Journal Club roundup

Post by Catherine

We at the excd.lab are a highly interdisciplinary bunch, with backgrounds spanning anthropology, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, music, biology, and statistics. Nowhere is this more evident than in our weekly journal club, where we come together (in an archaeology laboratory!) to discuss cultural evolution and learn more about each other’s areas of research.

The first rotation of papers was intended to be an introduction to each other’s fields. If you could inflict on (er, ‘present to’) your colleagues one paper from your specialty, what would it be?

 

 

The second set of journal club readings fell under the theme ‘classic papers in your field.’ What early paper in your field’s history best showcases why your specialty is so exciting? Note: we interpreted ‘early’ in a metaphorical sense.

 

 

The third sequence of papers explicitly focused on the present day. What’s an exciting paper in your field from the past few years?

 

 

We’re now partway into our fourth cycle of journal club papers. We don’t have a theme so far, aside from the entirely independent selection of two papers by Richard McElreath, but we’re beginning to learn what sort of papers make for interesting journal club discussions. Ideally, we’re looking for papers that bring together big ideas from multiple disciplines, that clearly explain their hypotheses and methodologies to a generalist audience, and that have implications that we can tie into our own specialities. (Easier said than done, right?!)

 

 

What papers have you been reading recently? Do you have any suggestions for our lab group? Let us know in the comments here or on Twitter, @excd_lab!

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