Alan McElligott

What I’ve learned from studying the wild pigeon The wild rock dove is little understood and largely overlooked by scientists.

The wild rock dove is little understood and largely overlooked by scientists.

I’ll pass on Qatar visits and similar ⬇️

database.ilga.org/qatar-lgbti 🏳️‍🌈

High in Ecuador’s Andes, a rare hummingbird faces extinction The species is at risk as high-altitude forests are cleared for grazing and agriculture.

The species is at risk as high-altitude forests are cleared for grazing and agriculture.

Forever chemicals in whales have decreased. Why aren’t we celebrating? Newer forever chemicals aren’t showing up in the ocean like legacy ones – and scientists don’t know why.

Newer forever chemicals aren’t showing up in the ocean like legacy ones – and scientists don’t know why.

EU inks 'mother of all deals' with India amid global trade turmoil The EU Commission sealed a free-trade agreement with India on Tuesdaym cutting tariffs on EU goods while excluding agriculture to appease Indian authorities. Europe’s car industry is set to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the agreement, hailed as the 'mother of all deals'.

EU inks 'mother of all deals' with India amid global trade turmoil

Grok AI generated 3 million sexualised images in just two weeks. Can the European Commission keep up with this?

On #EuropeToday, its Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen says: "We have very clear obligations, they have to mitigate risks at all times."

Watch first, then share your views ✍️.

Newsletter: EU and India clinch ‘mother of all deals’ Also in this newsletter: the EU's tech chief speaks to Euronews, and Greenland's minerals minister weighs in on Trump's claims that a "framework" deal is in place for her Arctic country.

Also in this newsletter: the EU's tech chief speaks to Euronews, and Greenland's minerals minister weighs in on Trump's claims that a "framework" deal is in place for her Arctic country. #EuropeToday

France to replace US's Teams and Zoom for 'sovereign control' France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.

France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.

EU Commission to probe Hungary's defence loan request Hungary is the only member state whose EU payments are suspended because of systemic corruption risks, and the Commission now says any disbursement under the bloc's defence funding scheme would come with conditions.

Hungary is the only member state whose EU payments are suspended because of systemic corruption risks, and the Commission now says any disbursement under the bloc's defence funding scheme would come with conditions. #EuropeNews

Virkkunen warns X of ‘clear obligations’ amid investigation into Grok The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot on X, over its use to generate non-consensual sexualised images of women and underage girls.

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot on X, over its use to generate non-consensual sexualised images of women and underage girls. #EuropeToday

“This is great news for everybody. It means more business opportunities for our SMEs, for our industries, for our service providers, and of course also for India.”

European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen reacts on #EuropeToday to the EU–India trade deal signed in New Delhi.

Bye Spotify! ⬇️

Bye Spotify! ⬇️

Just moved everything over to TIDAL and departed with a “fuck Trump” as my cancellation reason. Ciao Spotify 🖕

"Spotify Hosts Trump Inauguration Brunch and Makes $150,000 Donation to Ceremony."

Yeah, three years ago, I switched from Spotify to Tidal, and I'm so happy that each day, I see reasons why it was such an amazing idea to abandon that stupid music streaming service. Fuck Spotify! 🙂

Characterising donkey welfare challenges and opportunities associated with human activities and environmental factors in seven Kenyan counties | #AnimalWelfare | bit.ly/4reuNJm via @animal-welfare.bsky.social

🧪 Thousands of special issues are stained with PISS (>33% of articles authored by the guest editor). See @hansonmark.bsky.social's thread below for a brief summary, read our preprint (arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563), explore our ShinyApp to see where it occurs (paolocrosetto.shinyapps.io/Editors_as_a...).

We at @lsajournal.org have discussed doing calls for papers/special issues. Some great journals like @jcellsci.bsky.social have them.

But our leadership was VERY clear: MDPI, Frontiers, and their ilk have so sullied this publication mechanism that no one wanted to go there. The concept is tainted.

I saw that when it came out, but Frontiers are not serious journals, and we should not waste our time reviewing for them or MDPI anyway. We can aim for high standards e.g. in society journals, but not where the editors only pretend to have peer review and don't care beyond 'number of papers go up'.

Miles de científicos hinchan su currículum con estudios autopublicados que cuestan millones de euros de dinero público Un análisis de 100.000 números especiales de revistas académicas revela que uno de cada ocho está lleno de artículos de autobombo del propio editor, sobre todo en la editorial MDPI

“Los números especiales de MDPI y Frontiers son un enorme coladero. La ANECA debe excluir explícitamente estos trabajos", sinala @isidroaguillo.bsky.social

elpais.com/ciencia/2026...

🎓🏫 #AcademicSky #ECR
This needs to be common knowledge in academia, but also in industry and government

Original paper: The Issue with Special Issues: when Guest Editors Publish in Support of Self: arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 ... The figure legends and section headers in this preprint are superb.

We did love to see the day -- I would not have bet on this

Science journals retract 500 papers a month. This is why it matters A small team of volunteers is tracking thousands of falsified studies, including cases of bribery, fraud and plagiarism

Science journals retract 500 papers a month. This is why it matters

Another expression of concern for former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Four of his papers have been retracted.
retractiondatabase.org/RetractionSe...

Figure from a scientific paper labeled Figure 1E. It shows 6 panels in 2 columns, 3 rows. Each shows white worm-like cells on a darker grey background. Two panels overlap, marked with red boxes.

Reported to @pnas.org in Feb 2016.
Asked again in Sept 2017.
Journal replied: "The authors have provided a response, and the Editorial Board is deciding how to proceed."

They are still deciding, apparently 🦗

pubpeer.com/publications...

#ImageForensics

See also Richard Frye:

The Issue with Special Issues: when Guest Editors Publish in Support of Self The recent exceptional growth in the number of special issues has led to the largest delegation of editorial power in the history of scientific publishing. Has this power been used responsibly? In thi...

Please, quote also the original article and their authors, active here, which for sure could benefit from your posts:
The study here
arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
By
@paolocrosetto.bsky.social
@pagomba.bsky.social
And @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy

Same here. I strongly discourage any student/early career scientist from publishing in journals like MDPI and FrontiersIn. It will only taint their CV.

What are we fighting for? Reflections on the Strain, Drain, and Stain (PISS) Find the paper here:   arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 And explore our data in the app here:   paolocrosetto.shinyapps.io/Editors_as_authors/

I'm not sure this is true. Like... you're right *we know MDPI and Frontiers are outlets with poor QC. But the vast majority don't. What's worse, ECRs don't, and these outlets 'mentor' them by offering them a 1st experience publishing or reviewing.

Reflections in blogpost linked here.

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