Andy of the Open Source Palaeontologist and I were recently chatting online and were lamenting the inevitable problem of ‘the unfinished paper’. Most researchers have a project or two (or anything up to 20) that were started and then kind of stalled for various reasons – uncooperative coauthors, being unable to find the elusive essential paper, other projects taking priority, or just general malaise. It’s left as a few pages of notes, or unreferenced, without figures or a key analysis complete or whatever. It’s good science and publishable, it’s just not done. Without a good incentive to get them finished off (like a rival group) or them getting out of date (the stuff is interesting but not ground breaking and will not revolutionise the field when it comes out, but it’s not old either) these things can last for ever.
Both of us have these kinds of papers knocking around and we are far from the only ones. As such with SVP around the corner we decided to issue the palaeo paper challenge. If you have a palaeo paper that really needs to be finished off at some point then we challenge you to sign up here and try to get it done this year. If so, simply leave a comment over on the OSP in the comment thread and we’ll tot them all up in a few days and create a register of those taking part (so you can’t back out!). There is no need to let everyone know exactly what it is you are working on (if people want to keep things private, that’s fine) but of course juicy details will be welcome. Andy and I will also both be canvassing at SVP and if you want to encourage others to join, do please mention this on your own blogs etc.
This should serve as both self-motivation to get the project done and a nice little race to see who can finish first and get their paper submitted or in print. The real challenge of course is simply to get it done, so we are setting Jan 1st as your ‘official’ deadline – if you are joining the challenge you’ll have about three months to get it done. There are hundreds if not thousands of these papers languishing on hard drives so let’s try and get a few of them out there.
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Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings 
I’m working on something, but I’m going to have to hold off on publication until one of the specimens it deals with has a full description (it was part of a quick publication a few years ago, but its more detailed measurements are part of a doctoral thesis that will be published in pieces relatively soon).
But take inspiration from knowing that that I’m actively at work all the same! 😉
Count me in, sir! Dr. Hungerbuehler and I have been working on a description of a new partial Redondasaurus skull that will include a comparison with that of Pseudopalatus. I’ve already dedicated nearly a year to merely cleaning the bloody thing, and I could certainly use this extra incentive!
Good to know, but do sign up at the OSP and not just mention it on here, this is just advertising. While it is a joint idea Andy is kindly handling it as such, it makes sense to have a single registry / discussion point and that’s his blog.