Reese Richardson

Round of applause to PubPeer contributors 'Hymenoptychis sordida' & 'Nerita vitiensis'.
Also applause for the PP moderator who realised that the 1st comment was worth highlighting so that it rose to the top of the PP home page.
Inspiring me to put Fig 1 on Bsky so the rest of you could go WTF? too.

Publisher donating author fees from retracted articles to charity What should happen to the millions of dollars publishers rake in from authors whose work is later retracted?  Guillaume Cabanac, one of the developers of the Problematic Paper Screener, has re…

Likely not. I can only think of one instance of a publisher doing anything with the publication fees from retraction articles, precipitated by @gcabanac.cpesr.fr : retractionwatch.com/2023/12/29/p...

they must have misspelled "trains" in the prompt

In instances like this, I suspect that the article was not genuinely peer reviewed at all. @springernature.com rnature.com told @jacksonwryan.com that two reviewers and an editor missed it, which I find implausible if they were actually looking.
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...

Alex Glynn has been collecting examples of undeclared AI use at www.academ-ai.info

Big congratulations to Dr. (+ Dr. Honoris Causa) @elisabethbik.bsky.social ❗👏

Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI Sample of books scored 100% on AI detection test as experts warn they contain dangerous advice

Here's coverage in @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?

In instances like this, I suspect that the article was not genuinely peer reviewed at all. @springernature.com told @jacksonwryan.com that two reviewers and an editor missed it, which I find implausible if they were actually looking.
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...

I am the autism meter bicycle

Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?

As for journalists: check out @jacksonwryan.com !
nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...

163.com is a pretty common domain for personal email addresses in China. Suspicious email addresses and domains are commonly used to spot problematic papers. However, I don't think using a personal email by itself is necessarily a red flag (some disagree).

£2190.00/$2690.00/€2390.00

AI generated figure about autism

The Scientifc Reports autism cycle article has been retracted: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

More open-access textbooks please!!!!

some favorites from this list:
* Geese - Getting Killed (duh)
* Deafheaven - Lonely People with Power
* Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound
* Ethel Cain - Perverts
* Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - self titled

Figure from the paper showing six panels with red cells. I have added lots of colored boxes to highlight duplications. https://pubpeer.com/publications/981C24DC8085D84FAA610B07741F59#4

“the concerns pertaining to figs. 3, 4, and 5 which remain outstanding are unlikely to impact the wider conclusions of the article”

WHAT MORE is needed to impact an editor’s conclusion?

At least, an EoC was issued.

HT: @reeserichardson.bsky.social
#ResearchIntegrity
#ThisImageIsFine
#Academia

Frolicking through the snow, all bundled up, pulling a red sled behind me with a toddler gripping on for dear life

a kitten mid-bound through a meadow filled with white clover flowers. the caption reads "don't care + having fun + playing"

Happy Advent! !!!🎄✨
Welcome to a new edition of the Research Integrity Advent Calendar.
Each day brings a small challenge: spot the problem, detect inconsistencies, and sharpen your skills.
Enjoy the season and the daily puzzles!
Day 1. papermills.tilda.ws/advent2025

PubPeer: pubpeer.com/publications...

An SEM image of pores in a surface. Red arrows point to structures labeled "pores" and "pillars". The metadata banner along the bottom of the image appears to have been fabricated, the dead giveaway being that the timestamp reads "15 Fab 2023".

According the instrument-generated metadata banner, these images were taken in Fabruary 2023.

Can you spot one of the (numerous) other issues?

Where progress on the encampment agreement stands, one year later About this time last year, Northwestern administrators and student demonstrators reached an agreement to end the pro-Palestinian encampment on Deering Meadow under several conditions. This agreement i...

Part of this agreement was to support new Palestinian faculty and students. It's unclear if these commitments are also dead. From April 2025:

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/04/30/c...

10. Northwestern shall terminate the “Deering Meadow Agreement” of April 29, 2024, and reverse all policies that have been implemented or are being implemented in adherence to it.

A 404 page on the Northwestern University website.

Elsewhere: these agreement made to end the 2024 Gaza encampment is dead (not that Northwestern had many substantive commitments in the first place). The agreement and former NU president Schill's statements about the agreement are now offline (unclear when this happened).

14. Northwestern will maintain a security infrastructure, including Northwestern University Police Department resources, private security assets, and cooperation arrangements with local, regional, and federal law enforcement, that is sufficiently resourced to prevent and investigate violations of law or Northwestern’s policies and is reasonably equipped to intervene in violations while they are occurring, when practicable, so that violators could be apprehended and face appropriate discipline.

18. Northwestern shall prohibit wearing of face masks or facial coverings for the purposes of concealment of an individual’s identity, and shall consistently enforce that prohibition against anyone who fails to comply with a request, directive, or instruction of University officials acting in performance of their duties to remove face masks or coverings for purposes of identification.

Elsewhere: these provisions make it clear that Northwestern is in violation of the agreement if they do not immediately identify/apprehend people taking part in unapproved speech.

"Sex," "female," "male," "women," and "men" are defined in Executive Order 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Jan. 20, 2025), and related executive orders.

28. Northwestern will uphold its commitment to Title IX by providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities. 29. Northwestern and its Feinberg School of Medicine shall not perform hormonal interventions and transgender surgeries, including but not limited to mastectomies, phalloplasties, vaginoplasties, and/or any other procedure intended to alter an individual’s sex characteristics, on any individual under the age of 18 years old, effective immediately upon the Effective Date of this Agreement. a. Northwestern shall revise all policies, protocols, and public-facing materials at Feinberg School of Medicine to reflect the commitment set forth in this paragraph on hormonal interventions and transgendersurgeriesto individuals under the age of 18 years old and ensure compliance with federal laws. b. Northwestern shall notify all faculty and administrators of the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern’s commitments set forth above regarding transgender surgeries on minors within thirty (30) days of the Effective Date. 30. Together with its first quarterly certification as set out in Paragraph 49, Northwestern shall submit a report to the Assistant Attorney General, confirming compliance with the preceding paragraph. The report shall include documentation of compliance, such as revised policy documents and copies of notifications sent.

Among the many terrible parts of the agreement with the Trump admin: Northwestern throwing trans people under the bus. Shame

sometimes I wonder if our picture of the neolithic is inherently fragmentary and thus confusing or if it really was as alien to modern life as it appears

Do you feel that scientific publishing is failing you - it is increasingly expensive, asking ever more, giving back less?

It's because the system is built to *drain* resources - money, time, trust and control - away from scientists, to generate a huge rent.

Time to stop it: doi.org/10.48550/arx...

Throwback to him aimlessly meandering around a Florida Publix in his immediate post-presidency

This Thursday, COSIG maintainer @reeserichardson.bsky.social will be presenting on using COSIG to spot problematic papers! Registration details below.

A bit of Frye and Rossignol “Trapped inside every autist, a normal child with normal cognition is struggling to get out – only needing the right drug or therapy to be released”, – Smut Clyde

@deevybee.bsky.social @rosewind.bsky.social I finally finished writing a thing.

forbetterscience.com/2025/11/25/a...

New COSIG guide!