A Video is Worth a Million Words: Why You Should Make a Video about YOUR Article

Post provided by NATHALIE PETTORELLI & CHRIS GRIEVES

Why should you make a video about your article?
Why should you make a video about your article?

With impact being considered more and more in promotion applications and REF-style (Research Excellence Framework) exercises, science communication is becoming an integral part of a scientist’s job. The problem is: most of us academics aren’t exactly trained in science outreach and our communication styles are heavily biased towards anything written, as opposed to anything visual.

With technological advancements constantly making things easier, however, more and more scientists are taking the plunge and adventuring into the world of YouTube and Vimeo to disseminate their work. But why are they doing so? Is it easy? Do you need expert help or can you do it yourself easily?

This blog post aims to answer all the questions and worries you may have as a scientist thinking of making a video about your work for the first time. To address these worries and questions in the most comprehensive way, we asked 12 authors who recently produced a video about their paper (in some cases their first) if they could give us some insights on their experience, and detail for us the challenges and benefits of choosing this style of communication. Their stories are the background to our story. Continue reading “A Video is Worth a Million Words: Why You Should Make a Video about YOUR Article”

BaSTA

Our latest video is a must-see for all researchers interested in aging: Fernando Colchero, Owen Jones and Maren Rebke, Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research, present BaSTA – Bayesian Survival Trajectory Analysis. The authors have put together this beautiful video exploring research on ageing and and how to deal with incomplete data. Starring Tim Coulson, Imperial College, Fernando Colchero, Owen Jones, Maren Rebke and James Vaupel, … Continue reading BaSTA

New podcast and video

In case you haven’t seen them, this month we have published a new podcast and video so far. In our latest video, David Warton, The University of New South Wales, Australia, presents his ‘mvabund’ package on multivariate analysis. What makes this software different from other ones on multivariate analysis, is that it’s all about models that you can fit to your data. David explains how … Continue reading New podcast and video

Network analyses of animal movement

Determining how animals move within their environment is a fundamental knowledge that contributes to effective management and conservation. In our latest video, David Jacoby and Edd Brooks explain how their paper brings together two disparate and rapid advancing fields: biotelemetry and social networking analyses. In a paper recently published in Methods, David, Edd and colleagues Darren Croft and David Sims, demonstrate some of the descriptive and … Continue reading Network analyses of animal movement

Volume 3 Issue 1: Now online

It seems that from the number of submissions we receive at the journal, Methods in Ecology and Evolution has filled an important niche. As our editor-in-chief, Rob Freckleton, wrote to introduce our second volume: “those doing science need to be kept up to date on new approaches, and those developing new methods need a place to publish, as well as be supported in getting their … Continue reading Volume 3 Issue 1: Now online

Measuring functional connectivity using butterflies

Long-term datasets yield a great deal of information and are increasingly used to inform conservation measures. In the first video of the new year, Gary Powney and Tom Oliver show how long-term monitoring data on the Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) from the UK monitoring butterfly scheme can be used to assess functional connectivity of the landscape. In a paper recently published in Methods, Gary … Continue reading Measuring functional connectivity using butterflies

Evolution MegaLab

Modern technology offers some really exciting new opportunities for the use of citizen science, and in our newest video Jonathan Silvertown, Open University, gives a demonstration of Evolution MegaLab, a huge collaboration exploring the use of citizen science methods to undertake high-quality surveys of polymorphism in a wild species. Jonathan demonstrates the site’s display of historical polymorphism data, some features designed to enable researchers to assess the … Continue reading Evolution MegaLab

Methods videos and iTunes

You’ve been able to download our podcasts through the iTunes store for a while now, but did you know that the Methods in Ecology and Evolution videos are also available? To help maximise the dissemination of new techniques within the research community, fourteen  of our author videos are already available right now, for free, through the iTunes store – and we’ll be adding the last few videos over the coming … Continue reading Methods videos and iTunes

Modelling static and dynamic variables

Jessica Stanton discusses the problem of accounting for both static and dynamic variables in designing species distribution models under climate change in our newest author video. Related Read Combining static and dynamic variables in species distribution models under climate change by Jessica C. Stanton, Richard G. Pearson, Ned Horning, Peter Ersts and H. Reşit Akçakaya See other Methods in Ecology and Evolution author videos Continue reading Modelling static and dynamic variables

Measuring the importance of species to ecosystems

In this video to accompany their paper Randomization tests for quantifying species importance to ecosystem function, authors Nicholas Gotelli and Fernando Maestre discuss the introduction of simple tests for measuring the effect of species on ecosystem variables, and give us an insight into the logistics required for their paper’s “natural experiements” – involving the collection and preparation of over 25,000 lichen samples! The methodology presented in this paper … Continue reading Measuring the importance of species to ecosystems