As environmental DNA (eDNA) becomes more widely used in research, it becomes increasingly important to have a standard set of reporting guidelines for metadata. The unique properties of eDNA combined with the physical characteristics of the surrounding environment produce highly varied sampling conditions which can influence how an organism is detected. There are also various ways of quantifying and identifying species using eDNA, from sampling and filtering methods to extraction and genetic analysis. It is important to report sufficient metadata to account for this variability and allow for replication of the study. We conducted a systematic review of 160 eDNA studies to determine which data are reported and to assess whether these studies can be replicated. Focusing solely on freshwater studies, we developed a rubric to evaluate each study on 53 criteria based on previous analyses of eDNA research. We found a trend in the data suggesting better reporting at a broad scale, and decreased reporting as categories become more specific. Many of the metrics found to be insufficiently reported are essential to replicability. Our goal is to identify gaps in metadata reporting and develop a framework for developing standard reporting guidelines for eDNA studies.

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Aboriginal people who die in custody face two forms of exclusion: one evident in their disproportionately high imprisonment rates; the other in their traditional lack of voice in the media. This latter exclusion comes about through journalistic practices that privilege authoritative sources and emphasise distance. Janet Beetson was one of fourteen Aboriginal people to die in custody in 1994, a record year for Aboriginal prison deaths. At the time, her death went largely unremarked in the mainstream media. 'The Girl in Cell 4' was published in 1997 about these 1994 events. It was not breaking news: its aim was to tell in detail the story of the last week of Janet Beetson's life through an investigation of what led to her avoidable death. This article charts the critical importance of Janet Beetson's family members in bringing the story to public attention in a way that honoured their loved one and called to account the systems that allowed her to die. This journalist-source collaboration challenges orthodox ideas about arm's length reporting, and indicates that such collaboration can provide for social inclusion.

Critical reflexivity is a relatively recent strand in journalism studies. It has its advocates, but there are few models. This article offers one possible model, of one moment of practice: an interview with the mother-in-law of an Australian Indigenous woman who died an avoidable death in prison. The critically reflexive approach taken in this research accommodates the individual, social, objective and subjective elements in a practice, and uses the tools provided by Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and Donald Schön's work on reflective practice and the reflective practitioner. Together, these approaches provide different but complementary conceptual, analytical, practice-based and narrative tools for making journalism practice, and journalists in the practice, an object of study. Critical reflexivity, by adding an inside perspective, is a valid method by which to add to the range of journalism studies that examine journalism from the outside. Such research allows for an inter-weaving of context, self, others, relationships,theory, history, facts, values and experiences, expanding and enriching our understanding of journalism practice and its place in society.

While journalism scholars have identified a lack of critical reflexivity in journalism, few have identified ways to educate university students for critically reflexive journalism practice. This article reports on a university teaching project that enables such practice as a means to counter exclusions, stereotyping and misrepresentation of Aboriginal people by large-scale Australian media. Using Bourdieus concept of habitus to track transformations in student dispositions, particularly as they relate to practice, the article shows how participating students became more competent and confident Aboriginal affairs journalists with a strengthened sense of themselves, their practice and the journalistic field. Their investment in the field was strengthened as they sought to tell hidden and disregarded stories, and to include previously excluded voices, perspectives and representations. The article describes and analyses an example of critically reflexive learning, practice and teaching that has the potential to transform students learning, the journalistic field and relations between Aboriginal non-Aboriginal Australians.