Posts

enabling Libre/OpenOffice plugin for Mendeley 1.5

I upgraded to using Mendeley v 1.5 (because previous versions don’t work on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise) and I had problems installing the OpenOffice plugin. Normally this is easy: in Mendeley you select the Tools menu and go to Install OpenOffice Plugin. However, for whatever reason the software can’t find the plugin, and I get this error:

list of abbreviated journal names

As a followup to my previous post, I wrote a script to generate the master list of journal names and their abbreviations from Web of Science.

The script is designed to be used in conjunction with the previous one, and is also written in perl (which I’m still learning) and can be downloaded here or viewed here. Improvements and suggestions welcome.

Abbreviated Journal Names in Mendeley [updated]

UPDATE: I just posted an update. This feature is coming soon to Mendeley!

Several journals require abbreviated journal names, but as of yet Mendeley doesn’t make this possible. Or so I thought. After coming across this blog post I decided to try to get this functionality working on my computers.

Finding Symbol Commands for LaTeX

Ever been writing a document in [latex]\LaTeX[/latex] and had to look up the code for a particular symbol? Google usually directs me to the Comprehesive LaTeX Symbol List but scrolling through and finding the symbol I’m looking for is time consuming. However, today I came across this site (Detexify) which lets you draw the symbol you are looking for and it tries to match it, providing symbol suggestions and letting you know the [latex]\LaTeX[/latex] code and the package to use!

Constructing Pedigrees in R

I was looking for a good way to draw pedigrees using software, without having to fuss drawing them “by hand” using a drawing program. Lo and behold, I came across a few different packages in R that allow me to do just that!

Custom Citation Styles in Mendeley

I’m an avid user of Mendeley citation management software (CMS), and am pleased with the capabilities of this cross-platform, open-source, and free referencing tool. However, one limitation I’ve encountered is that it does not have very many citiation styles preinstalled, and although many additional formats are available to download through the Mendeley interface, it does not (yet) provide a built-in style editor to customize citiation styles.

Exploring Population Dynamics Models using a GUI for R

Backstory

I recently taught a senior-level population dynamics course, and had to decide how best to get my students to be able to play around with the various models we were exploring in class. I ruled out using Excel right away and thought about using Mathematica because of its wonderful plotting capabilities and relatively-easy to learn syntax. However, I felt that it would be more trouble that it was worth to try to get either a site license for the students to be able to use the computers at school, as I had ruled out asking the students to purchase their own student copies. Being an avid R user, I had also thought about using R for the course but was concerned about the learning curve associated with it. I didn’t want students getting hung up on coding syntax, but rather, have an opportunity to explore different model parameterizations graphically.