Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Paleo Paper Challenge: Roll Call!

The Paleo Paper Challenge, sponsored by Dave Hone of Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings and me, is nearly a month in. At last count, we have 22 23 participants! That's a lot of science going on.

Of course, what's the point of having a challenge without being challenged just a little bit? The whole point of this is to nudge. . .cajole. . .motivate. . .humiliate. . .all of us into finishing up those nagging papers. With less than three months to go, it's time to start kicking things into overdrive.

PPCers: Now it's time to make good on your promises. In the comments below, drop a note to tell us how you're doing! It's upon all of us to make each other finish these papers!

I'll start. I've committed to finishing a paper on a Myledaphus tooth site, as well as finish up revisions on one of my dissertation chapters. Right now, I'm ashamed to say that I haven't done a thing. But, the good news is that the dissertation chapter is on my priority list for the coming week. Readers: if I don't indicate any progress by Friday, you are allowed. . .nay, required. . .to publicly humiliate me. And while you're at it, get to work on your own papers!

That is all.
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12 comments:

  1. PennyOctober 10, 2009 at 7:51 AM

    Hi Andy,

    I want to join the PPC too. Finally published a paper that'd been suffering for five years, and want to get the follow-up paper finished by the end of this year. The topic: Bulk isotopic ratios from tooth enamel and general interpretation of environment. Without a deadline, I'll never get it done.

    ~pH

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  2. AndyOctober 10, 2009 at 8:00 AM

    Excellent! I'll add you to the list. :-)

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  3. ReBecca Hunt-FosterOctober 10, 2009 at 10:51 AM

    I am feeling the pressure already. I too have not written anything yet.

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  4. Tor BertinOctober 10, 2009 at 11:25 AM

    Working on the necessary preliminary work... I'm still fairly hopeful that I can get it done by the deadline.

    I did tighten the scope of the project to encompass strictly spinosaurid phylogeny/paleobiogeography, so at least now there's a sort of conceptual focus that wasn't entirely there before. ;-)

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  5. Mike TaylorOctober 10, 2009 at 1:18 PM

    Less than THREE months to go, you mean. You scared me there!

    I've actually broken off from working on the Archbishop paper to check blogs and reply to this post. I'll get right back to it as soon as I've submitted this comment! I'm currently trawling ancient newspaper articles for scraps of relevant information. (Yes, this project is part archaeology!)

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  6. AnonymousOctober 10, 2009 at 1:26 PM

    Well having been on holiday after SVP and only returning to Beijing tomorrow I've not actually made a start yet! I'm well behind.
    And the paper I *had* intended for my entry (that which was covered by my SVP poster for those who saw it) has been (temporarily) put on hold until I can see the prep work on the new specimen and i can hardly commit to a paper where the specimen is not prepared!
    Have no fear though fellow PPC-ers, I have currently 4 other papers as lead author that I promised myself I would get submitted before Jan, and while the vert paper may be held up, the others are all on the list to go. TO be fair to me, most are in an advanced state of readiness, but still, 4 to go in 3 months, plus at least 2 others with co-authors, 1 already in review and 2 papers with students to get through should see me fully occupied under the general auspices of the PPC.
    I'll update next week when I'm back and can see what the prep lab have for me...

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  7. UnknownOctober 11, 2009 at 1:57 PM

    Nothing done here, I must admit! No shame though: I am officially NOT WORKING because I am taking two months of 'parent time'. THat's when the German government pays you 66% of your normal wage (they ensure, however, to calculate that as low as possible) to stay home and look after your kid. Adrian is now one year, and I enjoy this very much, but once that is over I hope to require only two weeks(!) to finish the sauropod rearing paper. Yes, it is far advanced already, I just need to get a better proxy for rearing ability than the one I showed on my poster at SVP.

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  8. AnonymousOctober 29, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    Well I did say I'd update my status and I have got a couple of papaers off since my last comment (go me) and am waiting on my co-authors for a third. My 'official' PPC manuscript will therefore be one I am writing on Microraptor.

    Hmmm, we need to do an update on this list... How's is everyone doing?

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  9. ReBecca Hunt-FosterOctober 29, 2009 at 9:45 PM

    I have a paper with a co-author that has been submitted, and another that I am formating tonight that should be submitted very soon. My taphonomy paper is probably not going to make the deadline but I will push ahead regardless.

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  10. aaa-replica-watchOctober 30, 2009 at 1:06 AM

    Very good article. If you have time and just have a look at http://goodwatches.blog.com !

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  11. umutsNovember 1, 2009 at 2:41 AM

    thank you

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  12. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2010 at 1:16 AM

    Nice story you got here. I'd like to read something more about this theme. The only thing I would like to see here is some pictures of any gizmos.
    David Watcerson
    Phone Blocker

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