Forest research/Understanding and critiquing scientific publications

About the Lecturer

Dr Michelle Balasso

Michelle has a multi-disciplinary background allowing for a broad expertise in forestry, ecology, wood products and natural resource management and is committed to integrating different aspects of forestry for sustainable and appropriate use of natural resources. Michelle’s PhD contributed to the understanding of variation in wood quality in Eucalyptus plantations, and she developed a segregation system to obtain the highest recovery of valuable products from the planted resource. Michelle authored a number of high-quality publications in the fields of forest management and wood technology, and presented at several national and international conferences, as well as at industry events. Originally from Italy, she obtained both BSc and MSc from the University of Padova, and travelled for research in Sweden and Germany prior to settling in Australia, where she is currently employed in the forest industry.

5.4 Forest research/Understanding and critiquing scientific publications

Forest research is nowadays highly specialised, sector-specific and technologically driven. While keeping up-to date with the new developments in the various and diversified forestry research areas may appear to be a daunting task, several fundamentals which underline research, and publishing in general, can help practitioners better understand and critique scientific publications. This lecture will provide an overview of the basic of good forest (and sciences in general) research, touching on several aspects, including scientific publishing, peer-review, research ethics.

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