Jorge Peña

I'll continue not submitting papers and turning down all offers to review for @royalsociety.org journals so long as the society fails to stand up for the scientific community and for the values it claims to believe in.

A screenshot taken by someone on Twitter/X of Elon Musk agreeing with a tweet that shows the EU flag being peeled back to reveal a Nazi one. For Elon’s purposes here Nazis are apparently bad, but you can’t rely on that with him, of course.

The latest from an honored member of the Royal Society. Every week he attacks the foundations of society in the UK and the EU and @royalsociety.org is apparently too worried about retribution to do anything about it.

The @cssociety.bsky.social has issued an open letter on academic freedom and human rights following the non-stop genocide in Gaza:

drive.google.com/file/d/1-q5E...

What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma.

It's *scientific publishing*.

We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...

Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇

One of the big puzzles in history is why the first demographic transition began in France, as early as 1789.

With Paula Gobbi and Marc Goñi, we show that a key driver was the French Revolution and its inheritance reforms.

Now forthcoming at JPE 👉 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

🧵 (1/9)

Hi everyone! I'm co-organizing this retreat/workshop June 15-19 for those looking to get started in mathematical/computational modeling of biological processes. Location is a beautiful farm in NC. Please share with students and others who want to build modeling skills. Interdisciplinarity welcome!

Another one bites the dust Science of The Total Environment has been delisted by Web of Science. Scientific Reports is set to publish 45,000 articles this year, likely generating over $100 million in revenue. Could it be next?

"Scientific Reports likely to generate >$100M this year...When a journal publishes 45K articles...some bad papers will be published. The big unknown is whether [the now infamous “Factor Fexcetorn” paper] is the visible tip of a research integrity iceberg" newsletter.journalology.com/p/another-on...

Yes, why not.

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

🚨Two postdoc positions @tse-fr.eu @iast.fr 🚨

We are recruiting two postdocs as part of the ANR-funded project ENFORCE.

Join me, @giuliandr.bsky.social, & @zhgarfield.com, to study punitive systems across societies.

Full time, 2 years, no teaching.

Deadline: Jan 23

www.tse-fr.eu/groups/depar...

I am hiring a postdoc for a DFF-funded project on social influence, and the decision processes that fuel rich-get-richer dynamics in the online/offline world. The position is for up to a year, competitive Danish salary, remote work possible. Interested or know somebody? DM me or share!

Great opportunity for those interested in fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and mathematical models: postdoc opening in Laurent Lehmann’s group @unil.bsky.social. We have a lively community of theorists here in Lausanne with good interactions across groups. Join us ! Please RP

Infographic with AI slop published in Nature Scientific Reports

"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se

Indeed. But also note my delay to reply. I think I don't spend more than 5 minutes a day in this platform (if/when I open it at all). 😉

Bluesky is booooring 🥱. Elon Musk's greatest scientific contribution is this: by forcing academics to leave his toxic platform and move to an utterly tedious place (this one!), he has helped reclaim thousands (millions?) of researcher work hours. Please keep Bluesky boring and anodyne!

Thrilled to teach again this year, on the evolution of social cognition, at the Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences! Apply before December 15th 👇

Brochure: lnkd.in/e_R7cQTP
Application: lnkd.in/eey-fEJ

"Thanks, but, nah, I rather let insiders be the gatekeepers".

Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences

📣 Are you a PhD student in the quantitative social sciences interested in interdisciplnary research? Join us at the Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences (25 May-19 Jun 2026) at @tse-fr.eu.

Apply by 15 Dec 2025 🎓🔍

👉 More info + application: www.tse-fr.eu/toulouse-sum...

WALL-E - Wikipedia

By 2030, research will be carried out entirely by AI agents, while humans drift around an ecologically ruined Earth like the helpless, consumption-obsessed beings foretold by that most dystopian of films: Wall-E. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E

Maybe they should just contemplate giving actual (e.g., monetary) incentives to reviewers. But obviously they won't. AI is crap for that job, but it is far cheaper than fairly paid human labor.

Sure, but after enough rejections, the message journals seem to send is: 'you're not good enough for us.' If not good enough to publish, then why to review? It feels inconsistent... Like guards defending gated communities they themselves can't get in.

That sounds fair.

Expensive way of doing that. Maybe just read the papers published by such journals.

Right. But also: Reviewer's time (hence researcher's time) is a public good that will erode if we only think of the interests of prestigious journals.

Why should you accept invitations to review from journals that have rejected every single one of your submissions?

YouTube video by Carmelo Torres y los Toscos - Topic Antropología

"Porque una cosa es el indio,
y otra cosa la antropología"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMRT...

If in doubt about whether or not the song you're listening to is cumbia, listen carefully to the lyrics. Do they include the word "cumbia"? If they do, chances are the song is indeed cumbia.

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Research Fellowships Each year, IAST invites applications for post-doctoral Research Fellowships, which offer candidates an opportunity to devote themselves full-time to their research at the start of their careers. Fello...

📢 Apply to our (2-year) research fellowships at @iast.fr

Join a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and indisciplinary group of scholars in Toulouse, walkable/cyclable pink city of chocolatines in the South of France.

Deadline: November 15, 2025.

www.iast.fr/research-fel...

Photo of a Kansas City Chiefs press conference with Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, and Patrick Mahomes. Reid is wearing a gray suit and red tie with a lapel pin. Kelce is wearing a camp-style short-sleeved shirt with a bird print, along with a suede cap, and Mahomes is wearing a white collared shirt, a pink checkered double-breasted vest, and a pale pink tie.

JEP: General; Psych Science; Nature Human Behaviour