@brembs@mastodon.social
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brembs

@brembs@mastodon.social

Professorial student of Neurogenetics
Spontaneous behavior and operant learning
Open Science Insurrectionist

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brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

Indeed, for making research data accessible for scrutiny, what we should have instead, is an infrastructure at every research institution that should be as commonplace and as standard as microscopes or computers:

<<to insist on data. “You have to learn how to be an asshole,” he told MIT Technology Review. “It shouldn’t be this hard.” >>

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/15/1092535/a-wave-of-retractions-is-shaking-physics/

brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

You too, physics, can benefit from :

[conference attendees] "discussed how to persuade the community to view data sharing positively, rather than seeing the demand for it as a sign of distrust. They also brought up the practical challenges of asking graduate students to do even more work by preparing their data for outside scrutiny when it may already take them over five years to complete their degree."

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/15/1092535/a-wave-of-retractions-is-shaking-physics/

brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

Academic publisher with a reputation for exploitation doubles down:

"In its most recent annual report (for 2022), Springer Nature posted an operating profit of €487 million (around £410 million) on revenues of more than €1.8 billion (around £1.6 billion)."

https://www.nuj.org.uk/resource/nature-staff-hold-unprecedented-vote-on-industrial-action.html

That's a 27% profit margin and then they offer their employees a real-term pay cut. The only thing anybody should be surprised about is that they went for so long before going after their own employees as well.

albertcardona, to Trains
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

In Europe, flying is cheaper than taking the train.

It's an embarrassment, and a major problem: we have to stop flying for silly short distances. Realise that the overheads of flying (reaching the airport, awaiting 2 hours, the flight, the unloading, reaching the destination) largely cancel out any time gains of flying. And the carbon costs are utterly untenable. Not to speak of the modern, dire conditions of the whole flying "experience".

Another embarrassment is that train connections can't be guaranteed when across countries or companies. They aren't even coordinated. As if those who commission and set the schedules didn't travel by train themselves, at least not internationally. In considering how tiny most European countries are, it's frankly bizarre.

There are so many destinations one could travel by train to, yet in practice, it's not sensible. A disgrace.

The upside is that it can be fixed.

#trains #EuroRail

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@albertcardona

The money is one part of the disgrace, the other part is that some European countries (looking at you, Germany!) just have a completely dysfunctional rail system. My wife and I are traveling by train regularly and, e.g., 3-hour delays on 5h trips, while not the rule, occur frequently enough to always consider in your travel plans.
It's gotten so bad that even for the 1h train ride to the airport we now have to factor in a 1h delay or keep the car in reserve.

brembs, to Neuroscience
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

Only a few weeks left before the deadline, if you want to apply for the PhD position in our lab:

https://bjoern.brembs.net/2024/03/we-are-looking-for-a-phd-student/

brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

The state of HE in the US. Predictably sad:

"Universities aren't institutions of knowledge anymore. They're assets. They're revenue streams. If they're not generating money for the top, then they only pose a threat, and they have to be weakened and destroyed."

https://www.okdoomer.io/im-a-professor-heres-why-im-walking-away-from-my-tenure/

brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar
brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

The trolling here is superb! 😆 👌

"Elon Musk – Dead at 52 – Says There Is No Need for Misinformation Laws — The Shovel"

https://theshovel.com.au/2024/04/23/elon-musk-dead-at-52-misinformation-laws/

brembs, to random
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

Faced with a collective action problem, it helps to pick a small group with the autonomy to change their ways.
In scholarly publishing, there are about 8-12 million authors who are not even free to decide where they publish.
There are only a few thousand editorial boards where editors have complete freedom to choose where they work.
"Save editors time."
"Time is scholar’s most precious resource."
"Focus on the community."
"Journals are communities. "

https://theroadgoeson.com/we-can-help-the-journals-escape-and-evolve
by @danielbingham

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@danielbingham @sennoma

Sorry, but this sounds very defeatist, sort of like: "Putin has 20% of Ukraine and we can't do anything to change that".

No. We can do something.

No editorial board will ever leave for a "better" IF. The one they have, is likely set by them, negotiated with WoS:

https://bjoern.brembs.net/2016/01/just-how-widespread-are-impact-factor-negotiations/

According to the figure, "better" usually just means lower.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@danielbingham @sennoma

So I'd say: any editorial boards that need a better IF to leave their Elsevier journal have already disqualified themselves as too incompetent for any editorial board.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@danielbingham @sennoma

lol, if they really "worked" to get their IF where the are, it means they have no clue at all of how the whole system actually operates 🤣

For those so spectacularly clueless, you really don't need a better IF - just a text-box where they can enter the number they wish to display
🤣

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@sennoma @danielbingham

From my experience, only exceedingly few actually care about the IF intrinsically. Those that do have no place in any editorial board, afaic.

The reason some of them care at all is just because they think (rightfully!) that noboy wants to submit to a lo-IF journal.

If there is one single aspect of journals you most definitely don't want to copy, then it is this one! The most prominent reason to replace journals is precisely journal rank.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@danielbingham @sennoma

For this task, it takes a very clear understanding of what these numbers mean for them.

Sort of like:

"Evidence shows higher IF indicates less reliable science. Why do you work to increase the IF of your journal?"

The answers to this question will be very enlightening in all kinds of ways, I can tell you 😇

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@danielbingham @sennoma

We have 50k journals right now. I'd argue we don't need 49,999 of them. In particular, journals that now have to do all kinds of "work" to attract authors maybe shouldn't exist in the first place?

Editorial boards should be hoping to handle FEW manuscripts, so they can devote their full attention to the ones they do handle. This whole concept of supposedly needing to separate the wheat from the chaff is at the root of all evil in today's journals.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@nemobis @danielbingham

I'm afraid I don't follow? Sorry!

brembs, to Neuroscience
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

ICYMI: we are hiring!

If you are a student interested in and would like to do a PhD in a very cooperative and inclusive lab, please do apply:

https://bjoern.brembs.net/2024/03/we-are-looking-for-a-phd-student/

jonny, to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

One of the funniest sagas in discourse is Kent Anderson's unhinged "insurrection" series where he calls some usually unnamed cabal of OA advocates every kind of political movement he thinks is bad, no matter how diametrically opposed they are to one another. The "information wants to be expensive" part at the bottom is especially funny - "the market solves for truth" is like not on any political compass im aware of

https://www.the-geyser.com/summarizing-the-folly/

H/t @dan_rudmann for the link

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@jonny @dan_rudmann @alexh

Yes indeed, we were. I'm afraid Kent has long left this planet we call reality 🤣

rmounce, to random
@rmounce@mastodon.social avatar

“Gates Foundation Collaborates with F1000 to Launch Verified Preprint Platform”

given the issues with other preprint servers, I think this is an interesting move. I hope Gates Foundation will be able to learn from the past mistakes of other preprint servers?

https://www.f1000.com/verixiv/

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@juancommander @rmounce

Exactly!
Which is precisely why any such arrangements need to make sure commercial service providers are substitutable. Otherwise, even the best ideas and the most noble intentions are dead on arrival.

koen_hufkens, to LateStageCapitalism
@koen_hufkens@mastodon.social avatar

"Monopolist publisher objects to free dissemination of science funded through a tax evasion scheme"

It doesn't get much wilder than this I fear.

@academicchatter

https://www.science.org/content/article/bold-bid-avoid-open-access-fees-gates-foundation-says-grantees-must-post-preprints

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@albertcardona @koen_hufkens @academicchatter

  1. With more than a dozen ways to get around paywalls, subscriptions have ceased to be necessary about a decade ago - and yet they kept paying.

  2. There is now more and more examles of institutions entering contracts with publishers despite all the committees aarguing against signing.

So I think institutions will just keep paying no matter what.

This means 'we' need to stop the money flowing. That is THE top priority.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@albertcardona @koen_hufkens @academicchatter

Yes, that is absolutely correct. But the target should be to stop paying anything to legacy journals - and not to stop "using" them.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@koen_hufkens @albertcardona @academicchatter

Indeed!
Which is why the target for us tenured faculty ust be to stop the money flowing, that keeps the legacy system alive. That is why I have joined our library committee a few years ago.

But even when we unanimously recommended to not sign with Elsevier, the president did aign anyway and falsely claimed he had giotten a recommendation!

That's about 250k in paxpayer money down the drain: nobody wanted it, nobody needed it.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@scholar_farmer @albertcardona @koen_hufkens @academicchatter

Now that's a doozey! 😆

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@albertcardona @koen_hufkens @academicchatter

They did, briefly, and then just bought EditorialManager:

https://www.ariessys.com/news-and-events/press-releases/elsevier-acquire-aries-systems-best-class-publication-workflow-solutions-provider/

Looks like the onyl thing they can do is buy stuff. If they try to develop something that would actually help academics, they always fail.

But I've heard their implementation of surveillance technology snooping on us is working just fine, in contrast.

brembs,
@brembs@mastodon.social avatar

@koen_hufkens @albertcardona @academicchatter

Oh, wow, awesome! I have now uopdated by post from 2017, to include a reference to your award from 2012, acknowledging that this wasn't my idea!

https://bjoern.brembs.net/2017/08/7-functionalities-the-scholarly-literature-should-have/

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