Some of the best advice on the internet: several years of links

I started off the New Year with a much-needed bookmark reorganization and deletion, which also gave me a chance to re-read some of the links I've held onto (sometimes for years). There's an ever-increasing amount of useful content on the internet, but these have proven some of the most helpful, concrete, and lasting guides for navigating a scientific life.

I thought I'd collate the list here with the hope others might find some of these useful.

How to make it as early career researcher and new faculty: 

• There's no one way to be successful (in fact there are many ways), but hearing what not to do can be as important as all the other advice you will get: Mistakes I've made as an early career researcher (Times Higher Education)
• Lots of what-to-do and what-not-to-do advice here! How to be a new professor (Eco-Evo Evo-Eco)
• It's hard enough that Berkley's career centre has written pages on the topic: Transitioning from PhD to Prof (Careers at Berkley)

Identity and academia:

• I think most of us took different and often interesting routes to science (for example, I grew up in an evangelical Christian family, took a number of years to finally start my undergrad, and had no particular knowledge of ecology when I started my BSc. I wanted to be a vet, but now I'm an ecologist. Close enough :) ) and so I like to hear the many different routes by which scientists found science (SEAS).
• Overcoming imposter syndrome - there are many websites devoted to the topic, but this one provides particularly concrete steps to overcoming this common problem. 
• No one is perfect, and feedback can hurt - why feedback hurts and how to over come that. And no, it isn't enough to say, 'grow a thicker skin' (The Thesis Whisperer).
• Diversify EEB - a useful list of women and minorities working in EEB, worth keeping in mind when making nominations, selecting reviewers, and making various invitations. 
• And it's worth remembering that there is a dark side (one slightly bitter take on it). (Fear and Loathing in Academia)

Mentoring and leadership:

• Mentoring plans - this is super-useful whether you are faculty or a student. In a lot of places there may not be a tradition of having written plans and this provides examples of how to put them into practice. (Meg Duffy, Dynamic Ecology)
• Running successful lab meetings from all perspectives. I like the idea of explicitly deciding what you value and then modelling that when leading lab meetings. (Neuromechanics Lab at Emory)
• Discussing and leading successful journal clubs especially for graduate students.  (Tulane University, Dept of EEB) 
• Running successful scientific working groups and workshops (Conservation Bytes) 
• Preparing PhD students for non-academic careers (The Versatile PhD)

Computing/Data management:

• How to organize your computational projects (PlosBiol)
• Ten commandments for good data management (Brian McGill, Dynamic Ecology)
• Proselytizing about version control (Jennifer Bryan, Peer J)
• A list of lists of links for R statistical resources on Google Documents  
• Data sources worth checking out at The ecological data wiki

Data visualization:

• There are some really beautiful infographics about science from Eleanor Lutz here (Tabletop Whale).
• Information is Beautiful - infographics for inspiration
• Show me Shiny - some great examples of how R Shiny has transformed data visualization and interaction.
• If you are familiar with Edward Tufte's influential work on data visualization, you can use R to produce similar plots here. (Lukasz Piwek)

Teaching:

• The Eco-Evo Evo-Eco blog has a great how-to series, but this one especially has really concrete examples and suggestions for EEB lecturers: How to Teach (Eco-Evo Evo-Eco). 
• An article on how to use new learning methods for quantitative biology and models at Active learning and quantitative biology (Integrative and Comparative Biology)  
• The National Centre for Case Study Teaching in Science for already developed case studies and activities. 
• Common mistakes using active learning - nice to see legit critiques and ways to improve.
• Smart advice on avoiding bad teaching reviews (Terry McGlynn, Small Pond Science)

Miscellaneous links:

• Now part of the PhD canon: The infamous Snake Fight for your thesis to distribute to your PhD students (McSweeney's Internet Tendency).
• Wall of the Dead - poignant memorial list of ecologists lost while working  (Richard Conniff).
• The original text for Gause's The Struggle for Existence and plots. Ecology has changed so much (and so little).
• Visualize the tree of life beautifully and interactively (and get your name on it (sort of)!) (One Zoom)