Total Internal Reflection🇬🇧🇺🇸🇺🇦

That’s an extraordinary and deeply moving essay - thanks for highlighting it!

So it’s a story more about Science the journal and prestige publishing rather than data integrity and to what extent conclusions need to be supported, I think.

…high bar for its data, more so than other journals. But as a prestige journal it also confers a certain status on the work in it. Had this work been published in a middling biochemistry journal it would barely have caused a ripple & probably wouldn’t have been retracted, I think.

It’s a very interesting case. There are many, many scientific papers published whose data do not support the conclusions (esp. nowadays with hype so rampant) but it’s the quality/prestige aspect of the journal that makes this interesting. As a quality journal, Science is entitled to set a very…

We’ve come a long way The success of the women’s Euro2022 tournament is a reminder of how far science has come.

Feels like an appropriate time to re-up this 👇 totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2022/08/05/w...

Oh, that’s an idea! Must try…that show has been my constant accompaniment for many years while hoovering and cleaning at the weekends 🤣

Can anyone recommend a substitute for BBC R1 Future Sounds/New Music Show? I’ve listened to that show & it’s various hosts ever since Zane Lowe was presenting…

Well, this sucks. Now that the BBC has discontinued BBC Sounds outside the UK, I can no longer listen to BBC Radio 1 shows unless they’re live 😱😭 Have to find new ways of finding new music 🫤

Have just been explaining to 10yo son the difference between the “Beverly Hills Cop theme” (1984), Clock’s “Axel F” (1995), and the Crazy Frog “Axel F” (2005). I feel not just learned and slightly cool, but OLD 🤣🎸🎵

…it’s that it wasn’t until the 19th century (!) that a 3rd university was successfully established. Virtually all the Unis we know in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 today were founded in the space of 200 years or so. Shows how rapidly the Uni sector grew.😊

Fun fact: do you know what the 3rd University to be founded in England was after Oxford (1167) and Cambridge (1209)? The University of Northampton (1261)!🤩🤯 What’s remarkable though is not that it was dissolved a mere 4 years later…

It’s a genuine institution. 😊🤩

Terradown + Nervosa + Cradle of Filth (!!) at #Colossaal in #Aschaffenburg last night. Always a privilege to see great bands in a smaller venue, especially one run by and for music fans 🤩🎸🤘

Funny, I had exactly the same reaction.

Thanks! ☺️

I can definitely help there 😉

Agreed. It’s not so much “Stay quiet because you won’t win” as a case of choosing battles so that the main thrust of a complaint is targeted where it will be most effective. @ijayas.bsky.social do feel free to DM me on this - I have v recent experience that might be useful but it’s not public yet

With the caveat that I don’t know any of the individuals involved, I think Hanlon’s razor is always worth bearing in mind. I’d second @hansonmark.bsky.social on the likely futility of chasing authorship if you’re already listed in Ack. It’s rude but you’re unlikely to get a change.

Re: research accuracy. Best to assume honest mistake rather than deliberate misrepresentation, but worth chasing up in writing to create a paper trail. I would email both asking for a clarification for the mislabelling. If no reply, send a 2nd saying you’ll query with journal next.

Credit where credit’s due (a short guide to authorships in scientific papers) Did you know that there are actually guidelines for determining authorship on scientific papers?

Agree with @pprevlg.bsky.social. There’s 2 issues here - authorship & research accuracy. Re: authorship, anyone involved in data acquisition should be given the chance to become an author (ICMJE guidelines). See here 😉: totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2025/06/13/c...

Oh wow, that looks like an amazing resource - huge thanks! Totally agree, at the end of the day journals are providing a service to authors (and a costly one at that!), and if the service is poor, the authors shouldn’t go back.

Agreed…it’s tricky when (as here) you’re publishing outside your field or when you’re new to a field though.

Actually in this case it’s “we should aim lower”😅 It’s about gauging a good potential home for a paper without firsthand experience of submitting to the candidate journals, & trying to avoid a desk rejection.

This is exactly what I’m struggling with. If you’re weighing up a submission decision for multiple journals that you don’t (yet) have 1st-hand experience of, how can you make a constructive argument for journal choice that bypasses JIF? Right now I’m stuck for a counter to that original statement😕

Impact factors and batting averages Journals like to pretend that the impact factor is like a batting average in sports. But it’s not.

Obviously the #JIF has almost no predictive power at forecasting future citations of a single paper, but if it’s being used as an ensemble measure (although mean not median alas) when picking a home, is that a more valid application? totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2017/12/03/i...

Question about the #JIF (@richardsever.bsky.social?): what’s a constructive and instructive response to arguments like “The JIF of this journal is too high/low, we should aim lower/higher”? Or, despite the skewed distribution of citations, is this actually a reasonable use of JIFs?

Certainly is…my postdoc mentor would routinely waive authorship entirely if he felt his contributions didn’t meet his own threshold for inclusion; at the other end of the scale, I’ve seen a professor demand co-corresponding & 2nd-from-last on a paper he’d barely contributed to.

Credit where credit’s due (a short guide to authorships in scientific papers) Did you know that there are actually guidelines for determining authorship on scientific papers?

'Exactly what constitutes a “substantial contribution” is vague however, and very much down to an individual’s subjective judgement as to whether they feel their involvement meets a threshold for inclusion.'
Aye, there's the rub, @tirscienceblog.bsky.social

Credit where credit’s due (a short guide to authorships in scientific papers) Did you know that there are actually guidelines for determining authorship on scientific papers?

New posting! This one's a #HowTo guide to #authorship on scientific publications, drawing heavily on #ICMJE criteria and #CRediT taxonomy. Hope it's helpful! As always, likes/comments/reposts very welcome😊👇 totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2025/06/13/c...

Credit where credit’s due (a short guide to authorships in scientific papers) Did you know that there are actually guidelines for determining authorship on scientific papers?

New posting! This one's a #HowTo guide to #authorship on scientific publications, drawing heavily on #ICMJE criteria and #CRediT taxonomy. Hope it's helpful! As always, likes/comments/reposts very welcome😊👇 totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2025/06/13/c...