peer review, activism vs. academic careers, and more (UPDATED)
9. 12 DecShould journals invite submissions from preprint authors?
10. 11 DecBook review: Improbable Destinies by Jonathan Losos
11. 7 DecFriday links: adding up publication fees, the deep roots of the phrase “nearly significant”, and more
12. 5 DecWhat shape is the long trajectory of ecology? (updated)
13. 3 DecPoll results: Which classic topics do ecologists care about? And which ones do they think ecologists collectively should care about? (UPDATEDx2 with more results and link to full dataset)

November 2018

1. 30 NovFriday links: causal inference visualizations, causal inference humor, DiversifyEEB 2.0, and more
2. 28 NovPoll: which classic ecological topics do ecologists still care about? (UPDATE: poll now closed)
3. 26 NovHow to revolutionize a scientific field in five not-so-easy steps
4. 23 NovFriday links: is scientific progress slowing down, getting past “I can’t”, and more
5. 19 NovThe “always have two papers in review” rule of thumb (UPDATEDX2)
6. 16 NovBonus Friday link: NSF’s Bio Directorate removes proposal submission limit for 2019
7. 16 NovFriday links: a remarkable cv, why be an EiC, Andrew Gelman vs. Richard Levins, and more
8. 15 NovSo you got an email inviting you to apply for a tenure-track ecology faculty position. How should you interpret it?
9. 13 NovBlind spots in scientific discovery
10. 9 NovFriday links: no, humans haven’t killed off 60% of animal species, President McCauley, and more
11. 7 NovWhen should scientists cite the work of sexual harassers?
12. 5 NovWhat academics can learn from business III: good meeting culture
13. 2 NovFriday links: Ruth Gates passes away, the history of women authors at Am Nat, retraction database, and more
14. 1 NovGuest post: judgment fatigue

October 2018

1. 31 OctWith public engagement, it’s also okay to start small
2. 30 OctWhen learning R (or any other new task), it’s okay to start small: aim for improvement, not perfection
3. 29 OctThe most-cited ecology papers published in the last 10 years, and why thinking about them bums me out a bit
4. 26 OctFriday links: control vs. treat(ment), how to frame your next paper, Marlene Zuk on gender in science, and more
5. 25 OctGuest post: Coding Club – trying to overcome the fear factor in teaching and learning quantitative skills
6. 24 OctI wish book reviews in science journals were more like TLS or LRB book reviews
7. 22 OctAsk us anything: What’s your motivation? What keeps you going as an academic researcher?
8. 19 OctFriday links: caption contest!, nuance vs. social sciences, when relevant research isn’t relevant, and more
9. 18 OctThe pluses of seeing science as a job, not a calling
10. 17 OctAsk us anything: allocating your time
11. 16 OctMy goal as a reviewer: pass the Poulin test
12. 15 OctWould you be interested in an Inspire session or lunchtime workshop at #ESA2019 on the ecology faculty job market?
13. 12 OctFriday links: new EiC of Ecology sought, Fat Bear Week, and more
14. 11 OctNewly hired N. American tenure track asst. professors of ecology are 59% women. That’s good news–but most ecologists still don’t know it or can’t quite believe it. Now, please read the whole post. (UPDATEDx2)
15. 10 OctHow many newly-hired TT ecology asst. profs had really famous PhD supervisors? (includes poll at the end)
16. 9 OctTenure track N. American ecology faculty searches rarely hire someone with a current or past connection to the hiring institution
17. 8 OctWhat papers should be considered for the 2019 George Mercer Award? Nominations are due Oct. 18!
18. 5 OctFriday links: no, there’s still no proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, incentives vs. you, and more
19. 4 OctHow were newly hired N. American TT asst. professors of ecology employed when they were hired?
20. 3 OctWhere did newly hired TT N. American asst. professors of ecology get their bachelor’s degrees? (UPDATED)
21. 2 OctHow many first-authored papers in “leading” journals does an ecologist need to be hired as a tenure-track asst. prof at an R1 university? Not nearly as many as most ecologists think.
22. 1 OctIt’s ecology faculty job market data week! Here’s how, and why, I compile these data.

September 2018

1. 28 SepFriday links: Queen vs. calculus, and more
2. 27 SepBrief “lab lit” book reviews: As She Climbed Across The Table by Jonathan Lethem and Euphoria by Lily King
3. 26 SepHow I write tenure and promotion letters
4. 25 SepAsk us anything: how will ecology change (or not) over the next 50 years?
5. 24 SepWhat now-obselete scientific technique, tool, or practice do you miss most?
6. 21 SepFriday links: comedy wildlife photography, phones vs. pedagogy, and more
7. 20 SepPoll: how many first-authored publications in leading journals do you think you need to be competitive for a TT faculty position at an R1 university?
8. 19 SepAsk us anything: collaboration agreements
9. 18 SepPoll: teaching science writing in university courses
10. 17 SepAsk us anything: undergraduate co-authors
11. 14 SepFriday links: cutest replication failure, insect theft, and more
12. 13 SepAsk us anything: how do you change study systems?
13. 12 SepAsk us anything: field work safety (UPDATED)
14. 11 SepPoll: guess the gender balance of newly hired tenure track N. American asst. professors of ecology (UPDATE: poll closed)
15. 10 SepLess obvious signs of reaching a new career stage
16. 7 SepFriday links: Brazil’s National Museum gutted by fire, and more (UPDATED)
17. 6 SepWhat’s your policy (or your institution’s policy) on requiring doctor’s notes or other documentation for missed coursework?
18. 5 SepAsk us anything: bet your beliefs
19. 4 SepGuest Post: What not to say to a pregnant colleague

August 2018

1. 31 AugFriday links: insulting fish, how to pronounce “niche”, and more
2. 30 AugBook review: Lost In Math by Sabine Hossenfelder (UPDATED)
3. 29 AugMore on what colleges must do to promote mental health for graduate students
4. 28 AugMy strategies for mentoring undergraduate researchers
5. 27 AugPut your take home message at the top of your slides!
6. 24 AugFriday links: teaching mid-career dogs new tricks, great moments in scientific outreach, and more
7. 22 AugCan a scholarly field have theory without theorists?
8. 21 AugCall for mentors and mentees for #EEBMentorMatch: linking students from underrepresented groups with grad school and fellowship application mentors
9. 20 AugThe history of ecology on Earth-2
10. 17 AugFriday links: scientist baseball cards, top economics blogger retires, and more
11. 15 AugResults of poll on preferred number of times to teach a course
12. 13 AugPoll: should #ESA2019 be nothing but Insipire sessions? And should Inspire sessions drop the 15 seconds per slide rule? (UPDATED)
13. 10 AugDynamic Ecology: the t-shirt
14. 4 AugBrian, Meghan, and Jeremy will be at #ESA2018–say hi to us!
15. 3 AugFriday links: passing of a giant, against (and for) learning outcomes, and more
16. 2 Aug#ESA2018 bingo cards!
17. 1 AugEcology conferences should have discussant sessions

July 2018

1. 30 JulOpening in Jeremy Fox’s lab for two grad students–come see him at #ESA2018!
2. 27 JulFriday links: a link that will kill Stephen Heard, advice on applying for tenure-track faculty positions, and much more
3. 26 JulTell me again what “risky” or “potentially transformative” research is? (UPDATED)
4. 25 JulHow much do you–and should you–tailor your ecology faculty job application to the hiring institution? Poll results and commentary
5. 23 JulPoll on tailoring faculty job applications to the hiring institution, for faculty job applicants and search committee members
6. 20 JulFriday links: the effects of retractions, conferences vs. marriage, posters vs. seniority, and more (UPDATED)
7. 19 JulAsk us anything, and we’ll answer! (UPDATE: this post is now closed)
8. 18 JulMany ecologists’ beliefs about various aspects of the ecology faculty job market are too pessimistic
9. 16 JulShould the advisor leave the room for part of a student’s committee meeting?
10. 13 JulFriday links: never lie about a faculty job offer, air travel vs. academia, and more (UPDATE: link fixed)
11. 11 JulPoll results: how ecologists find papers to read
12. 9 JulWhat academics can learn from business II: the best business books
13. 6 JulFriday links: #LGBTSTEMDay edition!
14. 5 JulDo you know a department/program/university/institute/etc. that is doing something worth emulating regarding graduate student mental health?
15. 3 JulGuest Post: iPads and digital data collection in the field
16. 2 JulHappy 6th birthday to us!
17. 2 JulControversial ideas about scientific publishing and peer review: poll results and commentary

June 2018

1. 29 JunEvolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala resigns from UC Irvine for serial sexual harassment
2. 29 JunFriday links: break your methods, scientific writing vs. the trolley problem, and more
3. 28 JunPoll: how do you find papers to read? (UPDATE: poll closed)
4. 26 JunPoll: controversial ideas about peer review and scientific publishing (UPDATE: poll now closed)
5. 25 JunWhat topics would you like us to poll on?
6. 22 JunFriday links: moving as a faculty member, and more
7. 21 JunAsk Jeremy anything (about the ecology faculty job market)
8. 20 JunHow many newly hired N. American TT asst. profs of ecologists have a pre-existing collaboration with someone in the hiring dept.?
9. 18 JunThings I learned from my undergraduate advisor, David Smith
10. 15 JunFriday links: surprising (in)tractability of scientific problems, remembering Emmy Noether, and more
11. 13 JunDownsides of writing harder: musings on the need to pace myself
12. 12 JunThe trouble with citing “recent calls” for more work on X as a reason for working on X
13. 11 JunSocial aspects of writing
14. 8 JunBonus Friday link: controversial ideas in evolutionary biology
15. 8 JunFriday links: disagreement vs. scientific progress, and more
16. 7 JunNovelty and conceptual fragmentation in ecology: A self-reinforcing spiral?
17. 4 JunRough drafts, getting words on the page, and the pain – and pleasure – of writing
18. 1 JunFriday links: what’s philosophy of science for, student-advisor cartoons, and more

May 2018

1. 31 MayHow to assess “importance”?
2. 30 MayMy lab’s new lab notebook backup system. Part 2: The system
3. 29 MayMy lab’s new lab notebook backup system. Part 1: The backstory
4. 25 MayFriday links: statistical vanity plates, 2018-19 ecology faculty jobs board, and more
5. 23 MayHow “phylogenetically conserved” are views (and study results) on controversial scientific questions?
6. 22 MayWe (and all other websites) are not nearly as widely read as you’d think from our traffic stats (CORRECTED)
7. 21 MaySummer conference advice
8. 18 MayFriday links: controversial ideas in evolution, and more
9. 17 MayWhy I voted as I did in our controversial ecological ideas poll
10. 15 MayWhat academics can learn from business I: the hats a PI (or grad student) wears
11. 11 MayFriday links: the taxonomic sin that nobody ever actually commits, confidence vs. expertise, and more
12. 9 MayIndependent projects in large enrollment labs? Part III: how it went and what we’d do differently
13. 8 MayWhat is the biggest change of mind about ecology that any ecologist has ever had?
14. 4 MayFriday links: overly honest faculty job ads, Jeremy’s “DJ name” revealed, and more
15. 2 MayWhat are the most important “technical” statistical mistakes in ecological history? And were they all THAT important?
16. 1 MayJournals have a responsibility to ensure ethical oversight of mental health research (and we do not currently have evidence that grad students are 6x as likely as the general population to have depression and anxiety)

April 2018

1. 30 AprPoll results: here’s what our readers think about some of the most controversial ideas in ecology
2. 27 AprFriday links: less really is more (in economics), science vs. the Tooth Fairy, and more
3. 25 AprHelp me identify newly-hired N. American tenure-track asst. profs in ecology and allied fields
4. 23 AprThe great Dynamic Ecology controversial ideas poll!
5. 20 AprFriday links: American Chopper vs. statistics, and more
6. 19 AprWhy are all zombie ideas simple?
7. 18 AprUnpopular ecological opinions: on what ecological topics are you skeptical of the conventional wisdom?
8. 16 AprScience, advocacy, and honesty
9. 13 AprFriday links: ecosystem restoration as art forgery, public science outreach vs. “doing science in public”, and more
10. 11 AprDo evolutionary biologists ever complain about the role of mathematical models in evolutionary biology?
11. 9 AprIdeas for posts I will probably never write
12. 6 AprFriday links: publication bias vs. Easter, scientific progress is slowing down (?), and more (UPDATED with bonus link)
13. 4 AprBook Review: Merchants of Doubt
14. 2 AprWhat if we make a class better for student learning but unsustainable for faculty?

March 2018

1. 30 MarFriday links: the prevalence of questionable research practices in ecology, and more
2. 28 MarPoll on some nitpicky paper style guide questions?
3. 27 MarThere is Shit Going On but it’s not my story to tell
4. 26 MarThe uncanny valley of theoretical models and microcosm experiments
5. 23 MarFriday links: current events vs. David Lodge novels, is logistic regression a zombie idea, and more
6. 21 MarIndependent projects in large enrollment labs? Part II
7. 20 MarHow my student has explored career interests outside academia
8. 19 MarStatistical vignette of the day as a teaching tool (UPDATED occasionally)
9. 16 MarFriday links: a link that explains why the other links are interesting, and more
10. 14 MarAre you in science to understand, describe or predict?
11. 13 MarStudents: here are some tips for meeting one-on-one with a visiting speaker (UPDATEDx2)
12. 12 MarIgnorance is bliss (sometimes)
13. 9 MarFriday links: overwork and mental health in academia, Liam Neeson vs. teaching, and more
14. 8 MarIs it common for newly-hired TT asst. profs in ecology to have held visiting or TT faculty positions before being hired? (UPDATED with 2017-18 data)
15. 7 MarWhat proportion of recently-hired tenure-track N. American asst. professors of ecology have Nature/Science/PNAS papers? (UPDATED with a second year’s worth of data)
16. 5 MarWhen writing, tell us your biological results!
17. 2 MarFriday links: Daphnia theme song, RIP PubMed Commons, Joy of Cooking vs. p-hacking, and more

February 2018

1. 28 FebPoll: What’s your preferred number of times to teach a particular course?
2. 26 FebHow often are N. American TT ecology faculty positions advertised as “asst./assoc.” or “open rank” filled at a higher rank than asst. prof.?
3. 23 FebFriday links: gender equality vs. gender equality in STEM, Marine Kids Conference, and more
4. 22 FebWhere did recently-hired N. American tenure-track asst. professors of ecology get their PhDs? (UPDATED with a second year’s worth of data!)
5. 21 FebPostdoc position available in the Duffy Lab to work on predation and parasitism!
6. 20 FebQuiz time! How much do you know about where recently-hired TT N. American ecology faculty got their PhDs? (UPDATE: quiz now closed)
7. 19 FebThe winners of the ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Awards have been announced!
8. 16 FebFriday links: universities vs. urban renewal, Ediacaran Valentine’s Day, and more
9. 14 FebDoes ecology need new awards for collaborative work?
10. 12 FebIn praise of courtesy p-values: perfectly correct p-values vs. pragmatically approximate p-values
11. 9 FebFriday links: Netflix vs. science movie, tweet vs. Jeremy’s book, and more
12. 7 FebIntellectual Property law 101 for academics
13. 5 FebShould we care about the cleverness, elegance, or creativity of a paper’s methods?
14. 2 FebFriday links: #reviewforscience, and more (UPDATED with bonus link)

January 2018

1. 31 JanWho is ecology’s equivalent of Erdős?
2. 29 JanHow to support undergraduate students experiencing mental health concerns
3. 26 JanFriday links: link to ALL the geeky things!
4. 25 JanSexual harassment changed my career path, even though I wasn’t the target of the harassment
5. 24 JanDo your figures tell your story?
6. 22 JanWriting with a point of view vs writing to discover a point of view
7. 19 JanFriday links: history of the Fields Medal, optimizing grad student recruitment weekends, Frodo vs. your PhD, and more
8. 18 JanIndependent projects in large enrollment labs?
9. 17 JanHow diverse are Dynamic Ecology commenters?
10. 15 JanThe unbearable hypocrisy of being an ecologist*
11. 12 JanFriday links: how to have a writing day, and more
12. 11 JanWho would you nominate for the Crafoord Prize?
13. 9 JanTeaching tip: Use a discussion thread to decide what to cover in a review session
14. 8 Jan#Readinghour: My plan to read more in 2018
15. 5 JanFriday links: quantifying the career paths of recent ecology PhDs, history of environmentalism, and more
16. 4 JanWhen did newly-hired N. American tenure-track ecology faculty get their PhDs? (UPDATED with a second year’s worth of data)
17. 3 JanTeaching tip: Start lectures with a short video
18. 2 JanDynamic Ecology 2017 year in review

2017 224

December 2017

1. 29 DecFinal reminder: all ASN Young Investigator Awards applications need to be complete by Jan. 1
2. 29 DecWhat’s the thing you’ve read recently that you enjoyed the most?
3. 29 DecFriday links: Darwin vs. novels, and more
4. 22 DecFriday links: holiday caRd, final exam via Twitter, and more
5. 20 DecA few final words of encouragement for prospective applicants for the ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Awards (applications due Jan. 1!) (UPDATEDx2)
6. 20 DecDoing Ecology in Brazil: the feeling of being almost there (and should we really want to be ‘there’)?
7. 19 DecIt’s no big deal for your supervisor to write you a bunch of reference letters
8. 18 DecSmall Pond Science closed its comments. Here’s why we’re not closing ours.
9. 15 DecFriday links: stuff Dan Bolnick thinks, paintings vs. species distribution models, and more
10. 14 DecGuest post: ecology done and being done in Latin America
11. 11 DecApplications invited for the ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Awards–deadline Jan. 1, 2018!
12. 8 DecFriday links: astrology vs. journal editors, and more
13. 6 DecPoll results on statistical machismo
14. 5 DecConcerned about the US tax bill? Here’s what to do.
15. 4 DecSkype-based seminar series?
16. 1 DecFriday links: a proposal for an open ecology blog, and more

November 2017

1. 30 NovGuest post: Women and relationships in academia: a curious journey of self-reflection
2. 28 NovGuest post: Doing ecology on a rollercoaster in Brazil
3. 27 NovOn what ecological topics do the opinions of specialist and non-specialist researchers differ most?
4. 24 NovFriday links: why philosophy of science, evolutionary biologist vs. divining rods, and more
5. 21 NovPoll on experiences with statistical machismo
6. 20 NovGuest post – doing ecology in Canada and Brazil
7. 17 NovFriday links: Berkson’s paradox, writing review papers using Twitter, and more (UPDATED)
8. 16 NovThe two kinds of ecologists (UPDATED)
9. 15 NovGuest post: a career in departmental technical support
10. 14 NovTaking statistical machismo back out of twitter bellicosity
11. 13 Nov“Do as I say, not as I do”: what scientific advice do you give or teach, but not follow yourself?
12. 10 NovFriday links: statistics vs. lost cities, is the dilution effect a zombie idea, and more
13. 8 NovWhat new technology will soon change ecology the most?
14. 7 NovAsk Us Anything: are statistics in ecology papers becoming too difficult for students and readers to understand?
15. 6 NovHoisted from the comments: EEB poetry slam!
16. 4 NovAsk Us Anything: PhDs from outside N. America and Europe, and the current status of classic ideas in life history theory
17. 3 NovLate Friday link: the GOP tax bill would tax grad student tuition waivers
18. 3 NovFriday links: Ecology vs. HSS, clerihews, the Reformation vs. the Scientific Revolution, and more
19. 2 NovGuest post: doing ecology in South Africa
20. 1 NovAsk Us Anything: descriptive research vs. hypothesis-driven research

October 2017

1. 31 OctGuest post: doing ecology in Brazil
2. 30 OctGuest post: a career as a research lab manager
3. 27 OctFriday links: inreach vs. outreach, Steinbeck vs. the title of your next paper, and more (UPDATED)
4. 26 OctHow often do tenure-track faculty searches in ecology fail? (now with poll!)
5. 25 OctWhat statistical or other scientific technique is used best, relative to how widely it’s used?
6. 24 OctPoll: What’s your preferred teaching arrangement?
7. 23 OctWhat are the biggest puzzles in ecology?
8. 20 OctFriday links: how to argue for basic research, Andrew Gelman vs. Amy Cuddy, and more
9. 19 OctGuest post: a career as a land manager at a land trust conservancy
10. 18 OctImposter syndrome and cognitive distortions: some thoughts and poorly drawn cartoons
11. 17 OctA (crude) statistical profile of the research productivity of recently-hired N. American ecology asst. profs (UPDATED with additional data)
12. 16 OctAsk Us Anything: the research contributions of ecologists from developing countries
13. 13 OctFriday links: P values vs. your salary, MOOCs are dead, and more
14. 12 OctAsk Us Anything: how to get invited to review manuscripts, and who writes the best reviews
15. 11 OctA novel check on causal inference methods: test ridiculous causal hypotheses (UPDATED)
16. 10 OctThe two ways to keep your mathematical model simple
17. 9 OctHappy Canadian Thanksgiving!
18. 8 OctAsk Us Anything: teaching evolutionary ecology, what statistics to learn, and what devices to read on
19. 7 OctAsk Us Anything: teaching the scientific method to middle schoolers
20. 6 OctFriday links: big NSF-DEB change, biggest puzzles in biology, making REU programs better, and more
21. 5 OctWhat papers should be considered for the 2018 George Mercer Award? Nominate someone! (UPDATED)
22. 4 OctNew paper on science community blogging!
23. 2 OctNewly-hired tenure-track N. American asst. professors of ecology are 59% women (no further updates)
24. 1 OctAsk Us Anything: choosing a postdoc

September 2017

1. 30 SepAsk Us Anything: how to move into ecology from another discipline
2. 29 SepFriday links: for love of professing, science journalism = PR, and more
3. 28 SepA cheap, self-published (but still excellent) ecology textbook: why not?
4. 27 SepGuest post: a career as an ecologist at a non-profit conservation organization
5. 26 SepIs ecology a single coherent scientific discipline? (includes poll)
6. 25 SepPoll results: How mathy are ecology, evolution, and genetics?
7. 24 SepHow much should you customize your faculty job application for each position? (UPDATED)
8. 23 SepHardly any ecology faculty jobs are filled by internal candidates. And you can’t identify the ones that will be. (UPDATED)
9. 22 SepFriday links: heavy metal vs. the Origin of Species, peer review vs. Jeremy, and more
10. 21 SepLast and corresponding authorship in ecology: a series of blog posts turns into a paper
11. 20 SepAsk Us Anything: journal clubs for groups with diverse interests, and the questions we want to study but haven’t yet
12. 19 SepAsk Us Anything: what if your advisor has conflicts with other senior people in your field?
13. 18 SepPoll: How mathy are ecology, evolution, and genetics?
14. 16 SepWe’re looking for guest posts on non-academic careers for ecologists
15. 15 SepFriday links: syllabus puppies, job talk entrance music, and more
16. 14 SepWhat currently widely-accepted scientific practices will someday be seen as unethical? (UPDATED)
17. 13 SepAsk Us Anything: the demand for field biologists
18. 11 SepPoll: guess the gender balance of tenure-track asst. profs. of ecology hired in N. America in 2016-17
19. 8 SepFriday links: Hidden Figures lego shirts, is theoretical ecology dying, and more
20. 7 SepApplications invited for the ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator’s Awards!
21. 6 SepChoosing reviewers, recognition not recall, and why lists like DiversifyEEB are useful
22. 5 SepWhy don’t we scientifically measure teaching effectiveness?
23. 1 SepFriday links: growing up creationist, professors as buzzards, and more

August 2017

1. 31 AugWhat kind of scientific crisis is the field of ecology having?
2. 30 AugIf there were no barriers to men’s participation, we would all be doing it: a unique perspective on how to be a male ally to women in ecology
3. 28 AugIs my latest paper a super-cool result? Or merely a “cute” curiosity? You tell me!
4. 25 AugFriday links: two-stage peer review, economists vs. economics website, and more
5. 24 AugCrowdsourcing parental leave policies for tenure track faculty
6. 23 AugIntroducing #EEBMentorMatch: linking students from minority serving institutions with application mentors
7. 22 AugBad coauthors: how to avoid them and what to do when you have one
8. 21 AugAsk us anything and we’ll answer! (UPDATED)
9. 18 AugFriday links: fake David Attenborough, US college enrollments are dropping, and more
10. 17 Aug#ESA2017 reflections
11. 16 AugBook review: Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner
12. 15 AugWho should be senior author on papers resulting from collaborations between multiple research groups?
13. 14 AugUseful links related to tenure-track job searches in ecology (and other job searches)
14. 12 AugPlease help me identify ecologists hired as tenure-track asst. profs in the 2016-17 faculty job season (UPDATED)
15. 11 AugFriday links: Happy Birthday to Us, Dr. Leia, the opposite of a biologist, and more
16. 5 AugBrian, Meghan, and I are off to #ESA2017; please say hi to us!
17. 4 AugFriday links: what is the (dissertation) matrix, bidding for preprints, and more (UPDATED with bonus link)
18. 3 Aug#ESA2017 bingo cards!
19. 2 AugEating, Drinking and Sightseeing in Portland for #ESA2017
20. 1 AugWhere to drink in Portland at #ESA2017 if you’re a beer geek

July 2017

1. 31 JulHow science is and isn’t like the legal system
2. 28 JulFriday links: the Great Emu War, world’s oldest bar graph, 10 principles of ecology, and more (UPDATED)
3. 27 JulPoll results: do ecologists start their PhDs by reading and thinking widely and exhaustively for a year? (UPDATED)
4. 26 JulHere’s how I choose which presentations to see at the ESA meeting. How do you do it?
5. 24 JulPoll: did you start your ecology PhD by reading and thinking widely and exhaustively for a year? (UPDATED; poll closed)
6. 21 JulFriday links: women in science x 5, and SO MUCH MOAR (UPDATED)
7. 19 JulBook review: The Signature Of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
8. 17 JulSome thoughts on The Undoing Project, especially related to science, academia, and mentoring
9. 14 JulFriday links: DDIG update, #overlyhonestsupplementarymaterial, and more
10. 13 JulReflections on the one-year anniversary of my anxiety post, including thoughts on how to support students with anxiety
11. 10 JulGuest post: The day I broke some twitter feeds: insights into sexism in academia, Part 2
12. 7 JulFriday links: overly honest author contribution statements, a late blooming mathematician, and more
13. 6 JulGuest post: The day I broke some twitter feeds: insights into sexism in academia, Part 1
14. 5 JulWhy functional trait ecology needs population ecology
15. 4 JulHappy 4th of July from evolution!
16. 1 JulHappy Canada Day!

June 2017

1. 30 JunFriday links: worst field experience, social media ecologists vs. actual ecologists, and more
2. 27 JunWhat I learned from my visit to Capitol Hill about engaging with policy makers and mentoring students
3. 26 JunBrief book reviews: four popular science and history of science books
4. 23 JunFriday links: support for scientific research, science-a-thon (UPDATED with bonus link)
5. 22 JunHow can scientists engage with policy makers? (Updated!)
6. 21 JunOpen thread: where to eat and drink in Portland for Evolution 2017 and #ESA2017
7. 21 JunBrief book reviews: five novels featuring scientists
8. 19 JunReader survey results!
9. 16 JunFriday links: lab hacks and more!
10. 14 JunGuest post: Got a professional editor?
11. 13 JunWhat’s the optimal composition of a graduate supervisory committee?
12. 12 JunWant to write a guest post for us on where to eat and drink in Portland for #ESA2017? (Update: we have a local volunteer)
13. 9 JunFriday links: from diversity to inclusion, PUNchy seminar titles, and more
14. 7 JunPlease complete our reader survey! (UPDATE: survey now closed)
15. 6 JunNSF Bio Directorate announces cancellation of #DDIG program
16. 6 JunHave you ever used a professional editor for a proposal or manuscript?
17. 5 JunDynamic Ecology reaches carrying capacity
18. 2 JunFriday links: readme and weep, overly honest index, and more

May 2017

1. 30 MayMathematical constraints in ecology and evolution, part 4: dimensional analysis
2. 26 MayFriday links: the Dynamic Ecology moth, life advice from Rich Lenski, and more (CORRECTED)
3. 24 MayA happy ending to a tenure-track job search
4. 22 MayWhat should high schoolers and undergrads learn about the scientific method?
5. 19 MayFriday links: math for human flourishing, smiley Charles Darwin, and more
6. 18 MayResponding to “a post-fact world”: In defense of the honest broker
7. 17 MayHave ecologists ever successfully explained deviations from a baseline “null” model?
8. 16 MayDoes any field besides ecology use randomization-based “null” models?
9. 15 MayHave you ever included the reviews of your rejected ms when resubmitting to another journal? (UPDATED)
10. 12 MayFriday links: how to handle bad reviews, zombie ideas in conservation, and more (UPDATED)
11. 11 MayThere are too many overspecialized R packages
12. 10 MayA post-fact world: Part III -what is a scientist to do?
13. 9 MayA post-fact world: Part II – what our social scientist colleagues already know about human thoughts and behavior
14. 8 MayA post-fact world: Part I – on how we got here
15. 6 MayHow changing our healthcare system impacts science: my experience as a postdoc looking for insurance
16. 5 MayFriday links: Muppet academia, Anscombe’s dinosaur, and more (UPDATE: link fixed)
17. 4 MayPlease help me identify ecologists hired as tenure-track assistant profs in the 2016-17 faculty job season (UPDATED)
18. 3 MaySummer conference season advice
19. 2 MayWhat it was like to speak at the March for Science in DC
20. 1 MayHow I prepared for my March for Science talk

April 2017

1. 28 AprFriday links: P-value emojis, and more
2. 26 AprText of Meghan’s March for Science Talk
3. 25 AprThoughts on the March For Science
4. 24 AprMarch For Science open thread
5. 23 AprBest #marchforscience signs
6. 21 AprFriday links: the most famous ecologist, March for Science, and more
7. 20 AprBook review: Wild Life by Robert Trivers
8. 19 AprWho pays the publication fees for your papers, when there is a fee? What if it’s a collaboration?
9. 18 AprWhat correct scientific idea hasn’t yet proven fruitful or influential, but will in future?
10. 14 AprFriday links: networking while introverted, PhD defense advice, and more (UPDATED; link fixed)
11. 13 AprDon’t force your regression through zero just because you know the true intercept has to be zero
12. 12 AprHas any ecological model based on a loose physical analogy ever worked?
13. 11 AprShould ecology papers have guarantors who take full responsibility for a paper?
14. 10 AprThe story behind my first opinion piece
15. 7 AprFriday links: computer-animated Cuban Daphnia (yes, really), Darwin’s work-life balance, and more (UPDATEDx2)
16. 5 AprCase studies in coauthorship: what would you do and why?
17. 3 AprI just got my first papers accepted in almost two years. Which is ok. (UPDATED)

March 2017

1. 31 MarFriday links: nobody wants portable peer review (apparently), $10M worth of bugs, and more
2. 29 MarHow far can the logic of shrinkage estimators be pushed? (Or, when should you compare apples and oranges?)
3. 28 MarMost people want their figures in line. Almost everyone wants legends on the same page as figures.
4. 27 MarDoes gender influence when people first apply for faculty jobs?
5. 24 MarFriday links: over-cited papers, #overlyhonestemail, and more
6. 23 MarShould figures go at the end of a manuscript or appear in line? And where should figure legends go?
7. 22 MarAs a peer-reviewer are you gatekeeping or editing?
8. 20 MarPoll: have you ever contacted a reviewer about a review before responding to it? Or received such contact?
9. 17 MarFriday links: nobody cares about your model organism, never work from home, and more
10. 15 MarWhy I don’t sign (most of) my reviews
11. 13 MarPoll: should all reviewers be satisfied before a paper is accepted for publication?
12. 10 MarFriday links: helping 1st gen college students, how to advertise your PhD defense, and more
13. 8 MarPoll: What does the “Are you willing to review a revised manuscript” question mean to you?
14. 7 MarMichael Rosenzweig: an appreciation
15. 6 MarChanges in number of authors and position of corresponding author in Ecology papers
16. 3 MarFriday links: ESA award winners, lab philosophies, teaching stats visually, and more
17. 1 MarTips for negotiating salary and startup for newly-hired tenure-track faculty

February 2017

1. 27 FebPoll: What determines when people start applying for tenure track jobs?
2. 24 FebFriday links: impost-R syndrome, RIP Axios Review, open access groceries, and more
3. 23 FebPoll: do you think species-rich communities are those with stronger coexistence mechanisms?
4. 22 FebMy most embarrassing moments in academia
5. 20 FebHow to write your ESA abstract even though you haven’t analyzed your data yet
6. 17 FebFriday links: don’t kill science, unlearning descriptive statistics, BEST POSTER EVER, and more
7. 15 FebFavorite good (or bad?) examples of “operationalizing” vague ecological concepts?
8. 14 FebHappy Valentine’s Day from evolution!
9. 13 FebAll my anxieties about my book, and how I’m dealing with them
10. 10 FebDynamic Ecology is now ad-free
11. 10 FebFriday links: a missing voice, Am Nat vs. the OED, RIP Raymond Smullyan, and more
12. 8 FebThoughts on the ASN Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Award
13. 6 FebHere’s the draft introduction to my book about ecology. Please tear it apart. (UPDATED)
14. 3 FebFriday links: cognitive bias cheat sheet, and more
15. 1 FebApply for NextProf Science 2017 at UMich!

January 2017

1. 31 JanWhat factors influence whether “Professors on Parade” courses are useful?
2. 30 JanDo ecologists do enough research to resolve apparent contradictions? (UPDATED)
3. 27 JanFriday links: RIP Not Exactly Rocket Science, ecologists vs. multiple working hypotheses, and more
4. 26 JanStylized facts in ecology
5. 25 JanMy proposed twist on a “Professors on Parade”-style course: scicomm training for students and faculty
6. 24 JanPoll: Have you been involved in a “professors on parade” course? Was it useful?
7. 23 JanOne way to make academia less anxiety-inducing: Be specific in your emails!
8. 20 JanFriday links: mad (lack of) skillz, preprints vs. double-blind review, and more
9. 19 JanWhy don’t meta-analyses in ecology often lead to subsequent theoretical insight? (or, why doesn’t ecology have more “stylized facts”?)
10. 18 JanThanks readers! I’m working my way through the popular science and lab lit you recommended
11. 17 Jan#ibstucson – International Biogeography Society 2017 meeting
12. 13 JanFriday links: Charles Darwin vs. Tom Wolfe, variance components vs. beer, and more
13. 11 JanWork at the times that work for you
14. 10 JanFYI: I (Jeremy Fox) am on leave until July 1 and unavailable for reviews (UPDATED)
15. 9 JanMentoring plans: a really useful tool for PIs and their lab members
16. 6 JanFriday links: lessons from a recent NSF panelist, have a Secchi day, and more
17. 4 JanYou can’t estimate your odds of getting a faculty job from common quantitative metrics (UPDATED)
18. 2 JanDynamic Ecology year in review