Editorial: Nine deadly modelling sins

The Nine Deadly sins of Project Planning

1. Not planning at all By far the most common planning problem is simply not planning at all, and this sin is easily avoided. A person need not be an expert planner to plan effectively. I’ve seen numerous instances of projects planned by rank amateurs that have run well simply because the people in charge had carefully considered their project’s specific needs. Forced to choose between an exper...

Eight Deadly Sins of GRL

The seven deadly sins of comparative analysis.

Phylogenetic comparative methods are extremely commonly used in evolutionary biology. In this paper, I highlight some of the problems that are frequently encountered in comparative analyses and review how they can be fixed. In broad terms, the problems boil down to a lack of appreciation of the underlying assumptions of comparative methods, as well as problems with implementing methods in a man...

The seven deadly sins of DNA barcoding.

Despite the broad benefits that DNA barcoding can bring to a diverse range of biological disciplines, a number of shortcomings still exist in terms of the experimental design of studies incorporating this approach. One underlying reason for this lies in the confusion that often exists between species discovery and specimen identification, and this is reflected in the way that hypotheses are gen...

The seven deadly curs’d sins …Lust

In today's climate of political correctness, I shall have to be very careful in choosing my words in this letter, because I do not want to stand trial for conspiring to provoke lewd behaviour, should our private correspondence fall into the wrong hands. The modern meaning of lust has very bad connotations. It suggests uncontrolled sexual desire or an overwhelming craving for money, fame or powe...