Thrilled to debate the future of scientific publishing with Alex Freeman, founder of Octopus.ac, moderated by @jlrohmann.bsky.social & hosted @einsteinberlin.bsky.social in a suitably vibrant Berlin setting. Votes elegantly split half way before & after arguments - strikingly, many changed sides : )

📚 Oxford-style Debate on academic publishing! @berndpulverer.bsky.social @embopress.org vs. Alexandra Freeman. Nov 7, 4:30pm, Holzmarkt Berlin, @berlinscienceweek.bsky.social, co-organized with @berlinualliance.bsky.social, moderated by @jlrohmann.bsky.social berlinscienceweek.com/programme/ox...

Epic setting in historic Brussels theater for research career-last talks by two towering chromatin figures: Tony Kouzarides and Thomas Jenuwein at #xcellsconference

Wei Zhang (Zhejiang University, previous head of NSFC, UNESCO OS) declares 4 hurdles to #OpenAccess adoption #OASPA2025: 1) JIF (cf. @DORAassessment.bsky.social); 2) publisher double dipping; 3) non-transparent pricing; 4) one size fits all models/ignoring global south

Good discussion #OASPA2025 how to make OA scaleable -more Qs than As. Cameron Neylon ‘there are real costs in publishing that the system has to bear’ Can publ. agreements work for full OA? Can APCs be equitable? How to encourage/pay for Open Science & non-paper research artefacts? Now for solutions!

catching up with my old stomping ground molecular & preclinical cancer research. 2 wonderful @embo.org Global Investigator talks from EMBO associate Singapore by Dennis Kappei, CSI & Wee Wei Tee of IMCB. Spot the Singapore inspired @embojournal.org cover.

So glad I could attend #OsakaMito2025, one of the most interactive meetings. ltr: Mashun Onishi (Organizer,Osaka) Hijiri Oshio (EMBOJ prize,Tokyo), Keisuke Takeda (Org,Osaka), Yibing Wang (EMBOMolMed prize, Beijing), Saori Shinoda (Org,Tokyo), Yuta Konishi (EMBOR pr,Kyoto), camera: Koji Okamoto Org.

Thanks Koji Okamoto for hosting me in Osaka University - great questions from a young engaged audience from JIFs over referee credit to publishing costs

Congratulations to Yuta Konishi of Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan on winning the @emboreports.org poster prize #OsakaMito2025, an astonishingly dynamic and exciting conference with full throttle engagement of ECRs

here I was in Osaka, enjoying the superb science & exciting discourse #OsakaMito2025 when a certain RFKJn decided to make mitochondria his own. Big words for a parasite compromised CNS. Back to sci: so many exciting findings by the next gen of mitologists here! Watch out for mitos @EMBOReports.org

@lynnkamerlin.bsky.social & I argue @emboreports.org: students/postdocs must not be victims of immigration clampdowns. This is ethically indefensible & will undermine the knowledge-based economies of countries following this path. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.... www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Arsenic life: completely agree with @science.org & @cope that papers with flawed core claims should be retracted or -much better- ‚withdrawn‘ by the authors (a tool dev @embopress.org). Self-correction must be de-stigmatized & become a +ve indicator in res. assessment www.science.org/content/arti...

We reached the phase of the playbook where critical reporting is proxy banned by unsubscribing. At least they could have had the grace to invoke the OSTP Open Research policy, in force from today: they mandate #OpenScience, yet block dissemination & undermine research. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Assuming for a moment US gvt subcrptions to SN really were cut is it because: 1) Start of OSTP directive; 2) cost saving; 3) Kennedy alleged biases; 4) critical news reporting. Tick ONE for fact and ONE for proxy reason. www.science.org/content/arti...

Finally - ‘Publications’ offers itself up for publishing…anything. MDPI outdoes itself in publishing creativity.

Weaponizing foreign students in the US culture war against academic institutions is abhorrent & a major own goal. Lets hope the UK sees where all this leads & is curageous enough to reverse damaging Brexit policies on academic exchange. Only countries with international academia produce excellence.

OSTP head Kratsios conflates DEI & research to justify US federal cuts ‘Political biases have displaced the vital search for truth [sci are] trying to score political points rather than doing goldstandard science’uff! +ve: he supports #researchintegrity & #openscience www.science.org/content/arti...

@ascbiology.bsky.social , @asm.org, @faseborg.bsky.social filed an amicus brief in support of the cancelled MOSAIC NIH grant program with the support of other community organizations www.ascb.org/society-news...

J. Bhattacharya on reported ‘suspension’ of NIH subawards for foreign collab: “No, that’s false. There’s going to be a policy on tracking subawards”’Later that day, NIH released a policy that halted subawards to foreign scientists [who will] need to apply directly’ www.science.org/content/arti...

new #NIH #OA policy from July1st: @EMBOPress.org is #goldOA and thus fully compliant. The ‘Nelson memorandum’ is one of the few matters of science policy the new administration carried over. The principle is great - the rush will cause yet more mayhem. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

We’d all like to have a definitive answer on the origin of SARSCoV2 and careful regulation of ALL GOF research is warranted, but for the US administration to transmute an unproven hypothesis to claimed fact in order to make politics is utterly irresponsible x.com/RapidRespons...

this is probably only the beginning of systematic challenges to scientific journals. A response could be to ask how the health secretary vetted his claim to find ‘the’ cause of autims by September, now a (the?) key NIH priority www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

Someone wants to have their cake & eat it: fear not, Harvard: ‘Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status [which] is contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!’ YET ‘About 22k I.R.S. employees have signed their resignation offer…could weaken the agency’s ability to collect taxes.’

Even the FT is suggesting to beef up European science funding to encourage reverse brain drain (NB: a UK editorial pins its hopes on EU funding): ‚expand the EU’s seven-year €95bn Horizon Europe initiative… in its next phase from 2028 to woo displaced US-based scientists‘ www.ft.com/content/7ec9...

Time to wake up from the political mess to refocus on the real disruptor: ‚there’s only one path-prevent further increases in atmospheric energy..this isn’t about saving the planet but about saving markets & civilization‘ says Allianz insurance boardmember Thallinger www.linkedin.com/pulse/climat...

‘Bhattacharya…wanted the NIH to focus on reproducibility, rigour, transparency & acad freedom, even as the agency...scrapped its scientific integrity policy aimed at prohibiting political influence on government science’ Classic playbook: turn the arguments 180 degrees www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Given the last couple of months, any hope this is an April fool’s spoof are sadly misplaced: shameful & utterly self-defeating if the US admin is remotely interested in efficiency, global leadership or even only in economic growth. An altogether darker agenda plausible www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The US govt continues to prioritize hobby horses of its leadership: Kennedy commissioned another analysis of autism/vaccine ‚links‘ all these years after the Wakefield Lancet paper embarassment & disasterous fallout of falling MMR vaccination rates-expect a revelation www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...

NIH stops funding all the ‚banned topics’ incl. COVID & climate change. Who is ready to step in while the US sunsets its innovation leadership role? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This is a great editorial by @alfonsovalencia.bsky.social on the importance and fragility of biomedical databases. Even in normal times, it is a struggle to maintain funding for these resources. More than ever we need to think about the sustainability and robustness of this critical infrastructure.

Science under attack: a growing list of statements from journals @jama.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... @plos.org theplosblog.plos.org/2025/02/plos... @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41... @embopress.org www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

…and @alfonsovalencia.bsky.social advocates in @emboreports.org for a distributed biomedical database infrastructure based on the imperiled yet utterly essential CDC resources www.embopress.org/doi/10.1038/...

Meanwhile, @lynnkamerlin.bsky.social & Elias dissect how capping NIH overheads @15% would hurt research & lose institutions ~4billion$ - the motives remain murky since current overheads are aligned with those of other funders &pharma findihttps://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44319-025-00418-4

In an @emboreports.org editorial just out, I attempt suggestions on how to effectively respond to the manifold challenges the US administration has thrown in the way of academia www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Save the date! Cell Bio 2025, the joint ASCB | EMBO meeting, will take place in Philadelphia, US, 6 – 10 December 2025: www.ascb.org/cellbio2025/ #CellBio2025 @ascbiology.bsky.social 🧪

US antitrust lawsuit against major publishers by 4 researchers. While one can highlight many issues with publishing, focussing on single submission & lack of referee payments seems naive at best. Maybe also a little behind the times to see the main bottleck here? www.statnews.com/2025/03/10/p...

@EMBO.org just hosted a superb ‘matchmaking’ workshop with our partner, the Japanese Science & Technology Agency (JST). Ever more important to keep the global research community connected in these disruptive times

Congratulations @cziscience.bsky.social& @cshlnews.bsky.social on the launch of #openRxiv - a new nonprofit to host @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social & @medRxivpreprint.bsky.social. @Embopress.org supported preprints from day1 + on the launch advisory group of these preeminent preprint platforms

Do you trust science? 🤔🔬 From the debates sparked by the COVID to high-profile cases of scientific fraud and ethical dilemmas, public trust in science remains a crucial topic. #SciSoc2025 📩 Submit your abstract by 17 March ➡️ https://s.embl.org/sns-25-01-bl#SciSoc2025🗓️ 16 – 17 June 📍 EMBL Heidelberg

‚Overreliance on AI-assisted preparation for interviews may harm rather than help candidates‘ chances…there is a reason a personal statement contains the word ‚personal‘.‘ www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

The mass-archiving effort is in response to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removing some of its web pages https://go.nature.com/3WS1RtU

Important reminder of shameful track record of the sciences under authoritarian pressure ‚anticipatory obedience‘ says it all: www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/scie...

@plosbiology.org article maps retractions to top 2%cited authors. What do we learn beyond 4% have 1+ retr? Risk is to assume causation - wrong given obvious confounding factors - similar to the misguided assumtion that correllation of JIF & retractions is meaningful journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...