So there I was, vainly searching Amazon.com to see if a subscription to this blog is available on Kindle (it appears not), when I was hit between the eyes by something unexpected.
A few of you may recall that a few months ago I wrote a lukewarm review of Jerry Coyne's new book Why Evolution Is True. It is not a bad book, and it actually is a good primer if you do not know very much about evolution, but there were a number of errors in it that I felt could have easily been avoided with a little more research.
How is this relevant to my opening statement? In searching for "Laelaps" on Amazon.com Why Evolution is True was one of the books that came up in the results. It was there that I noticed an excerpt containing my name. Given that I concerned myself with the meat of the text when I read the book I did not look at the supplemental material, but apparently I should have. Coyne had some good things to say about my writing;
Among many good blogs on evolutionary biology, two stand out. One is "Laelaps" (http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/), the blog of Brian Switek, a graduate student in paleontology at Rutgers, which covers not only paleontology but also broader issues in evolutionary biology and the philosophy of science.
Certainly I am a little embarrassed to see this given that my review largely consisted of criticisms of the book, but it was an honest assessment. There are certainly things I would have done differently (and am doing in my own book) but Why Evolution is True is not absolute rubbish, either. I was just not quite as taken with it as I was hoping to be.
I am also a bit chagrined that I am listed, in print, as a graduate student of paleontology. I am no such thing. I am an undergraduate in the ecology & evolution program and whatever I write about paleontology, history, and the philosophy of science primarily stems from my self-education. In fact I am mistaken for a graduate student fairly often and this is partially my own fault. I simply use the term "student" in the short description under my picture to the left because I have found that, when people discover I am an undergraduate, I have often lost their respect. If I want my ideas to be taken seriously I have to present myself as a sort of independent scholar as otherwise I am often dismissed without further consideration. Still, I apologize if I have sewn confusion by not having a big red blinking sign that says "I am not a graduate student!" on my sidebar.
In any event, Coyne has started up a blog of his own. It is definitely worth a look. Here's a handful of posts to get you started: Coyne on the recent kerfuffle over creationism in Forbes, Don Prothero's Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters (also see my review and interview with Prothero), and the controversial New Scientist cover that proclaimed Darwin (gasp) wrong.
I appreciate Coyne's praise for this blog. I did not expect to have my work singled out by a prominent evolutionary biologist! I hope that I continue to write praise-worthy work for some time to come, and perhaps someday soon my own book will be available on bookseller's shelves.
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Brian, I went back over your review and didn't find a problem with it. I don't think you have any reason to feel like you have wronged Coyne. He's a good scientist and should appreciate some good honest criticism from you. Some of the best scientists I have known are quite picky about getting the facts correct - no matter who they have to correct in the process.
If enough professors call you a graduate student, do you become one by default?
I feel you on this one -- I'm still wrestling with my approach to criticism. I've become very conscious of my snark levels. Even legitimate criticisms need to be phrased so as to be read as constructive...
Kinda sucks the fun out of it, huh?
The factual errors you pointed out make you a good reviewer, and may help Mr. Coyne be a better writer who does his research more carefully in the future. This serves the public as well, so you've nothing to feel guilty about.
The grad student thing is a compliment.
Even a horse's ass has a pretty tail.
Brian wrote: "In fact I am mistaken for a graduate student fairly often and this is partially my own fault."
I wouldn't fault you for this mistake as much as compliment you! I'm sure plenty of folks (myself included) automatically assumed you were a graduate student because of the depth of knowledge you demonstrate and your obvious passion for your field of study, both of which are unusual at the undergraduate level (my own time as an undergraduate included).
Part of the beauty of scientific thought is that it shouldn't matter what level you're at: the quality of your thinking is what counts. Professors ideally aren't allowed to hide behind their scientific 'credentials' when engaged in an argument, and likewise you shouldn't have to apologize for yours.
GG; That line was meant to be a little sarcastic, but I do not generally advertise that I am an undergraduate except when I write rants about it. I do take it as a compliment that people think I am a graduate student; I just wish, that Blake says, I could use this confusion to my academic advantage!
This kind of thing comes with the territory when you review books ... you have to be able to give an honest assessment regardless of what the author might think of you or your work. If you had realized that he'd mentioned your work positively, your job would have been to ignore that fact and not let it change how you wrote your review. If you found yourself suddenly unable to criticize his work, that'd be the time to not write the review at all. This is stuff that review editors and writers deal with and talk about all the time. I've stumbled on references to my work in books I was reviewing in the past (or worse, my name in the acknowledgments). In those cases, I usually contact my editor and tell him/her that I've found such a reference, we discuss it, and I back out of the review if necessary. If there's a detailed discussion of the reviewer's work in the book, that raises questions about conflict of interest and whether it's possible for the reviewer to read the work objectively.
Snark is a big problem in book review writing, but I don't see you being guilty of that.
If you're interested, have a look at this page, which talks about conflict of interest, snark, and gives general tips for getting book reviews published (which would be a great route for you I think).