Single Review on past events

Abstract from :

Writing scientific papers is, arguably, the most important task in a scientist’s working life. Papers are the universal currency by which all scientists are compared and evaluated, and, often, the only scientific legacies they will leave behind. Unfortunately, a paper is an imperfect record of scientific activity because it presents a cleaned-up, simplified and reorganized version of the scientific process, leaving out any detail that might distract the reader from understanding its findings and arguments. Over the last four years, I have documented the stories behind 160+ landmark papers in ecology and evolution, through interviews with their lead authors. During the talk, I will use examples from the interviews to highlight what published papers leave out, and discuss what this might mean for the contemporary practice of science as well as its historical understanding.