Resources
Science resources
Experimental (Methods, training resources, etc)
- Lowe-Power lab protocols
- iBiology’s Let’s Experiment. A self-paced online class (5 weeks; ~3 hrs / week) that will give concrete steps and advice to help you build a framework for how to design experiments in biological research.
Data Visualization
- Why scientists need to be better at data visualization
- Ten Simple Rules for Better Figures
- Communication with color. Twitter thread by Matt Carter
- Color palletes inspired by works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. By Blake Mills
- Scientific illustration resource: Margaret Senior Plant Disease Bulletins
- Plant Illustrations Figshare Group
- BioRender platform for biological figure design Note: The free version exports with watermarks.
Statistics Advice
- Same Stats, Different Graphs: Generating Datasets with Varied Appearance and Identical Statistics through Simulated Annealing
- “If your P value looks too good to be true, it probably is: Communicating reproducibility and variability in cell biology”. A humorous guide to common pitfalls in statistical analysis. The PDF is in the upper right corner. This guide was also published in a journal, but the editor removed the jokes.
- Graphpad Prism’s guide to statistics. Google for this and find the recent version. This guide is written for research biologists and uses a lot of common examples that we are familiar with. It will help you verify that your data fit the assumptions for the statistcal tests that you want to perform.
Scientific Writing
General
- Ten simple rules for scientists: Improving your writing productivity by Todd C. Peterson, Sofie R. Kleppner, and Crystal M. Botham
- Getting started: An Ode to the Shitty First Draft by Angely Mercado.
- Revising and improving: Effective and High Impact Writing (pdf) handout from ASM workshop led by Dr. Susan Marriott and Dr. Sonia Morgan-Linnell. This will help you diagnose ‘bad writing’ and revise your writing.
- Revising and improving: Science of scientific writing (pdf) by George Dopen and Judith Swan
- Bacterial genetics: A how-to guide to notation on naming bacterial genotypes and phenotypes by Tiffany Lowe-Power
Research Papers and Reviews
- Ten simple rules for structuring papers by Brett Mensh and Konrad Kording
- The ABC of academic writing by Shinichi Nakagawa and Malgorzata Lagisz. The authors subtitled this with their “non-native speakers’ perspective”, but as a native English speaker, I also vouch for the advice being excellent. The pre-print is here if you do not have access to the journal
- Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review by Marco Pautasso
- Ten simple rules for writing a response to reviewers by William Stafford Noble
- Abstracts: Annotated example of how to write an abstract (aka Summary)
Grant Writing
Grant Writing, General
- Ten Simple Rules for Getting Grants
- The Human Context of Granstsmanship 1 hr lecture by Tiffany Lowe-Power with materials adapted from Gary Roberts and JD Sauer at UW-Madison and John Boothroyd at Stanford.
- Ten Simple Rules for Writing a (Postdoctoral) Fellowship.
- Advice for a Strong NSF Standard proposal by Caitilyn Allen
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- Advice on applying for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Webinar by Kelsey Wood. (Released in 2020, so details will change. But Kelsey provides timeless advice about the program)
Peer-Review
- Peer-Reviewing Scientific Manuscripts by Caitilyn Allen
Conferences
- Advice on how to get the most out of a conference and maintain your sanity
- Why and how to write abstracts for conferences by David Gadoury
Research Talks
- Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations by Philip E Bourne
- Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides by Kristen M. Naegle
- An assortment of Tiffany’s tips & tricks for visual presentations using ppt and illustrator. Download here
- Workshop on Scientific Talks by Dan Larremore
- Guide to preparing a research talk by Luis Pedro Coelho
- Science commmunication through typography. Twitter thread by Matt Carter
Research Posters
- Start with a template! In our lab’s shared box folder, you should be able to find everyone’s previous poster files.
- Guides to printing scientific posters on wrinkle-free cloth through Spoonflower.com. Guide 1 and Guide 2. Plan for 10 business days for printing & shipping. We can also print paper posters on campus at “Reprographics”.
- Blog on posters. Although I don’t perfectly agree with this authors’ opinions, they have suggestions on how to improve scientific poster design. I hate the actual “Better Posters”, for reseasons explained in this article: There’s a movement for better posters at science conferences. But are they really better?
Career / professional development resources
Career, General
- Tool: The most intuitive meeting scheduling tool www.when2meet.com
- Article: ‘Growth Mindset’ vs ‘Fixed Mindset’. Adopting a growth mindset might improve your resilience to the imposter syndrome.
- Ten simple rules for developing good reading habits during graduate school and beyond
Career Advice for Undergrads
- Ten simple rules to make the most out of your undergraduate research career by Megan Yu and Yu-Min Kuo
- Ten simple rules for getting the most out of a summer laboratory internship by Toby P. Aicher, Dániel L. Barabási, Benjamin D. Harris, Ajay Nadig, and Kaitlin L. Williams. This advice applies to any undergraduate research experience.
Career Advice – Applying to Grad School
Career Advice for Grad Students and/or Postdocs:
- Grad Student specific advice: Ten Simple Rules for Graduate Students by Jenny Gu and Philip E Bourne. In my opinion, Rule 1 is valuable, but it is not the only key to success.
- Grad Student specific advice: Ten Simple Rules for Finishing Your PhD by Jacopo Marino, Melanie I. Stefan, and Sarah Blackford
- Grad Student specific advice: Ten Simple Rules for Selecting a Postdoctoral Position by Philip E Bourne and Iddo Friedberg
- Article: Tips for PhD students & early career researchers
- Careers Beyond Academia: Ten Simple Rules for landing on the right job after your PhD or postdoc by Kuan-lin Huang
- Careers Beyond Academia: Ten simple rules in considering a career in academia versus government by Philip E. Bourne
- Careers Beyond Academia: Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia by David B. Searls
- Careers, General: Ten Simple Rules for Finding/Interviewing for a New Job by Philip E. Bourne
- Becoming a Professor: The quest for postdoctoral independence: How to step out from the shadow of your principal investigator by Chris Woolston
- Becoming a Professor: Ten Simple Rules to becoming a principal investigator by John S. Tregoning and Jason E. McDermott
- Becoming a Professor: Ten simple rules for giving an effective academic job talk by Sura, Smith, Ambrose, Guerra Amorim, Beichman, Gomez, Juhn, Kandlikar,Miller, Mooney, Mummah, Lohmueller, and Lloyd-Smith.
- Becoming a Professor: Ten simple rules for writing a cover letter to accompany a job application for an academic position by Lubomir Tomaska and Jozef Nosek
- Running a Research Lab: Ten simple rules towards healthier research labs by Fernando T. Maestre
Scientific Teaching
- Repository of Plant Pathology papers that are well-suited to classroom teaching
- UC Davis Center for Educational Effectiveness has a repository of books on effective teaching. UC Davis folks can log in and read them for free. Most are pretty cheap used on Amazon if you want a hard copy.
General Advice for Navigating the Hidden Curriculum of Academia
Imposter Syndrome and Mental Health Resources
- Impostor Syndrome and You: A Discussion of a Little-Discussed Phenomenon published in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, an American Phytopathological Society Journal
- UC Davis has Therapists who serve as bridges to help navigate acute and chronic mental health:
- Academic and Staff Assistance Program for graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and other UC Davis employees.
- Counseling Services through Graduate Studies – a second resource for graduate students.
Building inclusion
- Building a welcoming in STEM workplaces. Highly recommended reading for examples of how to welcome and build inclusion.
- Dr. Beronda Montgomery’s Keynote Talk. An excellent presentation and Q&A to watch to understand the importance of an inclusive climate and mentoring and for wisdom about developing your academic path. 1 hr and worth it.
- Compilation of published studies and guidelines; compiled by WISELI at UW-Madison
- Beginner’s guide by Victoria Alexandria
- Advice for writing Letters of Recommendation
- Avoiding gender bias in reading & writing Letters of Recommendation
- Materials to host 1 hr workshop on implicit bias in letters of recommendation
- Resources from the American Phytopathological Society