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Alberto Baccini

@albertobaccini.bsky.social

Professor of Quantitative studies of science, University of Siena, Italy. One of the founders of http://roars.it

296 Followers  |  486 Following  |  36 Posts  |  Joined: 06.12.2023
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Posts by Alberto Baccini (@albertobaccini.bsky.social)

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Exclusive: Unrest at Wiley journal whose EIC is cited in more than half of its papers Timothy Lee (center) of Macau University of Science and Technology was named editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Tourism Research in 2023. On Feb. 18, a researcher in Italy sent a disgr…

“Maybe, I would have been treated better if I had cited some of the editor in chief’s papers,” Bimonte, of the University of Siena, wrote in boldface in the email, which we have seen. Two days later, an unhappy editor at the journal quit, Retraction Watch has learned.

26.02.2026 18:27 — 👍 23    🔁 12    💬 0    📌 2
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Enhanced Games - Wikipedia

TIL that there is a thing called the Enhanced Games, where athletes are explicitly encouraged to take performance-boosting drugs.

Perhaps we need the Journal of Enhanced Papers. People could pay to put their AI slop and paper mill stuff in there, and leave us out of it.

cc @jsmoliga.bsky.social

23.02.2026 16:29 — 👍 7    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Exclusive: Unrest at Wiley journal whose EIC is cited in more than half of its papers Timothy Lee (center) of Macau University of Science and Technology was named editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Tourism Research in 2023. On Feb. 18, a researcher in Italy sent a disgr…

Exclusive: Unrest at Wiley journal whose EIC is cited in more than half of its papers retractionwatch.com/2026/02/26/e...

27.02.2026 06:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

If you would like to help put pressure on the @royalsociety.org to finally take meaningful action on this issue, you can politely decline their requests for your labour (eg invitations to review or to sit on their editorial boards or grant panels), and refer to the arguments in this blogpost.

13.02.2026 08:55 — 👍 16    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 0
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La cattiva scienza e la sua diffusione YouTube video by ReteGARR

La cattiva scienza e la sua diffusione. www.youtube.com/live/mKitu7N...

12.02.2026 17:59 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Prossima settimana a Firenze a parlare di riforma dell'università.

31.01.2026 09:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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European Citizens' Initiative Give your support !

eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/#...

30.01.2026 09:52 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’

Fascinating piece about how the fear of microplastics is almost certainly overblown.

One takeaway for me is that even the scientists behind the microplastics=bad papers are VERY reserved about whether these findings are really problematic.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

14.01.2026 01:51 — 👍 44    🔁 12    💬 6    📌 0

Every western country on earth is currently both (A) hollering about the need to free people from authoritarian governments and (B) gradually making it illegal to criticize the state of Israel.

13.01.2026 18:41 — 👍 213    🔁 91    💬 7    📌 2
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A Stock-Flow Framework for Editorial Board Dynamics: The Case of Economics Journals, 1866-2019 Research on the editorial boards of scholarly journals has predominantly relied on static, cross-sectional data, focusing on their composition or interlocking editorships at single points in time. To ...

Editorial power in economics journals has a long history.
We analyze 150+ years of board turnover, stability, and governance with new data & methods.
Big patterns, big change.
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2601.05727
#Economics #ScienceOfScience

12.01.2026 18:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
An Open Letter to the BMJ Editorial Board to: Editor in chief, Kamran Abbasi , kabbasi@bmj.com      Executive editor, Theodora Bloom , tbloom@bmj.com      Head of research, Elizab...

How long should it take to retract a paper with incontrovertible signs of data fabrication? Sleuths think 2 months is too long, particularly when clinical risks are involved. deevybee.blogspot.com/2026/01/an-o...
#retraction #stemcells #cardiology
@erictopol.bsky.social

05.01.2026 09:38 — 👍 70    🔁 32    💬 1    📌 7
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I pericoli dell'uso della bibliometria con dati inquinati La valutazione della ricerca basata sulle metriche viene spesso presentata come una soluzione ai problemi di equità e oggettività. «La bibliometria è per la valutazione della ricerca ciò che la diagno...

A recent blogpost translated into Italian, which makes it sound much more erudite - iniquitous data!
www.roars.it/i-pericoli-d...

17.12.2025 14:11 — 👍 6    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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Bug in Springer Nature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation Millions of researchers could be affected by a “dramatic distortion of citation counts” likely caused by flaws in how the academic publishing giant Springer Nature handles article metadata, accordi…

Bug in Springer Nature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation retractionwatch.com/2025/11/11/b...

11.11.2025 18:12 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Tutto ciò avviene in chiara contraddizione con i principi di libertà di ricerca e insegnamento ancora sanciti dalla Costituzione.

20.10.2025 14:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

La proposta è già stata duramente bocciata dal Consiglio di Stato, che segnala contraddizioni con la legge istitutiva e mette in dubbio la legittimità di molte novità.

20.10.2025 14:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Con la riforma, nomine e attività di valutazione passano sotto l’iniziativa esclusiva del Ministro, riducendo drasticamente l’indipendenza tecnica di ANVUR.

20.10.2025 14:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Valutare e obbedire. Il Governo vuole il controllo totale di ANVUR La proposta di riforma dell'ANVUR rende finalmente evidente ciò che da anni era solo implicito: l’Agenzia è lo strumento con cui il governo attua il controllo centralizzato e indirizza le attività di ...

La proposta di riforma dell’ANVUR rende finalmente evidente ciò che da anni era solo implicito: l’Agenzia è lo strumento con cui il governo attua il controllo centralizzato e indirizza le attività di università e ricerca. www.roars.it/valutare-e-o...

20.10.2025 14:41 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Nel deserto lasciato dalla guerra, l’università deve parlare Fatta — o forse solo dichiarata — la pace, resta il deserto che la guerra ha lasciato. Ora tocca a noi. Alle università spetta la responsabilità più difficile: la ricostruzione culturale, la progettaz...

Nel deserto lasciato dalla guerra, l'università deve parlare www.roars.it/nel-deserto-... @filippobelloc.bsky.social

17.10.2025 06:57 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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“Sneaked references: Fabricated reference metadata distort citation counts” Chosen for 2025 Best JASIST Paper Award The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that “Sneaked references: Fabricated reference metadata distort citation counts,” written by Lonni Besançon, Guil...

Grateful that @lonnibesancon.bsky.social‬, @gcabanac.cpesr.fr, Cyril Labbe and Alexander Magazinov chose to donate the proceeds of their ASIS&T Best Paper Award for 2025 to the @elisabethbik.bsky.social Fund to support the work of sleuths.

More here: centerforscientificintegrity.org/our-projects...

25.08.2025 20:14 — 👍 84    🔁 34    💬 0    📌 1
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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.

Data-visualization researcher @lonnibesancon.bsky.social has faced online abuse, threats and legal challenges. But he remains proud of his service to science and society. He hopes young scientists will get involved in scientific sleuthing: spklr.io/63328BEc6p

24.07.2025 18:41 — 👍 38    🔁 12    💬 1    📌 1
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La finta imparzialità della valutazione: le reti che governano la ricerca italiana Dietro la facciata neutrale delle regole formali, i panel VQR in area economica mostrano legami fitti e opachi, dominati da gruppi accademici vicini all'università Bocconi. L'analisi di rete svela che...

www.roars.it/la-finta-imp...

21.07.2025 10:34 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Con la VQR in corso si è tornati indietro: ANVUR ha ripreso il controllo diretto dei panel, nominando un quarto dei membri, e riaprendo la porta a bias e conformismo. La valutazione della ricerca soffoca il pluralismo e rafforza le gerarchie accademiche consolidate.

21.07.2025 10:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

L’analisi di rete svela che le nomine operate direttamente dai consigli direttivi di ANVUR nelle prime due VQR dettero luogo a strutture chiuse e autoreferenziali, a differenza della terza VQR quando il panel venne sorteggiato.

21.07.2025 10:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
 https://www.roars.it/la-finta-imparzialita-della-valutazione-le-reti-che-governano-la-ricerca-italiana/

https://www.roars.it/la-finta-imparzialita-della-valutazione-le-reti-che-governano-la-ricerca-italiana/

Dietro la facciata neutrale delle regole formali, i panel VQR in area economica mostrano legami fitti e opachi, dominati da gruppi accademici vicini all’università Bocconi.

21.07.2025 10:33 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

AI summaries kill search traffic. This has been an obvious consequence of Google's AI summary strategy since its inception.

Apparently the training data is so valuable that Google is willing to risk the neck of the goose that lays golden eggs.

Screenshot: thebullshitmachines.com/lesson-9-blu...

05.07.2025 07:38 — 👍 422    🔁 168    💬 13    📌 15

How about a podcast on research integrity featuring big names in the field (e.g., @elisabethbik.bsky.social) and, incidentally, yours truly? Go listen to

open.spotify.com/show/2AuVl4w...

24.06.2025 09:24 — 👍 13    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0
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I Lincei premiano Carlo M. Croce. Hanno fatto bene? L'accademia dei Lincei ha da poco assegnato i premi Feltrinelli. Quest'anno il premio Feltrinelli per la medicina, consistente in €100.000, è stato assegnato a Carlo M. Croce. Questa la motivazione: ...

L’accademia dei Lincei ha da poco assegnato i premi Feltrinelli. Quest’anno il premio Feltrinelli per la medicina, consistente in €100.000, è stato assegnato a Carlo M. Croce. Hanno fatto bene? www.roars.it/i-lincei-pre...

23.06.2025 06:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Ajan Reginald, formerly of Celixir infamy, should apply to the FDA. It's a coin toss whether the dynamic duo approve or decline to approve products on any given day. Likely there's special speedy path for packs of lies purporting to be biologics.

20.06.2025 05:35 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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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...

15.06.2025 14:20 — 👍 251    🔁 185    💬 11    📌 21
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Finally out my critical reflection on #CoARA. doi.org/10.1093/rese...
Preprint available here: arxiv.org/abs/2408.05587

12.06.2025 17:03 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0