Just how reliable are research papers and what goes on to get them published and accepted in the scientific literature and, critically, are they reliable? We have talked many times on the pod about scientific papers but without ever discussing what these actually are and how they get published. It’s an important aspect of science and especially with palaeontology given the huge mix of information available through museums, the media, and well, podcasts, so it’s an area really worth discussing.

This week our guest is biologist and science communicator Simon Watt, who talks about the appearances of dinosaurs and the public’s changing perception of this in relation to what the palaeontologists think.

Links:

A (very old) blogpost of Dave’s on the same general subject of how to write and get a scientific paper published: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/how-to-write-a-paper-and-get-it-published/

A piece by Dave on the problems of peer review and reporting of non-reviewed material: https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2012/dec/01/dinosaurs-fossils

A link to Darren Naish’s piece on his All yesterday’s book that gets a brief mention: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/all-yesterdays-book-and-launch-event/

Do please support us on Patreon