Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Fraud, AI slop and huge profits: is science publishing broken? Podcast Episode · Science Weekly · 02/10/2025 · 18m

Thanks @iansample.bsky.social at @theguardian.com podcast for chatting #ScientificPublishing.

This pod follows from The Strain on Scientific Publishing & reports of publisher profit margins rivalling Google etc...

Paper: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Pod: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Very different looking seeds between Drosera anglica (gwlithlys mawr / great sundew) and D intermedia (gwlithlys hirddail / oblong-leaved sundew). In the hybrid between D anglica and D rotundifolia the seed pods don’t really open and the seeds are just soft pale brown bits. #sundews #drosera

If you’re planning to submit to #MDPI, is it even worth posting a preprint first—since the paper could be out in ~37 days anyway? Genuine question.
Also, do we know which journals most preprints from preprints.org eventually end up in?

🍄 It’s emoji season 🍄

Suggest a research topic

Hey #AcademicSky, have you guest edited a special issue for any Frontiers journals?

I'm curious what sort of proposal form is given to guest editors. The initial proposal page is sparse, so I imagine more "meat" comes later.

If you have, please email/DM me! #ResearchIntegrity

Let's find a mate for Ned One in 40,000 snails have the spiral on the left side of the shell, and they can only mate with other lefties. Can you help Ned find true love?

A tiny silly fun thing in the midst of all the chaos... We're on the hunt for a mate for Ned, a 1 in 40,000 left-spiralling snail. www.nzgeo.com/stories/lets...

Medicago seedpods.

Do I spot the @rbgkew.bsky.social's Palm House in The Sandman? 🤗

Meanwhile, in "Travel to Mars-like Places on Earth: A New Branch of Sustainable Ecotourism in Lut Desert World Heritage Site, Iran" www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15...

A sign reading: danger! High voltage A sign underneath reading: danger! Compressed air

Electric Six’s second less successful single

AI Abuse to Skirt Copyright Law - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay In the past week, a number of prominent nature photographers showed how their photographs were being stolen and mangled into "AI-nonsense", deceiving countless others into believing the made-up storie...

This is truly depressing... Look at how they abused these amazing photos by @nickybay.bsky.social ... Everyone needs to be super extra careful when sharing or liking cool/pretty/funny stuff anywhere.

Got a letter published in @theguardian.com a couple of weeks ago, which argues that indeed there’s more than enough (taxpayer) money already going into academic publishing. The problem is that it’s often more than one third of it is leaving academia as shareholder profits 💸💸💸

La haine et véhémence de mes harceleurs (qui prouvent malgré le point exact de l'article) est l'un des premiers moteurs de:
- ma motivation à ne pas flancher face à la mauvaise science
- mais aussi de la réussite de cet article (nature.com/articles/d41...) 🤣
Changez rien :)

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed this scientist into a research-integrity sleuth Lonni Besançon has faced online abuse, threats and legal challenges. But he remains proud of his service to science and society.

Lonni Besançon faced online abuse, threats and legal challenges in response to his research integrity sleuthing during the COVID-19 pandemic

go.nature.com/4m5DN0X

In which a Springer executive bravely speaks up on behalf of the underdog & defends the papermills who want to go on papermilling.

The past, present & future of UK metascience: new paper by me, @ludowaltman.bsky.social @andre-brasil.bsky.social & Ben Steyn

Published yesterday by DSIT as part of the govt’s ‘A Year in Metascience’ report

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685bcd...

Tiny green seedling with three seed leaves, each one about 4 x 2 mm. The stalks of the seed leaves have a few hairs along their edges.

Most flowering plants have two seed leaves (cotyledons), but a large group, the monocotyledons, have only one. This red campion (Silene dioica) seedling is an odd one out of about 100 in having three. It's only a developmental abnormality, but I'll be interested to see what the true leaves do.

Close-up photo of a cyme of small capsules, opened to reveal a sky-facing cluster of tiny, shiny, black seeds.

Close-up photo of a cyme of small capsules, opened to reveal a sky-facing cluster of tiny, shiny, black seeds.

I just noticed that the capsules on Dionaea muscipula open to form splash-cups for raindrop dispersal of the tiny, black seeds (known to the cognoscenti as ombrohydrochory). How cool is that?! #Droseraceae #dispersal #ombrohydrochory #carnivorousplant #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

How machine learning can help us conserve orchid seeds Learn how we are using machine learning to tell us if our orchid seeds in the MSB are still alive, and how this will benefit us in the future.

Tiny orchid seeds, big AI breakthrough! 🌱🤖

We’re training a machine learning model to spot viable orchid seeds - each smaller than a grain of sand - using a simple chemical stain and thousands of microscope images from our Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst 👇 1/3

👉 ow.ly/8q1g50We924

Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

Has someone found a good way of getting money out of research? Don't stop it.

Copy it.

APC charges cost billions. MDPI leads with over $1.7bn (est. 2015-2023). Springer-Nature ‘only’ got $1.1bn and so what do they do?

They copy MDPI.

the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

HOROCCO

That is the main lesson, there are no winners with lithium chloride :D

Working with lithium chloride solutions to control relative humidity (niche, we know)? We just published a paper + app for you:

📰 www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ista...

🖥 pagoba.shinyapps.io/LiClcalc/

Use these tools to make, tweak, or mix solutions to hit your RH target.
#seedscience

Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

Springer-Nature launched a series of "Discover" journals that closely mimic MDPI titles -- sharing *identical* journal names, and likely similar business model.

What is going on, and why researcher will - as always - fall for it?

A 🧵

the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

Academic and still reviewing papers?
Reed this post and consider again if you hear about a journal named 'Discover XXX' asking for your help...

YouTube video by Levan Ramishvili Giving the Palestinians Greenland (Golden Girls, Empty Nests, 1987)

Golden girls (1987) somehow predicting 2025.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SD6...

Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

📰 The Daily Strain is back!

#SpringerNature may be copying #MDPI journal names with its "Discover" series.

Blog 👉 the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...
Mini-Game 👉 Can you tell Discover from MDPI? pagoba.shinyapps.io/publi_guess/

@discoverjrnls.bsky.social #DiscoverOrMDPI

🎯 I scored 6/10 on #DiscoverOrMDPI — can you beat me?
pagoba.shinyapps.io/publi_guess/, #ResearchIntegrity #ScientificPublishing #AcademicSky

Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

📰 The Daily Strain is back!

#SpringerNature may be copying #MDPI journal names with its "Discover" series.

Blog 👉 the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...
Mini-Game 👉 Can you tell Discover from MDPI? pagoba.shinyapps.io/publi_guess/

@discoverjrnls.bsky.social #DiscoverOrMDPI

Spinger Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

New from The Strain Team:
🎊 Springer Nature Discovers MDPI 🎊

Springer Nature has spawned a copycat journal series called "Discover" mimicking #MDPI journal titles and citation behaviours. We even made a browser game to prove it (see 🔗).

Gross! 😀 1/n

#ResearchIntegrity #SciPub #AcademicSky