A list of resources and tools I have used in the name of research.
For Publications & Work Productivity
- Mendeley - Great for organizing all those pdf with obscure file names. Does all the work for you and they have a really good app. So you can feed your urge to read articles anytime.
- Google Scholar Alerts - Get email alerts to see the newest research published based on my search terms.
- Trello - Brainstorming and listing topics to include in each section of my manuscript and also for listing key citations.
- Microsoft Word & Powerpoint - Word for writing the paper and importing citation from Mendeley. Powerpoint for exporting high quality, publication ready .tif files of schematics and data figures.
For Research & Data Analysis
- R - Great for people who have a lot of love for codes or just want to use the Rcmdr package.
- SAS - More intuitive, easy, and fast...but not free.
- JMP Pro - Also not free, but it's an easy point-and-click program and doesn't require typing code like R and SAS.
- ArcGIS - Make cool maps. Also comes with good statistical packages.
- QGIS - Best free and easy to use mapping program I've found that's most similar to ArcGIS.
- Primer v7 - Great for performing PERMANOVA and multivariate statistics.
- Microsoft Excel - Mainly use for data management and creating graphs.
- Physiology Web - Various calculators for conversions and preparing solutions.
Identification Guides
- Field Guide to Freshwater Mussels of the Midwest
- An Illustrated Guide to the Mountain Stream Insects of Colorado
- An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America
Other Cool Books
- Freshwater Mussel Ecology: A Multifactor Approach to Distribution and Abundance (2008)
- Ecotoxicology: A Comprehensive Treatment (2007)
- Sediment in streams (1995)
- The Ecology Of Aquatic Insects (1984)
- The Philosophy of Ecology: from Science to Synthesis (2000) - Currently Reading