So you’ve just been accepted for publication. At this point, after months of extra experiments and back and forths with reviewers, you’re probably well and truly sick of your paper. However, the months roll by you look at the paper again, you note a cute bit of data analysis here, nice turn of phrase there, and with a gleam in your eye you look to see how many citations you’ve gotten. And unless you’re very lucky, that number might well be still in single digits. 12 months of work, and less than 10 people have ever cited your work. Maybe you feel like it was all for nothing. Well I’m here to make you feel better, because your work was much more important than that. Continue reading →

As a scientist, your life’s work is your publication list. I like to be intimate with mine. Sometimes I just stare at it. I’d buy it a glass of wine if I could. Maybe even caress it softly. Sure, she ain’t much to look at, but she’s mine, and I want to show her off. And if you want a job, you’re going to want to show yours off too. So I’m going to show you how to scrape your publication list from Pubmed with Python. Continue reading →