#scientific-publishing — Public Fediverse posts

@feisty_lemming @jonny

The publisher makes money. That’s the value. Why bother with actual scientists (reviewers, editors, readers) if not needed, since all authors need is tokens of progress for career progression. The papers won’t be read anyway by any committees that will evaluate their CVs.

Some fraction of academia has fallen into a garbage gyrus.

#ScientificPublishing

@feisty_lemming @jonny

The publisher makes money. That’s the value. Why bother with actual scientists (reviewers, editors, readers) if not needed, since all authors need is tokens of progress for career progression. The papers won’t be read anyway by any committees that will evaluate their CVs.

Some fraction of academia has fallen into a garbage gyrus.

#ScientificPublishing

#AcademicSky #AcademicChatter #ScientificPublishing #FoSci

@SciMag @news-from-science-SciMag

By their own data, the method doesn't work? Also, mesuring novelty is a bad idea to begin with, because novelty is largely unrelated to impact. But the method sure gives publishers something to point to for their decisions, offloading or even dispensing with the need for judgement. Of course Elsevier is interested ...

#ScientificPublishing

@SciMag @news-from-science-SciMag

By their own data, the method doesn't work? Also, mesuring novelty is a bad idea to begin with, because novelty is largely unrelated to impact. But the method sure gives publishers something to point to for their decisions, offloading or even dispensing with the need for judgement. Of course Elsevier is interested ...

#ScientificPublishing

The past two months, I helped coordinate the "Phase Transitions..." research semester programme at CWI (https://www.cwi.nl/en/events/research-semester-programmes/phasecap-phase-transitions-in-combinatorics-algorithms-probability/). It ended last Friday, and still I feel "hungover" from the intensive blur of activities/developments/ideas. Very grateful to my team --Feri, Jop, Serte, Carla, Noela, Guus-- we did it!

In parallel, during the same two months, after the dawn of recognition of what has arrived (after a tip from Jeroen), I underwent a kind of phase transition myself. Avowed refusenik in March (see https://mathstodon.xyz/@kangmeister/115252549665766971); an "anti-Gemini" research working group in April; compulsive button-pressing in May. (And yes, I *know* it is easy to set it up for pressing fewer buttons...)

That poetic part of me (or whatever remains of it) is allured by the term, "cognitive surrender", if only to help in my search for the right words to describe the sharp changes underway in various facets of mathematical life/growth.

#CWI #combinatorics #algorithms #probability #conferences #generativeAI #formalization #lean #scientificpublishing

The past two months, I helped coordinate the "Phase Transitions..." research semester programme at CWI (https://www.cwi.nl/en/events/research-semester-programmes/phasecap-phase-transitions-in-combinatorics-algorithms-probability/). It ended last Friday, and still I feel "hungover" from the intensive blur of activities/developments/ideas. Very grateful to my team --Feri, Jop, Serte, Carla, Noela, Guus-- we did it!

In parallel, during the same two months, after the dawn of recognition of what has arrived (after a tip from Jeroen), I underwent a kind of phase transition myself. Avowed refusenik in March (see https://mathstodon.xyz/@kangmeister/115252549665766971); an "anti-Gemini" research working group in April; compulsive button-pressing in May. (And yes, I *know* it is easy to set it up for pressing fewer buttons...)

That poetic part of me (or whatever remains of it) is allured by the term, "cognitive surrender", if only to help in my search for the right words to describe the sharp changes underway in various facets of mathematical life/growth.

#CWI #combinatorics #algorithms #probability #conferences #generativeAI #formalization #lean #scientificpublishing

Dear scientific publishers:
Please 🛑 STOP 🛑 inserting spaces after each period and slash in a #DOI in a reference list.

DOIs are (some sort of) web links, not regular sentences. Therefore, it's doi.org/abc.de, not:
doi. org/ abc. de

#ScientificPublishing

Dear scientific publishers:
Please 🛑 STOP 🛑 inserting spaces after each period and slash in a #DOI in a reference list.

DOIs are (some sort of) web links, not regular sentences. Therefore, it's doi.org/abc.de, not:
doi. org/ abc. de

#ScientificPublishing

What Counts as Diamond Open Access? China Has Its Own Answer

#ScientificPublishing #DiamondOpenAccess #China

https://doi.org/10.1146/katina-052826-1

What Counts as Diamond Open Access? China Has Its Own Answer

#ScientificPublishing #DiamondOpenAccess #China

https://doi.org/10.1146/katina-052826-1

🎉 Big news! The Southeastern European Medical Journal has successfully passed the first-ever Hrčak certification process, earning both quality certificates! 🏆✨

Only 25% of journals achieved this. A huge thank you to our authors, reviewers, and editors! 🔓🌍

#SEEMEDJ #OpenAccess #ScientificPublishing #Hrčak

What does the #AcademicChatter hivemind think about strategically reordering manuscript author order to promote junior author who may benefit more from a first-authorship? Given (1) a discipline where author order is important, (2) all on authors fulfilled authorship criteria, (3) junior author would be listed lower if going by contributions, and (4) all authors agree to reordering. #ScientificPublishing

What does the #AcademicChatter hivemind think about strategically reordering manuscript author order to promote junior author who may benefit more from a first-authorship? Given (1) a discipline where author order is important, (2) all on authors fulfilled authorship criteria, (3) junior author would be listed lower if going by contributions, and (4) all authors agree to reordering. #ScientificPublishing

"Intermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science", Lackner et al. 2023 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01677-8

The Institute for Replication (#I4R) is collaborating with the publisher (Nature Human Behaviour) and has now produced a report on the above paper (https://osf.io/mg95t/files/mjs86 ) which is largely positive:

"LFMMG (2023) presents a computationally reproducible and largely robust finding. We re-implemented the full analytical pipeline and conducted thirty-one robustness checks with those results summarized in Table 8. There is much kudos to be given to the original authours* for making the process of replicating their work clear and worthwhile."

* typo in the original text of the report.

#ScientificPublishing #PRC #PublishReviewCurate

"Intermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science", Lackner et al. 2023 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01677-8

The Institute for Replication (#I4R) is collaborating with the publisher (Nature Human Behaviour) and has now produced a report on the above paper (https://osf.io/mg95t/files/mjs86 ) which is largely positive:

"LFMMG (2023) presents a computationally reproducible and largely robust finding. We re-implemented the full analytical pipeline and conducted thirty-one robustness checks with those results summarized in Table 8. There is much kudos to be given to the original authours* for making the process of replicating their work clear and worthwhile."

* typo in the original text of the report.

#ScientificPublishing #PRC #PublishReviewCurate

@MCDuncanLab @Drugmonkey

Relatedly, in the middle of the XX century the scientists that were responsible signed the paper as authors, and everyone else was listed in the Acknowledgements section.

That today we list everybody as "middle authors" is, on the one hand, a consequence of the "publish or perish" culture, and on the other, a way to bring visibility to people who did the actual work (I am thinking here of famous neuroscience papers were the actual work was done by non-PhD women technicians who were merely "acknowledged" instead of signing as first authors, which would have been the case today).

Further, in my own papers, I don't add anyone as author who hasn't read the whole paper and commented on it. As a bare minimum. Each contributor should know first hand what they are agreeing to endorse with their name, even if they couldn't do that work themselves without a lot of training.

#ScientificPublishing #academia

@MCDuncanLab @Drugmonkey

Relatedly, in the middle of the XX century the scientists that were responsible signed the paper as authors, and everyone else was listed in the Acknowledgements section.

That today we list everybody as "middle authors" is, on the one hand, a consequence of the "publish or perish" culture, and on the other, a way to bring visibility to people who did the actual work (I am thinking here of famous neuroscience papers were the actual work was done by non-PhD women technicians who were merely "acknowledged" instead of signing as first authors, which would have been the case today).

Further, in my own papers, I don't add anyone as author who hasn't read the whole paper and commented on it. As a bare minimum. Each contributor should know first hand what they are agreeing to endorse with their name, even if they couldn't do that work themselves without a lot of training.

#ScientificPublishing #academia

I'm reading news of someone in academia complaining about the new no-AI policy by ArXiv that requires something as outlandish as co-authors to take responsibility for what gets published in a scientific paper and … I'm sorry, how is this unexpected?

Academic publishing has a lot of issues, but requiring people to actually read what they sign off to is not one of them.

#scientificPublishing #academia #publishOrPerish

I'm reading news of someone in academia complaining about the new no-AI policy by ArXiv that requires something as outlandish as co-authors to take responsibility for what gets published in a scientific paper and … I'm sorry, how is this unexpected?

Academic publishing has a lot of issues, but requiring people to actually read what they sign off to is not one of them.

#scientificPublishing #academia #publishOrPerish

Scientific publishing has always been hard, and as always, it's about attention. Here is Dr. Alois Alzheimer trying to communicate his findings about dementia to his contemporaries 120 years ago:

"On 3 November 1906, Alzheimer discussed his findings on the brain pathology and symptoms of presenile dementia publicly, at the Tübingen meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists. The attendees at this lecture seemed uninterested in what he had to say. The lecturer that followed Alzheimer was to speak on the topic of "compulsive masturbation", which the audience of 88 individuals was so eagerly awaiting that they sent Alzheimer away without any questions or comments on his discovery of the pathology of a peculiar case of early-onset dementia."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Alzheimer

Thankfully, "Following his presentation, Alzheimer published a short paper summarizing his presentation; in 1907 he wrote a longer paper detailing the disease and his findings."

"... he used the newly developed Bielschowsky stain to identify amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These brain anomalies became identifiers of what is now known as Alzheimer's disease."

#neuroscience #Alzheimer #ScientificPublishing

Scientific publishing has always been hard, and as always, it's about attention. Here is Dr. Alois Alzheimer trying to communicate his findings about dementia to his contemporaries 120 years ago:

"On 3 November 1906, Alzheimer discussed his findings on the brain pathology and symptoms of presenile dementia publicly, at the Tübingen meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists. The attendees at this lecture seemed uninterested in what he had to say. The lecturer that followed Alzheimer was to speak on the topic of "compulsive masturbation", which the audience of 88 individuals was so eagerly awaiting that they sent Alzheimer away without any questions or comments on his discovery of the pathology of a peculiar case of early-onset dementia."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Alzheimer

Thankfully, "Following his presentation, Alzheimer published a short paper summarizing his presentation; in 1907 he wrote a longer paper detailing the disease and his findings."

"... he used the newly developed Bielschowsky stain to identify amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These brain anomalies became identifiers of what is now known as Alzheimer's disease."

#neuroscience #Alzheimer #ScientificPublishing

Our Managing Editor Dr. Barbara Hissa will give an online talk during the International Conference on Advanced Nanoparticle Generation and Excitation by Lasers in Liquids (ANGEL) on May 24, 2026 at 2 pm CEST. Barbara will talk about “(Diamond) Open Access landscape in Europe and beyond”.

➡️ https://angel-conference.org/program/

#EditorsTalk #EdiTours #ScientificPublishing #DiamondOpenAccess #OpenScience #BJNANO 💎🔓

Our Managing Editor Dr. Barbara Hissa will give an online talk during the International Conference on Advanced Nanoparticle Generation and Excitation by Lasers in Liquids (ANGEL) on May 24, 2026 at 2 pm CEST. Barbara will talk about “(Diamond) Open Access landscape in Europe and beyond”.

➡️ https://angel-conference.org/program/

#EditorsTalk #EdiTours #ScientificPublishing #DiamondOpenAccess #OpenScience #BJNANO 💎🔓

You may not agree with this paper, but you should read it:

"Aging and the narrowing of scientific innovation", Cui et al. 2026 (James Evans lab)
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady8732

"Analyzing more than 12.5 million scientists who published between 1960 and 2020, we find that novelty—the linking of previously unconnected ideas—increases with academic age, whereas disruption—the replacement of established ideas with new ones—declines."

#ScientificPublishing #science #bibliometrics

You may not agree with this paper, but you should read it:

"Aging and the narrowing of scientific innovation", Cui et al. 2026 (James Evans lab)
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady8732

"Analyzing more than 12.5 million scientists who published between 1960 and 2020, we find that novelty—the linking of previously unconnected ideas—increases with academic age, whereas disruption—the replacement of established ideas with new ones—declines."

#ScientificPublishing #science #bibliometrics

"The hard truth about how hard it is to publish in Development", Briscoe et al. 2026
https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/153/1/dev205432/370214/The-hard-truth-about-how-hard-it-is-to-publish-in

"for the past 10 years, 35-45% of papers submitted to Development ultimately get published."

#Development #ScientificPublishing

"The hard truth about how hard it is to publish in Development", Briscoe et al. 2026
https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/153/1/dev205432/370214/The-hard-truth-about-how-hard-it-is-to-publish-in

"for the past 10 years, 35-45% of papers submitted to Development ultimately get published."

#Development #ScientificPublishing

Find the centre Mersenne's funding data on the TSOSI platform: https://tsosi.org/entities/Q55606850

The centre Mersenne is participating in the TSOSI project and has chosen to publish its funding details. This project is still ongoing: new data will be published shortly.

#openaccess #scientificpublishing #funding

Find the centre Mersenne's funding data on the TSOSI platform: https://tsosi.org/entities/Q55606850

The centre Mersenne is participating in the TSOSI project and has chosen to publish its funding details. This project is still ongoing: new data will be published shortly.

#openaccess #scientificpublishing #funding

"This is an ongoing list of quality, Open Access (OA) journals in the social sciences, who won’t sell your stuff to AI companies, and don’t charge you fees."
https://ubisurv.net/2024/09/04/radical-open-access-in-the-social-sciences/

(updated as of May 2026)

Curated by David Murakami Wood https://www.uottawa.ca/research-innovation/centre-law-technology-society/people/murakami-wood-david

#ScientificPublishing #SocialSciences

"This is an ongoing list of quality, Open Access (OA) journals in the social sciences, who won’t sell your stuff to AI companies, and don’t charge you fees."
https://ubisurv.net/2024/09/04/radical-open-access-in-the-social-sciences/

(updated as of May 2026)

Curated by David Murakami Wood https://www.uottawa.ca/research-innovation/centre-law-technology-society/people/murakami-wood-david

#ScientificPublishing #SocialSciences

"Possible Principles Underlying the Transformations of Sensory Messages", Barlow, 1961.
https://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~tai/nc19journalclubs/Barlow-SensoryCommunication-1961.pdf

I wish scientists would still write papers like this, rather than catering to the glamour press. Note the ideas in this paper have been widely influential, and itself has gathered thousands of citations, pretty much all of them well beyond two years after publication.

#neuroscience #ScientificPublishing

"Possible Principles Underlying the Transformations of Sensory Messages", Barlow, 1961.
https://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~tai/nc19journalclubs/Barlow-SensoryCommunication-1961.pdf

I wish scientists would still write papers like this, rather than catering to the glamour press. Note the ideas in this paper have been widely influential, and itself has gathered thousands of citations, pretty much all of them well beyond two years after publication.

#neuroscience #ScientificPublishing

Scandal at Elsevier, *again*:

https://www.chrisbrunet.com/p/third-editor-fired-in-elseviers-citation

As revealed by Chris Brunet.

#ScientificPublishing #RELX #Elsevier

Scandal at Elsevier, *again*:

https://www.chrisbrunet.com/p/third-editor-fired-in-elseviers-citation

As revealed by Chris Brunet.

#ScientificPublishing #RELX #Elsevier

RE: https://mastodon.social/@brembs/116488494512795198

If you are getting started in academia and publishing in general, and don't know much about the impact factor, this is a great place to start:

#ScientificPublishing

RE: https://mastodon.social/@brembs/116488494512795198

If you are getting started in academia and publishing in general, and don't know much about the impact factor, this is a great place to start:

#ScientificPublishing

Remembering this and related reports of the distribution of article-level citations in Nature ...

Riikonen P, Vihinen M. National research contributions: A case study on Finnish biomedical research. Scientometrics. 2008 Nov 1;77(2):207-22.
https://akjournals.com/view/journals/11192/77/2/article-p207.xml

Nature sells impact (factor), hence there is a bias towards publishing papers that will accrue more citations in the next two years than its current impact factor times 2, since that is (or it is said to be*) the formula for computing the impact factor of a journal.

* As per @brembs et al.: "there is evidence that IF is, at least in some cases, not calculated but negotiated, that it is not reproducible, and that, even if it were reproducibly computed, the way it is derived is not mathematically sound" https://arxiv.org/pdf/1301.3748

#ScientificPublishing

Remembering this and related reports of the distribution of article-level citations in Nature ...

Riikonen P, Vihinen M. National research contributions: A case study on Finnish biomedical research. Scientometrics. 2008 Nov 1;77(2):207-22.
https://akjournals.com/view/journals/11192/77/2/article-p207.xml

Nature sells impact (factor), hence there is a bias towards publishing papers that will accrue more citations in the next two years than its current impact factor times 2, since that is (or it is said to be*) the formula for computing the impact factor of a journal.

* As per @brembs et al.: "there is evidence that IF is, at least in some cases, not calculated but negotiated, that it is not reproducible, and that, even if it were reproducibly computed, the way it is derived is not mathematically sound" https://arxiv.org/pdf/1301.3748

#ScientificPublishing

"More Versus Better: Artificial Intelligence, Incentives, and the Emerging Crisis in Peer Review", Gertenberg et al. 2026
https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/orsc.2026.ed.v37.n3

An interesting and refreshingly clear editorial on the impact of LLMs on academic publishing, in particular for their journal,, with a stark conclusion:

"Submission volume has risen 42% since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, while writing quality has declined."

"AI-generated writing in reviews has also increased, and is characterized by lower writing quality and less topical diversity than human-generated writing."

"Conversations with editors across scientific disciplines, however, suggest that what we observe is not limited to our journal or to the social sciences."

"the current state of AI tools, amplified by existing publish-or-perish incentives, appears to be pushing the system toward an equilibrium of more rather than better research."

#ScientificPublishing

"More Versus Better: Artificial Intelligence, Incentives, and the Emerging Crisis in Peer Review", Gertenberg et al. 2026
https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/orsc.2026.ed.v37.n3

An interesting and refreshingly clear editorial on the impact of LLMs on academic publishing, in particular for their journal,, with a stark conclusion:

"Submission volume has risen 42% since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, while writing quality has declined."

"AI-generated writing in reviews has also increased, and is characterized by lower writing quality and less topical diversity than human-generated writing."

"Conversations with editors across scientific disciplines, however, suggest that what we observe is not limited to our journal or to the social sciences."

"the current state of AI tools, amplified by existing publish-or-perish incentives, appears to be pushing the system toward an equilibrium of more rather than better research."

#ScientificPublishing

*PERSONAL NEWS ALERT*
I'’m thrilled to share that I’ve returned to the editorial front lines as the new 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿-𝗶𝗻-𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳 of 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 at @wiley.com

#newjob #OpenScience #ScientificPublishing #IntelligentDiscovery #EditorsLife

*PERSONAL NEWS ALERT*
I'’m thrilled to share that I’ve returned to the editorial front lines as the new 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿-𝗶𝗻-𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳 of 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 at @wiley.com

#newjob #OpenScience #ScientificPublishing #IntelligentDiscovery #EditorsLife

A common sentiment among reviewers and editors:

"authors who use random abbreviations shouldn't be allowed to publish"

Said only half tongue-in-cheek. It's really annoying. If there is to be any legit use of LLMs in scientific publishing, let it be to expand all the acronyms.

Don't assume others know what an acronym means, or that it means the same thing in a related but adjacent field of research.

#academia #ScientificPublishing

A common sentiment among reviewers and editors:

"authors who use random abbreviations shouldn't be allowed to publish"

Said only half tongue-in-cheek. It's really annoying. If there is to be any legit use of LLMs in scientific publishing, let it be to expand all the acronyms.

Don't assume others know what an acronym means, or that it means the same thing in a related but adjacent field of research.

#academia #ScientificPublishing

Major shift in scientific infrastructure: arXiv is leaving university governance to become an independent organization.

While some see this as a gain in long-term stability, others point to a possible move toward commercialization.

🔗 https://www.science.org/content/article/arxiv-pioneering-preprint-server-declares-independence-cornell

#arxiv #Preprints #openscience #ScientificPublishing #ResearchInfrastructure

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

#ScientificPublishing #AI

https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00969-z

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

#ScientificPublishing #AI

https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00969-z

I am rather late to tooting this...

(Also the decision-making process took longer than we expected.
It was a very valuable learning experience!)

This was the first ever start up fund for a mathematics Diamond OA journal.
We decided to support two journal initiatives.

https://www.mathoa.org/announcement/

One of the journals (Combinatorial Commutative Algebra, https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/CCA/index) has already launched!

With warm congratulations to both projects, we wish you much success in the coming years!

#diamondOA #scientificpublishing #openaccess

I am rather late to tooting this...

(Also the decision-making process took longer than we expected.
It was a very valuable learning experience!)

This was the first ever start up fund for a mathematics Diamond OA journal.
We decided to support two journal initiatives.

https://www.mathoa.org/announcement/

One of the journals (Combinatorial Commutative Algebra, https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/CCA/index) has already launched!

With warm congratulations to both projects, we wish you much success in the coming years!

#diamondOA #scientificpublishing #openaccess

Is this some sort of bad taste joke? WTF Elsevier? Now we are supposed to BUY additional services on top of everything else to have a chance to get published?!! Anyone else received this?
#academia #academicChater #scientificPublishing

Is this some sort of bad taste joke? WTF Elsevier? Now we are supposed to BUY additional services on top of everything else to have a chance to get published?!! Anyone else received this?
#academia #academicChater #scientificPublishing

What should fluid mechanics papers focus on today?

This editorial argues for a “physics-first” approach: beyond data and simulations, real progress comes from understanding mechanisms and scaling laws.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0329552

#FluidDynamics #Physics #ScientificPublishing #ResearchCulture #OpenScience

What should fluid mechanics papers focus on today?

This editorial argues for a “physics-first” approach: beyond data and simulations, real progress comes from understanding mechanisms and scaling laws.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0329552

#FluidDynamics #Physics #ScientificPublishing #ResearchCulture #OpenScience

I am slowly getting disillusioned about scientific publishing and rigor. I just got a note from google scholar that one of my articles has been cited. Looking it up, they made our "these reasons were named regularly in these categories" into "these categories enable these reasons".

This is utter bullshit!

#science #scientificpublishing