Can large language models stand in for human participants? Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research. One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want. THREAD 🧵

All is not well at Elsevier richardtol.substack.com/p/fraud-and-...

Whoa! Elsevier fired @richardtol.bsky.social, longstanding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Energy Economics. Richard's side of the story should be ringing alarm bells. #EconSky Fraud and cover-up richardtol.substack.com/p/fraud-and-...

I once got an email from an irate author. Why can't I pay you to publish my paper? Editor X of Journal Y accepts my money! Why don't you? I forwarded that email to the publisher. The editor is still there.

Excellent thread on what is going on at academic journals, from the perspective of an editor. Clearly highlights the strain (direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...) caused by quantitative incentives, and that publishers cannot be allies in solving the mess -- they are part of the problem & profit from it.

Springer-Nature launched a series of "Discover" journals that closely mimic MDPI titles -- sharing *identical* journal names, and likely similar business model. What is going on, and why researcher will - as always - fall for it? A 🧵 the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

Sometimes you have to ease up. For me, this means exploiting the (still) long days and the fresh weather to head to the mountains. In Grenoble, this is what 30min by car and 1h on foot gets you -- sunset over the Western Alps. It's a real privilege to live in such a beautiful place.

Ever stared at a table of regression coefficients & wondered what you're doing with your life? Very excited to share this gentle introduction to another way of making sense of statistical models (w @vincentab.bsky.social) Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf... Website: j-rohrer.github.io/marginal-psy...

Fellow of the European Association of Agricultural Economists🥳 I am beyond words and incredibly honored to receive the European Association of Agricultural Economists' (EAAE) Fellowship Award, the highest recognition in European agricultural economics. eaae.org/ItemText.asp...

Large Language Models Do Not Simulate Human Psychology arxiv.org/pdf/2508.06950

1. I need to recover this thread from X about a review on lithium in tap-water and suicide. It shows that papers aren't retracted despite being total nonsense

I’ve got a new working paper with @danielavidart.bsky.social, hot off the press. We develop a new method for measuring the risk preferences of agents in the past, and apply it to the U.S. from 1890-1920. Check it out! Feedback is welcome. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/chcof...

Glad I did this. A reminder of why we can’t have nice things

If I could change one thing about #ScientificPublishing I'd ask funding bodies to stipulate all work they fund be published in non-profit journals. The knock-on effects would alleviate most of the strain on #AcademicSky. This isn't hard. It's big, but actually, it's pretty easy. 1/n

1/Kevin Hassett had long ago discredited himself as a scholar by parroting claims about the economy he knew to be false. Even so, parroting the lie about rigged statistics, is a new low. The academy should ostracize him the same way a fabricator of research should be ostracized.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o... A great piece by Akerlof. Not only for its content, but because Akerlof writes wonderfully. In his papers, in his essays, and in his opinion pieces. This is how you write an opinion piece. Take notes.

"Common ownership grew dramatically in the US economy from 1995 to 2021. It could raise producer profits at the expense of consumer surplus & lead to a substantial deadweight loss." Recently accepted paper by @florianederer.bsky.social & Pellegrino: www.restud.com/a-tale-of-tw... #econsky #REStud

📈 Students taught with CORE do better in every subject. New research from @latrobeuni.bsky.social shows CORE texts boost performance across the board. Watch Associate Professor Buly Cardak explain the findings, now published in Southern Economic Journal. youtu.be/YxJmRriFg6A?...

Nice to see some commentary on the recent @theguardian.com piece by @iansample.bsky.social on #SciPub #AcademicPublishing #OpenAccess #ACADEMICsky www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

New blog post: Easily download files from the Open Science Framework with Papercheck daniellakens.blogspot.com/2025/07/easi... Downloading all files in an OSF project can be a hassle. Not anymore, with Papercheck! Just run: osf_file_download("6nt4v")

New survey of 802 experimental/behavioral economists finds: (a) most support preserving anonymity for referees (b) most are open to publishing anonymized referee reports Preprint: osf.io/preprints/me... By @danieljevans.bsky.social, @adam-gill.bsky.social, et al.

Brilliant article in the Guardian on the (dismal) state of scientific publishing. Great take by @hansonmark.bsky.social -- it's up to funders to fundamentally alter the rules of the game by stopping this mad and costly paper escalation. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Quick MDPI take note, you are being left behind in the domain of Hummus research! the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

These NPG spinoff journals are out of control

After morning sessions, I feel like I've heard all of this for last 10 years, but now there is more AI disruption in the mix. Exponential growth of garbage papers continues, but we are still talking about how to pay for it rather than how to stop it. Of course I've been saying that for 10 years too.

Danny Kingsley goes through several ways trad publishers have monetized progressive mandates and steered reform movements to preserve status quo. Aks that trad publishers come to table in good faith. (I think we should walk about from trad publishers, no evidence they can negotiate in good faith)

The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field? That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience A 🧵 1/n

Fully transparent and open AI coming out of Switzerland soon. Something worth monitoring. ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

`tinyplot` v0.4.2 is now available on CRAN + R-universe 🎉 Mostly bug fixes, but includes some important integration improvements for Positron IDE users. Release notes: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW... #rstats

breakerofchains: still the best, most underutilized RStudio addin.

This looks a must read for those interested in triple differences (DDD) designs. It shows that the standard way many estimate DDD is wrong. It shows why and gives you tools that work with covariates and staggered adoption. Bonus: free R package. arxiv.org/abs/2505.09942

Man kann's ja mal versuchen

Happy birthday to Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes! Born on July 5, 1958.

The past, present & future of UK metascience: new paper by me, @ludowaltman.bsky.social @andre-brasil.bsky.social & Ben Steyn Published yesterday by DSIT as part of the govt’s ‘A Year in Metascience’ report assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685bcd...

Experimentology is out today!!! A group of us wrote a free online textbook for experimental methods, available at experimentology.io - the idea was to integrate open science into all aspects of the experimental workflow from planning to design, analysis, and writing.

I am no fan of Springer, but to preempt objections that this is hyperbolic language, the Nazis literally banned the same journals and justified the decision using very similar rhetoric.

"Woke science" seems to be the new "Jewish physics". www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I was asked by a journalist if I feel guilty that some of my #ScientificIntegrity takes are being weaponized by Trump. Criticizing existing #ScientificPublishing practices *does not mean* being complicit with anti-scientific obscurantism. They would have attacked science no matter what we said.

@andreamatranga.bsky.social I think you'll love this minimalistic strategy war game: warofdots.net Actively developed, a YouTube channel with lots of videos, and a release date in a month or so.

A few months ago, Nature published how-to guide for using ChatGPT to write your peer reviews in 30 minutes. This is, of course, a horrible idea. Here’s my response with @jbakcoleman.bsky.social .

I set up a substack. What better topic to start with than the question of whether we're overproducing PhD students. clauswilke.substack.com/p/are-we-ove...

Another fun example of the `mapgl::enable_shiny_hover()` function: using a buffer that follows your cursor as a "magnifying glass" over a circle layer! #rstats Give it a try: walker-data.com/mapgl/refere...

Interesting system: "Icebox." A way to publish findings and why they've stopped. Maybe the project's completed. Maybe it hit a roadblock, or became underwhelming. One concern (that could be addressed)... 1/5

Once more kudos to PLOS for being the good guys in the scientific publishing world. Well done, again. #ScientificPublishing

Great read from @drjenndowd.bsky.social on the claim that “Historically, no one lived past age 35.”, and the importance of child mortality and means..."Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul." jenndowd.substack.com/p/there-were...

To find out more follow to the strain team: Paolo @paolocrosetto.bsky.social‬ Mark @hansonmark.bsky.social Pablo @pagomba.bsky.social And explore the wonderful domain of metascience to learn more about what shapes the research world. metascience.info @rorinstitute.bsky.social‬

Has someone found a good way of getting money out of research? Don't stop it. Copy it. APC charges cost billions. MDPI leads with over $1.7bn (est. 2015-2023). Springer-Nature ‘only’ got $1.1bn and so what do they do? They copy MDPI. the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

Still funny that this was PLOS's response when Nature copied its APC-based megajournal model back in 2011.

Remember when MDPI used questionable practices to siphon traffic from big five publishers’ journals? Never thought I’d see the shoe on the other foot.

Beware there is a new poser OA journal group from Springer Nature called Discovery on the prowl to get your / taxpayers' money for pretend-OA publishing information that should be free for all to disseminate and read. They operate here under @discoverjrnls.bsky.social. Avoid at no cost.