Joel Pick
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joelpick.bsky.social
Joel Pick
@joelpick.bsky.social
Evolutionary ecologist and open science advocate. Interested in social evolution, population dynamics, statistics, and open science. Parent x2. Incompetent but enthusiastic naturalist
Reposted by Joel Pick
Higher education is one of the UK's most important exports. This policy would cripple many of the UK's leading universities. It's equivalent to slaughtering the goose that lays the golden eggs.
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 24, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Well, this is depressingly accurate...
I guess for some people, junior scientists are like eggs. If you have a dozen, you can break most of them because you only need a couple to produce an omelet.
November 23, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Are you a fan of Python, geological data and digital twins? 🐍🪨🌐
Apply to join us in the Earth Surface Process Modelling section at @gfz.bsky.social as a scientific programmer! Deadline is 14th December
Scientific programmer (f_m_x) - Integrating Databases into Digital Twin - GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung
GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung looks for Scientific programmer (f_m_x) - Integrating Databases into Digital Twin in Potsdam - apply now!
www.academics.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
📣Job vacancy!📣

Research Fellow in Global Conservation at Leeds, working with Dave Williams (and me, a bit) to assess the impact of conservation initiatives on biodiversity, carbon, and people: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

#ConservationScience 🌍
Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Research Fellow in Global Conservation
Salary: Grade 7 (£41,064 – £48,822 p.a. depending on experience) This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for it to be undertaken in a hybrid manner. We are also open to discussing...
jobs.leeds.ac.uk
November 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
The second paper of my PhD came out in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social:

We assessed approaches for meta-analyses with dependent effect sizes and sampling errors 🔍 doi.org/10.1111/2041...

This is especially relevant for ecologists and evolutionary biologists planning to conduct a meta-analysis.
Modelling approaches for meta‐analyses with dependent effect sizes in ecology and evolution: A simulation study
In ecology and evolution, meta-analysis is an important tool to synthesise findings across separate studies and identify sources of heterogeneity. However, ecological and evolutionary data often e...
doi.org
November 13, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Our paper on improving statistical reporting in psychology is now online 🎉

As a part of this paper, we also created the Transparent Statistical Reporting in Psychology checklist, which researchers can use to improve their statistical reporting practices

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
November 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Microevolutionary consequences of social structure in wild spotted hyenas
doi.org/10.32942/X2Z...
November 15, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
If you’ve ever attempted a meta-analysis, you’ll know that authors generally do a poor job reporting statistics. If you do this well, you’ll improve your chances of your work being included in a future meta-analysis.
Our paper on improving statistical reporting in psychology is now online 🎉

As a part of this paper, we also created the Transparent Statistical Reporting in Psychology checklist, which researchers can use to improve their statistical reporting practices

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
November 15, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
No no no begs every archivist. You are never going to be able to find anything. Please don’t start using emojis in file names. Who asked for this? What fresh hell is next?
November 12, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Are you involved in ecological forecasting or prediction in Europe?
We’re mapping forecasting applications across the continent — from SDMs to observatories with predictive potential.
Submit here 👉 euro-ecoforecast.wordpress.com/forecasting-...
#EcologicalForecasting #EEFI #OpenScience
November 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Come and join us here in Cambridge! Applications open for a new faculty position, for a researcher in computational and/or theoretical biology, based jointly in Genetics and Mathematics. Happy to answer questions about research, teaching and working here.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/faculty...
Faculty Position in Computational Biology
Applications are invited for an Assistant/ Associate Professorship in Computational Biology to commence on 1 April 2026 or shortly thereafter. This is a joint post between the Department of Applied
www.cam.ac.uk
November 11, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
What expert editors do is they assess information and critically discard* bad information. They can get it wrong, sure. But they're a hell of a lot better than the average take on a scientific study. Their value proposition is clear, and we need journals.

They should just be non-profit.

7.5/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
The one thing journals can do to add to scientific conversation is to provide expert assessment. I'm really not sure when AI will be able to meaninfully contribute to that conversation. It sure ain't now, and intrinsic limits of how we train AI, and what we train it on, make me skeptical.

7.4/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
But let's make sure those journals are owned by and serve the interests of the scientific community and funding bodies paying for the research.

One thing AI can do is copyediting. If @openrxiv.bsky.social added a glossy PDF generator, journals are left with one job: quality control.

7.3/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
We authors all have nuanced views on this topic.

A tangent: journals DO add value to the system. But there is absolutely no reason that for-profit journals should exist. You can already pay EiCs $500k salaries at non-profits. Why would we allow journals to skim even more off the top?

7.1/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Because everything is shit, I give you ... Puggles. #Platypus #AustralianWildlife
November 9, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇
shorturl.at/WA1Qa

Would appreciate a re-post!

@evoldir.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
I'd like to re-up this paper we published last year bec I believe it makes a fundamental contribution to theoretical metascience but it is woefully underappreciated. We address a key challenge in estimating the reproducibility of a result: The distance of a replication study from the original. 1/n
November 5, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
🚨 Come join the fantastic long-tailed tit team 🚨
🐦We are recruiting a field technician to collect behavioural data on a long-term studied population of wild long-tailed tits (passerine birds).
🪶20 months contract in Sheffield, UK.
🌲Deadline: 23/11/2025.
jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Technici...
November 5, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
📣 Save the date for the 13th PCI webinar on December 1st, 2025, at 4 PM CET!! Simine Vazire (University of Melbourne, Australia) will present "Recognizing and responding to a replication crisis: Lessons from Psychology". For more details and registration, visit: buff.ly/wZNoD2v
PCI Webinar Series - Peer Community In
The PCI webinar series is a series of seminars on research practices, publication practices, evaluation, scientific integrity, meta-research, organised by Peer Community In
peercommunityin.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Joel Pick
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
Note to folks getting into meta-analysis... when extracting data from studies extract it EXACTLY as reported by the authors. Don't do any calculations outside of analysis scripts. This means have a column for units, mean/median/SD/SE/IQR/lower range/upper range or whatever else you might need...
October 29, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Joel Pick
1-11% success rates for arts, humanities, and social science grant applications in the UK. What a monumental waste of time and energy.
Given that people is asking me for the numbers, here the table provided by UKRI:
October 27, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Interesting webinar this afternoon from @sortee.bsky.social!
Still time to register!!!
Happy to announce the next edition of the @sortee.bsky.social Workshop & Webinar series on October 27 at 16:00UTC, ‘The Risks and Rewards of Large Language Models in (open) Scientific Research’ with @tanyadoesscience.bsky.social !! Sign up here:
events.humanitix.com/sortee-webin...
SORTEE Webinar: The Risks and Rewards of Large Language Models in (Open) Scientific Research
SORTEE Workshop & Webinar Series
events.humanitix.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:06 PM