ChatGPT ignores retractions of scientific papers — my latest for @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/policy/publi... @mikethelwall.bsky.social, @wisewoman.bsky.social

I’m afraid I’m moving quickly to the retina scan and fingerprint argument. This has been a challenge in publishing for a while and is rapidly increasing in scale. We need some real identity verification in this industry

When the Scoreboard Becomes the Game, It’s Time to Recalibrate Research Metrics scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/09/11/g...

There are lots of UK showings of the excellent The Shadow Scholars documentary on #contractcheating coming up, some with Q&As with director Eloise King and Professor Patricia Kingori. Image from Instagram.

My conclusion from this is that preprint servers (and journals!) are entering a new phase of cat and mouse trying to contain AI slop (n.b., not mundane AI use, but nonsense generation). Peer review as a filter scarcely does better to ID this stuff. We need new & better tools to ID trustworthy works.

Superb afternoon watching The Railway Children @bradford2025.co.uk, get a ticket if you can! Great staging, superb cast and crew - and a train!

So sad to hear about the passing of Allen Ahlberg. I grew up adoring his books and now my children enjoy them too. A true great of children’s literature.

Support your society publishers!

For years we’ve encouraged authors to be transparent about the contributions that go into each paper. We’ve now got full #CRediT functionality so it’s now recorded in the metadata as well any full text version, well done @ioppublishing.bsky.social team! www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile....

So proud to work with a society publisher. We give every penny of profit to the Institute of Physics who do phenomenal work supporting physicists in research and practice. This model enables the system to be circular, with investment right back into the community we serve.

Some fantastic advice for researchers in here, including how/where to store image data and keeping electronic lab notebooks

What does citation manipulation look like and how has it changed with the growth of paper mills? A summary of COPE’s recent Citation Manipulation Lightning Talk and discussion is now available. Add your comments discussion: ow.ly/ZacF50W2rVS #CitationManipulation

And even better, have an ORCID profile that’s open not private, and populated with your institution history, variants of your name you’ve been published under, and some publications to help with this kind of disambiguation.

Terminating the grants to study misinformation is “an overt act of censoring and preventing accountability,” says Stephen Lewandowsky, a misinformation researcher at the University of Bristol. “Who other than a liar would cancel misinformation research?” 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

Crossref is seeking proposals for a website information architecture review. We encourage submissions by May 15, 2025. https://doi.org/10.64000/058mr-k3s56

The Trump regime is now using US Attorneys to intimidate academic journals by sending them letters demanding they explain how they ensure ‘viewpoint diversity.’ Journal editors should be public about this and coordinate to refuse to comply with these fascist tactics.

Important to remember www.icmje.org/recommendati...

Science isn't a belief. It's the GPS in the fog, the seatbelt on the rollercoaster, the friend who tells you your fly is down. Undermining it isn’t edgy—it’s like replacing your smoke alarm with a lava lamp. 🧪🔬🔥 We need brains, not vibes. #SaveScience

As predicted, this was quite fabulous! Provocative, feisty, diverse, and filled with passion - I feel energised and recommitted to the importance of our work. Thank you @deevybee.bsky.social and all organisers/contributors for a great (and interactive!) programme

Can’t wait to hear some of the leading voices in research integrity, many of whom are representing the whistle-blower/sleuthing community. I have stationery for the copious notes I know I’ll take, and am firmly in listen, not talk, mode! www.sjcfairsmeeting.com #ResearchIntegrity #PublicationEthics

I’ve fallen for two work-related April fools today and I am a happy bunny - nothing feels unbelievable anymore!

Inspired by a recent conversation, and by this article (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...), I have been working on a one-pager to help researchers through the process of updating published datasets if errors are ever found. I'd love any feedback!

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

Recently, Editor Cat-fuentes observed a spike of both authors and editors asking what to do with AI-genetated peer reviews #AcademicSky #PeerReview #ScientificPublishing Now, the first massive disclaimer is that it is not easy to say a review report is AI generated. 1/

Really looking forward to this! Some of the biggest names in academic sleuthing are speaking - don’t miss out!

Plea to all researchers: if a research integrity representative ask you for more information or to verify something, I promise you they are just doing their job, trying to make sure what and who we publish is reliable. Complaining about how offended you are does not help.

As responsible for #researchintegrity at my journal portfolio, I was consulted on a case where they removed authors and the parts of the paper they contributed to, as a paper was transferred inside our portfolio. The corresponding author is from China, and the removed authors are US-based. (1/3)

Great post today @charlierapple.bsky.social. No matter how despondent we might feel, this was a good reminder of why it's important to keep fighting. I KNOW we're on the right side of history here.

I don’t even know how this could be presented as being in service of anything other than hindering scientific progress.

The incel army is erasing everyone who is not white straight and male from digital existence. #WomeninSTEM are fighting back. Please share, support and join the movement to prevent this erasure at womeninstem.us #ExtinctionBurst #WhiteSupremacy #Patriarchy #Action #CallToAction #Resist

“Regardless of style and tactics, everyone in the American scientific community must hold to the principles of independence, peer evaluation, and inclusion. ... We will not turn our backs on them now.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

👏👏👏

"How can leaders make evidence informed decisions if there is no evidence?" 🧪 doi.org/10.1136/bmj....

"Instead of counting only articles and citations, institutions could start considering retraction rates too, a kind of counter-metric in a metric-obsessed world. These metrics could also be considered in rankings, or by funders." YES! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Glad this is being given airtime. We desperately need to rethink institutional rankings - this is what underpins institutional behavior and incentivizes misconduct. I do worry about bias though, and to what extent this info might impact equity in editorial decision making.

Thanks to all you #academicsky #scholcomm legends we just hit 1000 signatories with more organizational ones on the way ✊ to @lschiff.bsky.social @alicemeadows.bsky.social @petersuber.bsky.social @camitchell.bsky.social 's leadership. SIGN/SHARE and #defendresearch docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I co-hosted a COPE Lightening Talk with @mcintold.bsky.social yesterday on #citationmanipulation. In 45 minutes we had over 45 questions! Tells me this is a huge topic with a need for more discussion & guidance. My plea is for all reference styles to include the DOI, then tech can really support.

I’m in.

“authors should be able to choose freely and safely what to submit to their journal of choice, and editors should be able to consider a submission based on their own editorial standards and policies, in the interest of advancing research in their fields.” 👏👏👏 publicationethics.org/guidance/cop...

Latest blogpost on Musk/Royal Society debacle: deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/02/seve... I look at the reasons that have been given for inaction, and find them wanting. @royalsociety.org

I have had a TON of people asking how they can help...here is what would help us the most right now: SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE! Tell us why you #standupforscience2025! Send flyers to your colleagues and labs! Change your bluesky banner! Tell your professional orgs and departments!

When asked to draw a scientist, school-age kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women, according to a study from 2018. Read more on #WomenInScienceDay: https://scim.ag/4hOUuvx

“Do not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.” A Sumerian proverb, as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

“The scientific community needs to speak up – not just for the sake of science, but of human decency, dignity and morality.” www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/scie...

Neat tools to support error prevention/detection/correction presented by @ianhussey.bsky.social at #PSE7.

Love this thread! A great reminder of why we should always question and never think we know it all. In a time when scientists are being told what not to study, this feels really relevant - imagine if we never proved wombs don’t wander, or that women should take less zolpidem than men… 🤬🤬🤬

"Nobel laureates call on National Academies and biotech CEOs to speak out against Trump attacks on science" The societies, academies, and other leaders have been MIA for years, leaving it to individual scientists to pick up the slack. Maybe time to step up? www.statnews.com/2025/02/03/t...

The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here. HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻 archive.org/details/2025...