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Paul Whaley

@dangerwhale.bsky.social

130 followers 150 following 430 posts

Research methods' unfettered id. Environmental health. Can't write. Works with words anyway. Editor-in-Chief, Evidence-Based Toxicology. Other stuff too. https://linktr.ee/paulwhaley

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · Jun 14

Authors wanting to send a paper to my journal are asked to "submit" and I think that's absolutely correct, yes.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 21h

It is so annoying how this is happening. The Govt made a dumb decision to class PA as a terrorist organisation. The protests are largely about how dumb that in fact was. Now they are doubling down by making adding to the stupid decision even more draconian measures. Just sliding down that slope. 🤦

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 5d

We agree on that, I was just seeing a few people on Bluesky seeming to think this was the end of PubMed - which people are worried about already.

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 5d

This most likely relates to the Federal shutdown and is not a discontinuation of PubMed, don't panic!

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 5d

Yep, don't panic - this is a federal shutdown notice, not a discontinuation of PubMed. I know we are not all exactly optimistic about the direction of scientific activities and funding under the current US administration but I'm not too worried about PubMed.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 6d

It is literally right there in their code of conduct ffs royalsociety.org/-/media/abou...

Quick skim: items 10, 11, 12, 13, and 20. If you include Grok, 7.

royalsociety.org

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 6d

Huh wot dis is it code of conduct royalsociety.org/-/media/abou...

royalsociety.org

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 6d

Seems consistent enough for a society that has had its fair share of eugenicists. 🤷

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 6d

"I am increasingly concerned over threats to the values that allow science to flourish." Read the full statement from the President of the Royal Society Sir Adrian Smith: royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...

A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society

A statement from the President of the Royal Society regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.

royalsociety.org

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 7d

Apropos uncertainty: the absolute job we have in my field of getting people to understand that low certainty evidence does not mean bad evidence, and that yes you bloody well can do things when you are not certain about the benefits (or harms) I mean jfc you ever heard of opinion polls lol arrrrgggh

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 7d

You can rely on Gordon to take the side of the patient (and sometimes be naive about who he teams up with). What was anyone otherwise expecting from the guy?

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 9d

I think Klein is not able to defend liberalism because he thinks that if society chooses to be illiberal, then that's fine - so long as it does so via an appropriate democratic and participatory process. Which sounds like a weird thing to say, but it feels like he has talked himself into that view.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 10d

His intro to his recent podcast "building the blue scare" had some peculiar and possibly illuminating turns of phrase around McCarthyism and the earlier foundations of the red scare, where it sounds like he thinks it was a politically legitimate movement because of consensus-building and buy-in.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 10d

I should tag @whaleactually.com because he loves this sort of thing

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

I should add, I think it is FANTASTIC that Environmental Health makes reviewer comments available, because while this is clearly an epic screw-up, the mechanism is in place for correcting this error. Let's see if the self-correcting mechanisms of research that we are all so proud kick in...

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

The reviewer comments and author responses are here. Take a look. Paging @twpiggott.bsky.social who may be interested, and thanks to @epiellie.bsky.social for spotting the reviewer comments in her substack about the article. ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Environmental Health

Established in 2002, Environmental Health has an international readership and is rated in the top 25% of journals in this field. It covers primarily original ...

ehjournal.biomedcentral.com

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

I did not realise the reviewer comments are available for the tylenol / autism SR. They are a fantastic case study in how editors can screw up, allowing authors to fake out a revision process because they are not sufficiently experienced to see what is going on and/or empowered to call it out.

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

Stop kinkshaming

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

I should also have shamelessly promoted this fantastic piece of work, where I mansplain everything I think I know about editing that you were afraid to ask. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How we promote rigour in systematic reviews and evidence maps at Environment International

In 2016, Environment International became the first environmental health journal to adopt specialist policies for handling systematic review (SR) subm…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

They didn't rot though.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

Also my god. I had some friends (yes, past tense they all died) who tested their theory that more garlic was always more delicious, made a corned beef hash with twelve bulbs, so we just dug a pit and buried them in that.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

How keen are the victims I mean diners on garlic skin?

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 12d

I have no idea what the recipe calls for specifically, but when I found out I could crush garlic cloves in a garlic crusher *without* having to peel them first I considered it a life-changing moment. (You can just lift the skin out afterward.) Of course, if dicing the garlic, different matter.

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 13d

Just wanted to share a really nice poster by @carrieprice.bsky.social and colleagues. As someone who deliberately invited librarians a lot when I was editing systematic reviews, I can vouch for what they add. Specific info about attitudes and priorities is really interesting. osf.io/8khyp

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Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 13d

Wrong!

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 13d

It's just pretend science, it is absolutely ludicrous that this was published in current form.

Paul Whaley @dangerwhale.bsky.social · 13d

3/? 8. Oh look finally the research question. It is ambiguous and vague. 9. No DAGs or other theory for the causal analysis or triangulation approach as far as I can tell. 10. They really are averaging their bias scores my gosh. 11. I have no clue how they got to their conclusion, it's just words.