Resources
Knowledge and resources for researchers
Practical guides, articles, and reference materials covering data analysis, scientific visualisation, research communication, and the integration of AI into scientific workflows. This resource library is actively expanding.
Featured
Selected from the newsletters
AlphaGenome: The AI That Learned to Read the Language of Life
Google DeepMind's AlphaGenome interprets regulatory DNA sequences across 11 molecular properties at single-base resolution, outperforming specialised tools on most benchmarks.
42 Trillion Base Pairs, 40 Million Citations, and One Missing Skill: Knowing How to Navigate Them
How AI converts natural language questions into optimised NCBI database queries using MeSH terms and Boolean logic — making literature discovery accessible for every researcher.
Rebooting the PhD: Why Doctoral Training Must Evolve in the Age of AI
Traditional PhD models are becoming obsolete as AI handles routine research tasks. A case for curricular reform emphasising originality, critical thinking, and mandatory AI literacy.
Life Sciences
Life Sciences Research
Plastic-Eating Microbes and Their Enzymes
Nature’s Answer to the Global Waste Crisis
Visualising multi-omics data for publication: standards and common errors
Best practices for presenting transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics results in figures that meet journal requirements.
Reproducible data analysis in R: a practical primer for life science researchers
Setting up project structure, version control, and documentation for fully reproducible biological data analysis.
Genomics & Biotech
Genomics & Biotechnology
Molecular Ghosts in the Mud: How Ancient Soil DNA Is Resurrecting the Earth’s Lost Worlds
The soil beneath an ancient cave or lakebed is not just dirt. It is a complete biological archive - plants, animals, microbes, and humans, all preserved in the same molecular record.
42 Trillion Base Pairs, 40 Million Citations, and One Missing Skill: Knowing How to Navigate Them
Announcing a new AcademAI handbook on using AI to unlock NCBI databases
AlphaGenome: The AI That Learned to Read the Language of Life
How Google DeepMind's newest genomic intelligence is deciphering the 98% of DNA that biology has struggled to interpret for decades — and what it means for researchers in crop science, biotechnology,
Writing Life from Scratch
What Evo2 Tells Us About AI’s Role in Synthetic Biology
From PubMed Alerts to ChatGPT
AI-Aided Strategies for Smarter Reading
From Peptides to Patterns
How AI is Transforming Protein Sequencing
Interpreting RNA-Seq differential expression results: pitfalls and best practice
A guide to correctly interpreting the outputs of standard RNA-Seq differential expression pipelines — from DESeq2 outputs to biological conclusion.
Agriculture
Agriculture & Food Systems
Still Paying for MS Word? Here Is a Free Alternative That Thinks With You
Walk into any research lab in India - at a state agricultural university, a regional research station, or an ICAR institute - and you will find the same scene.
The Microbiome Our Crops Lost — and the Science of Getting It Back
Rewilding is credible. The trade-offs are real, documented, and under-reported. The field needs to report both with equal rigour.
Arabidopsis thaliana: The Tiny Plant That Teaches Us About Food Security And Climate Action
How a Backyard Weed Became the Blueprint for Resilient Crops, Climate Science, and Human Health
When Plants Talk: Decoding Nature’s Secret System for Growth and Defence
How new discoveries about plant cell-wall communication could redefine crop resilience, biological control, and sustainable farming.
Microbiomes Without Borders
Linking Policy, Equity, and the Soil-to-Gut Continuum
Microbes, Markets, and Mindsets: Unlocking India’s Biological Agriculture Potential
India’s agricultural future may not lie in what’s sprayed above the ground — but in what’s thriving beneath it.
Statistical analysis of multi-environment crop trials: design and interpretation
Choosing the right model for field trial data — mixed models, GxE interaction, and stability analysis for agricultural researchers.
Microbiome analysis in soil and plant systems: a workflow overview
End-to-end pipeline for 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing — from raw reads to ecological interpretation for crop and soil science.
Health Research
Health Research
The End of Animal Testing? How iPSCs, AI, and "Clinical Trials in a Dish" Are Rewriting Drug Discovery
A Stanford-led review maps the future of pharmaceutical development — and it barely needs a lab mouse
Systematic review with AI assistance: a practical guide for health researchers
Integrating AI-powered literature tools into a rigorous systematic review workflow without compromising methodological standards.
Biostatistics for clinical researchers: choosing the right test
A structured framework for selecting appropriate statistical tests across common clinical and epidemiological study designs.
Visualising health data: principles for clinical publications
Design guidelines for Kaplan-Meier curves, forest plots, and other figures common in clinical and health research publications.
Academia
Academic & Research Institutions
Aletheia-Probe
A New Weapon Against Predatory Journals
New Release: A Practical Handbook on Using Google’s NotebookLM for Research
Over the past year, many researchers have raised a persistent concern: How do we use AI tools without losing rigor, traceability, and intellectual control? Most discussions around AI focus on text generation.
Rebooting the PhD: Why Doctoral Training Must Evolve in the Age of AI
Artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of research. Universities must reinvent PhD programs to train thinkers, not typists.
STORM
An AI Tool from Stanford University to Create Detailed, Wikipedia-style Reports on Any Topic
OpenScholar
The Open-Source AI Revolutionizing Academic Research
NotebookLM
Google’s Ultimate AI Tool for Academics
Nested Knowledge
Revolutionising Systematic Literature Reviews with AI
Perplexity
Your New AI-Powered Search Engine
Writing a research grant proposal with AI: what works and what to avoid
Practical guidance on using AI tools responsibly in grant writing — from drafting specific aims to synthesising the literature review.
Industry R&D
Industry R&D Teams
Communicating R&D findings to non-scientific stakeholders
How to translate complex experimental results into clear, credible reports for leadership, investors, and regulatory audiences.
Data documentation for regulatory-ready R&D projects
Building reproducible, audit-friendly analytical workflows that meet documentation standards for regulatory submissions and IP records.
Policy
Science & Research Policy
Views on science and research policy — drawn from published articles and ongoing engagement with the policy landscape in Indian and global research.
Citation data are now open, but that's far from enough
Crossref has made citation data for over 60 million articles openly available — a welcome step. But India's research infrastructure and policy environment still lag behind the ambitions of STIP 2020.
India's Seeds Bill 2025: How the Bill Undermines Farmers, Biodiversity, and Public Research
The Draft Seeds Bill 2025, presented as agricultural modernisation, threatens India's seed sovereignty by prioritising corporate efficiency over farmer protections — while creating regulatory conflicts with biodiversity and farmers' rights laws.
India's Pesticides Management Bill: Progress, Protection, and Policy Blind Spots
India is modernising pesticide regulation — but faster approvals and cleaner databases are not enough. The new bill needs a regulatory philosophy that puts scientific independence and safety above administrative convenience.
Fifty Years of ICAR-IISR
Why India’s Spice Story Needs a New Chapter
Research infrastructure and the gap between policy ambition and ground reality in India
An examination of how national science and technology policies translate — or fail to translate — into meaningful change at the institutional level.
Preprint culture and its implications for peer review in Indian research
How the global shift toward preprints is reshaping scientific communication and what it means for research ecosystems in lower-income settings.
Training Resources
Resources to accompany DAVnSCI training programmes
Participants in DAVnSCI workshops and institutional training programmes receive access to dedicated reference materials, worked datasets, and session notes designed to reinforce learning and support independent application.
These materials are not available publicly but are provided as part of all training engagements. Contact us to enquire about upcoming programmes or institutional training.
Enquire About TrainingPaid Resources
Guides, templates, and reference materials
Downloadable handbooks for researchers who want structured, self-directed reference material. Available immediately after purchase — pay via Instamojo (India) or Gumroad (international).
Navigating NCBI Databases with AI Assistance: A Practical Handbook for Researchers
A practical, workflow-driven handbook for life sciences researchers who want to navigate NCBI databases (PubMed, GenBank, BLAST, Gene, GEO, SRA, ClinVar) faster and smarter using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, an…
Paying from India? Use Instamojo →
Introducing Google Docs + Gemini: A Practical Handbook for Researchers
A comprehensive 10-chapter practical handbook for researchers and academic professionals on using Google Docs + Gemini AI for life sciences, agriculture, biotechnology, and bioinformatics research workflows.What's inside…
Paying from India? Use Instamojo →
Accelerating Research with NotebookLM: A Strategic Handbook
This digital handbook is a precision guide for researchers who want to stop drowning in PDFs and start producing high-quality scientific output faster. Built entirely around source-grounded workflows, it shows you how to…
Paying from India? Use Instamojo →
The Researcher’s ChatGPT Handbook
Discover how to turn ChatGPT into your most powerful research ally. Designed for doctoral students, postdocs, and academic professionals, this practical guide walks you through hands-on workflows, prompting techniques, a…
Paying from India? Use Instamojo →
Indian customers: secure checkout via Instamojo. International customers: secure checkout via Gumroad. All products are digital downloads delivered immediately.
Institutional or bulk licensing? Contact us.
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