It’s just over a week before I start as Principal of @hertfordcollege.bsky.social. The College is fundraising today for its new library and the comments people are leaving about why they have donated show what a special place Hertford is: hertford.givingday.co.uk/donor-wall
It will continue to be!
A hummingbird hawk moth feeding on primroses on 1st March in Oxfordshire.
The earliest I’ve ever seen a hummingbird hawk moth in the UK, feeding on primroses this morning! Spring!
01.03.2026 14:03 — 👍 34 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
OpenSAFELY is open from today! Huge thanks to all who supported this vast collaboration: whole population GP data; in a productive platform; innovative privacy protections; unprecedented support from professions, privacy campaigners; &c
Now it's over to users!
www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/blog/2026/02...
V useful piece dispelling myths about NIH policy on open access
upstream.force11.org/cost-of-conf...
Bad that DHSC haven’t corrected the information, but the mistake is down to the crazy IARC system.
Grouping ‘things that can increase cancer risk’ according to
‘how sure we are that they can increase cancer risk’
NOT
‘how much they increase cancer risk’
is very counterintuitive and unhelpful
We love it when people use our open API and build features they would like to see on Octopus.
@andreasthinks.me has created Octosphere - a way to connect Octopus with the decentralised system behind BlueSky, the ATmosphere.
It’s a prototype, but shows what can be done:
octosphere.social/dashboard
This was a huge effort from the Winton team: several years of reviewing all the side effects information available, and working with patients on how best to display it.
Thank you to everyone who helped put it all together. It’s so nice to know that patients have this info now and can better prepare
A genuinely fun event to take part in!
@berndpulverer.bsky.social had to defend the current publishing system whilst @alexandrafreeman.bsky.social got what seems like the easier job of arguing for complete reform…
but the audience voting gave it a surprise twist!
Proud to have been involved in the design of Predict (Breast & Prostate) to make sure that its results are clear and easy for patients and professionals to understand.
Fantastic to see how many people it has helped.
If you’ve seen - or produced - some good, balanced information to help people make decisions in the last year then submit it now!
29.01.2026 17:44 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
It is now possible to embed video within the main text of your Octopus publications.
We heard that this was important for, e.g., video methods, artistic performances, sign language and behavioural studies.
Your video has to be hosted on Vimeo first. That is because of privacy and cookies settings.
I agree. I think that partly comes from setting your goal correctly. Biomedical goals often don't match people's (patients') goals. I think knowing where you want to go puts you on the path of finding the right 'scientific' methods (which might be a lot more from social sciences).
18.01.2026 16:56 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
You can't 'follow the science' as science doesn't know where you want to go.
If you decide where you want to be - what you want to be able to do - science can help you find the best route to get there (if it's possible).
We all need trustworthy information that isn’t trying to persuade us but to help us make up our own minds.
It’s amazing how rare this is: communication done for the audience’s sake rather than for the communicators’ own purposes.
If you’ve seen a good recent example - nominate it!
That’s why in octopus.ac every chain of publications starts with a research problem publication…
15.01.2026 17:46 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Formatting ‘standards’ should only ever support the actual job of formatting which is to help communication of the content. Not undermine it.
(Perhaps not this case, but many ‘formatting standards’ are about branding and where that gets in the way of content then it speaks volumes about priorities)
Bar chart showing publication views on Octopus.ac 2023 - 11,676 views 2024 - 15,461 views 2025 - 41,915 views
We've got our 2025 statistics now, and it's clear just how well-read publications on Octopus are - it's a fast-growing platform.
(Bots removed from the data)
Lots of new features in 2025 - such as being able to find UK government research priorities and link your work to them.
More features soon!
Yes - page 5 here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6155f6...
We did some work on evaluating SAGE’s communication of uncertainty: doi.org/10.57874/3g0... (not all studies published yet!). Some conclusions here: doi.org/10.57874/k5k...
New preprint from COS and @ip4os.eu: a summary of a small circle meetup on open science held at the Metascience Conference in London (1 July 2025). It captures key themes of the discussion—open science priorities, policy developments, and what's on the horizon.
Read more: osf.io/preprints/me...
Join our Replicability Project: Health Behavior!
We have 55 replication studies underway, our target is 65-70.
We are only recruiting for secondary data replications--i.e., using existing data to test the original question.
Here's a list of studies we think could be feasible.
If interested...
If you’re a cryptographer and you got one of these, send me an email.
18.12.2025 01:49 — 👍 77 🔁 26 💬 13 📌 1
Research needs cross-disciplinary working. A nice mention of Octopus.ac in:
worksinprogress.co/issue/why-sc...
This is also why Octopus now automatically pulls in all the UK government’s Areas of Research Interest as Problems, and alerts government depts when researchers link ideas to them…
I write a newspaper column about Scottish history, historians and heritage.
I’m keen to feature more Early Career Researchers. Their work might not otherwise be publicised to a wide audience. Do you know anyone who might like to be in the column?
An obviously AI-generated figure with AI slop and fake text all over it, recently published in Scientific Reports.
Since AI slop is again all over Scientific Reports, a thread on the economics of grey-zone publishing.
Why does slop keep getting published? What does it mean for science? How can we stop this?
Background readings:
Understand the strain: tinyurl.com/2b6wxx5r
Stop the drain: tinyurl.com/3jfscscy
new paper by Sean Westwood:
With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research
Very excited to be taking up the position of Principal at the wonderful @hertfordcollege.bsky.social in Oxford next March.
It’s a forward-thinking and friendly college, and a place where we can really focus on supporting the best research and the best learning environment. Which includes a cat!
Woman using laptop for video conference
🚨 5 years on from when the COVID-19 pandemic confined many to their homes, how has remote working changed the UK workplace, and what is its future?
We are publishing our report tomorrow at 00.05 #WFH
Applications open: New Generation Thinkers 2026
AHRC is partnering with BBC Radio 4 to offer five early-career researchers the opportunity to work with programme makers, appear on air, and gain first-hand experience of how ideas make it to broadcast.
Apply by Jan 2026
I listed all the tools I used in the credits to make clear the process (and thanks to graphics guru Lauri for making the credit graphics).
I absolutely think that AI model companies should pay copyright for what they use in training. But as a creative, I wanted to see what it would allow me to do.
