Tom Saunders

Get Involved with Science Learning Hub

Tom — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 23:38:54 +0000

Today I’m posting a piece I wrote for the latest NZ Entomological Society Newsletter on my collaboration with Science Learning Hub. The Science Learning Hub – Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao makes quality science more accessible for teachers, students, and the wider community. It hosts teaching and learning resources on hundreds of different subjects ranging from marine...

Spread the knowledge with Wikipedia

Tom — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 03:10:49 +0000

Got a minute (and an internet connection)? Want to double the readership of your science? Then contribute to the largest encyclopedia ever published: Wikipedia! Last week I was at the New Zealand Ecological Society annual conference, this time held in Wellington at Victoria University. It was my first NZES conference and it certainly won’t...

Green open access: How to make all your papers OA right now (free, legal, simple)

Tom — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:33:33 +0000

At it’s most simple, ‘open access’ is the idea that anyone should be able to read and reuse scholarly works free of charge. The open access debate is sometimes framed as an all-or-nothing, take it or leave it kind of deal. But those in favour of OA are not necessarily in favour of forking out...

An Open Gallery of Native NZ Wasps

Tom — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 09:16:16 +0000

Yes, we have native wasps in New Zealand! Unfortunately we also have a handful of introduced social wasps. The introduced wasps prey on native invertebrates and create a nuisance (especially for people who are allergic to their stings). But our native wasps do not live together in colonies and they do not sting. They are...

Lets #OpenScience: Part III

Tom — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 20:30:56 +0000

The first two posts in this series covered the core open science principles and touched on the importance of communicating your work. To wrap up this series I spoke to Dr Jon Tennant. Jon is a palaeontologist, independent researcher, and passionate advocate for open scholarship. Jon completed his PhD thesis in January 2017 at Imperial...

Lets #OpenScience: Part II

Tom — Tue, 29 May 2018 20:30:21 +0000

One of the reasons I write a blog is to communicate the science I do, and to share what other people are doing. Following open science principles is the first step in opening up science. We need to remember to get the word out about what we do! Science Communication When scientists communicate their science,...

Lets #OpenScience: Part I

Tom — Tue, 22 May 2018 21:10:31 +0000

Why do we do science? I’m a scientist-in-training who enjoys learning about the intersection of science and society, so this is a very important question for me. In attempting to answer this question for myself, I’ve become more and more interested in the concept of Open Science (OS): Open science is the movement to make...

How to Use Zotero with Google Drive

Tom — Sun, 13 May 2018 20:00:43 +0000

See update below In my opinion, Zotero is the best reference manager out there. One-click capture of citation and full-text pdf’s Pdf’s automatically renamed, placed where you want them Easily organise your citation library with tags and collections Integrate Zotero with your word processor for one click bibliography generation View RSS feeds for your favourite...