Jordi Garcia-Pausas

Reformation of Science Publishing: The Stockholm Declaration
Full declaration: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Sign it: sciii-it.org/stockholm-de...

🧪 #AcademicsSky #SciencePublishing #ScienceIntegrity @royalsociety.org @royalsocietypublishing.org @scienceacademyswe.bsky.social

From left to right: A headshot of Dr. Zoe Lindo, the cover of the book, "The Ecology of Soil: From communities to ecosystems", and a headshot of Dr. Richard Bardgett. Beneath each headshot is the individual's name.

🎉Register now for December's GSBI Speaks🎉

Dr. Richard Bardgett will be chatting with Dr. Zoë Lindo about his upcoming book, "The Ecology of Soil: From communities to ecosystems"!

Register here: zoom.us/webinar/regi...

We have reached 1.4 degrees celsius #globalheating according to NASA data (smooth black trend line). Breaching 1.5 is now inevitable. From now on the fight is to keep overshoot as small and short as possible.

Tens un projecte d'investigació naturalista sobre els sistemes naturals dels Països Catalans?
Presenta'l al Premi Torras-Foulon!

Obert fins el 30 de novembre 2025
ichn.iec.cat/oberta-la-co...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

🇪🇸 As Spain marks the 50th anniversary of Franco's death on November 20, exhumations of 3,300 mass graves from the Spanish Civil War gather pace as relatives and authorities seek to identify more than 140,000 missing persons. 
➡️ u.afp.com/SnSZ

Neixen tres cadells de llop a Catalunya per primer cop en 100 anys La Generalitat remarca que és un "fet històric" que arriba després de dècades de seguiment de l'espècie

Un segle més tard, a Catalunya hi ha tornat a néixer un llop. És una "fita històrica" que ha anunciat el departament d'Interior, a través del cos d'Age...

A detail of the leaves of Fitzroya cupressoides

Fitzroya cupressoides (Cupressaceae). The pictures are not very good quality (it was raining), but this species of tree is really impressive. I love it, and the Valdivian temperate forests.

📷 Los Alerces National Park (Argentina).
#trees #botany #Argentina #Patagonia

Mapa d'Europa on es mostra el % de vendes de vehicles elèctrics purs en cada estat.

Com sempre, al vagó de la cua... www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/us-...

📣 Oberta la convocatòria del Premi Torras-Foulon 2026!

Des de la @ichn.iec.cat , i gràcies a la donació de la família Torras-Foulon, es convoca aquest premi de 4.000 € destinat a una investigació naturalista sobre els sistemes naturals dels Països Catalans.

Termini: 30 de novembre del 2025

⛰️Aún estas a tiempo de contactar para hacer tu #doctorado en cambio climático y suelos de montaña en el CREAF🌳! Anímate a solicitar ayudas FPU/FI en el proyecto DRYLAND (MICIU). Efectos sequía en las pérdidas de C y nutrientes en suelos de alta montaña. Solicita aquí!-> sl1nk.com/fnIEG

Why fundamental research is fundamental to progress, seeding major breakthroughs
Editorial @nature.com this week
And 7 basic science discoveries that changed the world
nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com/articles/d41...

Today, wild mammals account for around 5% of total mammalian biomass (60Mt). This figure was around 50% (200Mt) in 1850.

Maybe we can learn lessons from Paris to apply to our cities...

Forest soil #biodiversity is at the heart of nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and ecosystem resilience. Yet monitoring remains a challenge!

📣 Don't miss the next #HoliSoils webinar on forest soil #biodiversity monitoring (22 October 2025 | 14:00–15:00 CEST) ➡️ holisoils.eu/holisoils-we...

Please pass along, I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study phys ecology, macroecology, biodiversity - spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested🧪🌐🌾

Log of Nothofagus dombeyi with fungi in the sapwood

Log of Nothofagus dombeyi with fungi in the sapwood

Fungi can clearly distinguish between heartwood and sapwood... #wood #fungi

Largest database on Mediterranean trees now available through open access An international team led by INRAE and EFI compiled the largest open-access database of Mediterranean tree species, providing vital data on diversity, extinction risk and genetics to support conservat...

A landmark for #MediterraneanForests 🌿@inrae-france.bsky.social & @efieuropeanforest.bsky.social release the largest open-access database of #Mediterranean tree species: 496 species, 147 subspecies, and key data on diversity, extinction risk & genetics.

Read more👉 www.euforgen.org/about-us/new...

Hypothesized distribution of the belowground persistence types along a gradient of disturbance return time with hump-shaped (first increasing and then decreasing) investment in resprouting (highlighted by intensity of shading). The disturbance return time ranges from less than a year to many decades. source: original paper

🌱 New framework in plant ecology! Researchers propose 6 Belowground Persistence Types (BPTs) — classifying plants by woodiness, clonality, and resprouting ability. This whole-plant view reveals how species persist after disturbance and could reshape how we study resilience.
🔗 buff.ly/LgaPglR
(MK)

An upland landscape in Scotland with trees and open areas.

PhD opportunity with me at University of Edinburgh linked with Forest Research, funded by E5 DTP.

On the microbial mechanisms of soil carbon cycling in tree-planted upland soils. Apply before 14th Dec. Please share with your network.

Pic: one of our Scottish sites.

e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

Nice soil profile at Los Alerces NP, NW Patagonia (Argentina). I guess they are Andosols (?) (volcanic soils) #Patagonia #Argentina #soil

Burnt area in the Rio Negro province

Recently burnt area in Los Alerces NP (Chubut province)

Wildfire landscapes

Sprouts of Lomatia hirsuta

Aristotelia chilensis resprouting after fire

Schinus patagonica resprouting after fire

Nothofagus antarctica resprouting after fire

After some days visiting a few burnt areas in northern Argentinian Patagonia, here are some species that resprout from the base after a wildfire: Lomatia hirsuta (Proteaceae), Aristotelia chilensis (Elaeocarpaceae), Schinus patagonica (Anacardiaceae), Nothofagus antarctica (Nothofagaceae)

I love seeing glaciers. Torrecillas glacier (Chubut province, Argentina), last week. #glacier #Patagonia #Argentina

In such a beautiful piece about cultural burning, I was able to share a bit of my own work on how “good fire” can bring a host of benefits to wildlife and forests. Thanks @sadbumblebee.buzz for including me. And what a great spotlight on fire as a form of art, deeply human.

Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Number of wild bee species at risk of extinction in Europe doubles in 10 years Number of endangered butterfly species also surging amid habitat destruction and global heating, finds study The number of wild bee species in Europe at risk of extinction has more than doubled over the past decade, while the number of endangered butterfly species has almost doubled. The jeopardy facing crucial pollinators was revealed by scientific studies for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species, which found that at least 172 bee species out of 1,928 were at risk of extinction in Europe. Continue reading...

Number of wild bee species at risk of extinction in Europe doubles in 10 years

-La especie / Numenius tenuirostris / ya se considera EXTINTA según la UICN☹️
-Ave con área de distribución amplia y desaparece "en nuestra cara", mientras "cuidamos todo"
-En 2024 un estudio científico estimaba una probabilidad del 96% de extinción
-Parece que fue fotografiada por última vez en 1995

Before and after images show glaciers vanishing before our eyes They are melting like never seen before, changing landscapes around the world beyond recognition.

Thorough reporting on the scale of the loss of Switzerland’s glaciers