Recent Posts
R Package Maintenance
I just got an automated email from the developers of the Tidyverse that they are updating the package tibble such that it will break the code in my package colorednoise, which depends on it. Part of being a package maintainer is updating your package so it won’t break when other packages do. So I thought I would document how I did this in a blog post.
First, I carefully read the email to see which tests were failing.
Reference Management Apps: A Review
Recently I tweeted about reference management apps to learn what people preferred. I saw several different answers, so I decided to check them all out and decide what I preferred.
What is a reference management app? It’s software that helps you keep track of scientific papers you’re reading, and can manage and format your citations for manuscripts. I’m deep in a massive literature review right now, and I’m looking for software that can help me organize and keep track of what I find, and ultimately help me cite these papers later.
A Practical Guide to Mixed Models in R
Preface I created this guide so that students can learn about important statistical concepts while remaining firmly grounded in the programming required to use statistical tests on real data. I want this to be a guide students can keep open in one window while running R in another window, because it is directly relevant to their work.
In that spirit of openness and relevance, note that I created this guide in R v 3.
Creating a scientific manuscript in LaTeX
I’m submitting a manuscript as a .tex file for the first time, so I thought I’d document my workflow for anyone else who wants to give it a try. This is meant for people who know the very basics of LaTeX but are essentially beginners (much like myself.)
I habitually write my manuscripts in Scrivener, which allows me to organize my thoughts into the structure of a scientific paper.
Scrivener screenshot
My current research, for laypeople
I have struggled a lot to explain my current line of research to people in my life who aren’t scientists. But if I can’t explain my research to everyone, then I can’t claim to really know what I’m doing. So I’m going to try my best.
Models of natural phenomena – say, the size of the elephant population in a nature reserve – usually have some kind of randomness in them, because natural systems constantly change.