Blog post

Computational and data-driven research increasingly requires developing complex codebases. At the same time, many scientists don’t receive training in software engineering practices, resulting in, for some, the perception that scientists write terrible software. As scientists, good software should accelerate our work and facilitate its reproducibility. While building good coding practices takes some time and experience, it doesn’t require a...

Openness, transparency, and reproducibility in research are critical to scientific progress. Yet, according to a 2016 internet-based survey of 1,576 researchers, 90% of respondents felt there was a slight or significant reproducibility crisis.1 Moreover, there are longstanding concerns that scientific journals favor positive or significant results—often referred to as publication bias—which may produce bodies of evidence that are incomplete or misleading (i.e., because studies which report null findings are not published).2 Publication bias can also arise when researchers choose...

Since the early days of the COVID-19 crisis (the past few months!), the spatial and temporal enormity of the situation has been tellingly conveyed in mapped data visualizations. The most compelling maps, in my opinion, have been those created by the New York Times ….

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After more than two weeks following the shelter in place guidelines, I have developed some sort of a routine. That is the only way I can get myself to do any work. As a graduate student, I feel the pressure to be productive even in the middle of a pandemic. My most productive hours usually occur between 7am and 2pm. I have never tried to understand why that is the case. However, since being confined to my apartment, I have been unable to work at the same level of efficiency even during my golden hours.

Some investigation into this lack of productivity has led me to realise that my...