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Reposted by Michele Avissar-Whiting

Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 2d

New blog post. In which I analyze the new HHMI announcement and what it means for the science publishing ecosystem openrxiv.org/preprint-man...

Preprint mandates gather momentum - openRxiv

By Richard Sever, PhD. Chief Science & Strategy Officer, openRxiv Preprints speed up science by enabling researchers to disseminate reports of new findings immediately. They also represent a simple wa...

openrxiv.org

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Stowers Institute @stowersinstitute.bsky.social · 8d

(Part 1) Hear from @hhmi_news Investigator David Stern about his research program and what he's uncovering in the lab.

Stern will join the Institute in February 2026, bringing his lab and HHMI appointment to Kansas City. @hhmi.org

Read more: bit.ly/4np96Fb

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · 12d

In a world where preprints, and not journal articles, are the focus of assessment, there is a significant incentive to ensure one's preprint is complete.

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · 12d

Feeling profound gratitude for my incredible colleagues and getting to play a part in change that really matters.

With the Immediate Access to Research policy, we are shifting our focus from journal-curated articles toward researcher-shared preprints.

hhmicdn.blob.core.windows.net/policies/Imm...

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Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 14d

"Tylenol can't cause autism, autism came first!"

This is a terrible argument, stop making it. There are GOOD arguments against the claim, but this is obviously missing the point and makes you sound extremely ignorant to anyone who has looked into the issue.

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Reposted by Michele Avissar-Whiting

Elisha Krieg @elishakrieg.bsky.social · 23d

AI can now generate fake microscopy images that are nearly impossible to detect. A serious threat to scientific integrity—and we’re not prepared for it.

Commentary in @natnano.nature.com

#nanotechnology

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · Aug 20

This year, my kid’s school has rolled out a house system a la Harry Potter. The houses are named for constellations: Phoenix, Hydra, Orion, Pegasus, and - wait for it - Draco! 😣 Yes, I know it’s the Dragon but was there no better option?! IYKYK

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · Aug 20

A lovely write-up of our panel at CSE on the Future of Scientific Editing and Publishing
www.csescienceeditor.org/article/the-...

The Future of Scientific Editing and Publishing: Science Editor Symposium - Science Editor

MODERATOR: Jonathan Schultz American Heart Association Editor-in-Chief, Science Editor SPEAKERS: Michele Avissar-Whiting Howard Hughes Medical Institute Chhavi Chauhan American Society for Investigat...

www.csescienceeditor.org

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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Aug 13

FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

Harvard University lays off fly database team

The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Kayla B @queenofthesouth.bsky.social · Aug 13

Dolly Parton has sent my daughter a new book every month for years as she does for thousands of children. She help fund the development of the Covid vaccine. She’s not a billionaire. I think as non wealthy people it’s hard to even imagine how much billionaires *could* be doing with their money.

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · Aug 7

"A system that showcases only the sanitized outcomes of editorial selection gives us just half the picture. We can – and must – aim higher."
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Nature’s decision to publish positive peer review reports only gives half the picture - Impact of Social Sciences

As the journal Nature moves to publish peer review reports for accepted papers, Bodo Stern argues this partial openness falls short of true transparency.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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James Fraser @fraserlab.com · Jul 11

Academia may be a prestige economy but it wasn’t some choice of scientific leadership- we do it to ourselves, every day. Leadership rarely makes tenure criteria too down - it’s a committee of peers that sets it up for institutions. Leadership doesn’t sit on study sections - it’s peers doing it!

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Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · Jul 8

I’m petrified about today’s science news. Genetically modifying crabs to have cheetah genes? This could go sideways fast.

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · Jul 5

Possibly the most worrying part of this story is that the authors using this hack are assuming that reviewers are using LLMs to write their reviews (and they're probably right) 😣
asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tec...

'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

Instructions in preprints from 14 universities highlight controversy on AI in peer review

asia.nikkei.com

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · Jun 29

Coastal tones 😭

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Paolo Crosetto @paolocrosetto.bsky.social · Jun 15

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?

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the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

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

the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io

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Adam Sternbergh @sternbergh.bsky.social · Jun 5

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

Best of Dying Twitter @bestofdyingtwit.bsky.social · Jun 5

“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · Jun 3

Brilliant

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · May 25

It's all so farcical. Nobody could seriously believe that there's some plan here which goes step 1: cancel all foreign student visas at Harvard, step 2: ?????, step 3: increase replication rates in biology. The lie is so transparent as to be insulting.

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · May 25

Government seizure and evisceration of our private universities will do zero to improve replicability in science—who value vastly exceeds “commercial adoption”—or to create Conservative faculty, or to guard civil rights for ANY Americans.

But it will centralize power for himself.

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · May 20

Luddites 🙄🙄

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · May 20

The level of surveillance and policing demanded by transphobia will always be more disruptive to your life than the rights and demands of trans people ourselves

Alexander Brown @alexofbrown.bsky.social · May 20

This is going to be an absolute car crash, the Supreme Court verdict looks more absurd by the day
www.thetimes.com/article/86fb...

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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · May 18

Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · May 15

Just learned of this effort to crowd-source a mega list of examples of benefits to health, prosperity, and national security resulting from federally-funded research. 41 examples listed to date. Please share and send ideas!
publicusaresearchbenefits.com

h/t @carlosbrody.bsky.social

Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.

A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · May 15

Good to know! Should be able to leverage the existing software - expertise can always be brought in!

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Michele Avissar-Whiting @madubs.bsky.social · May 14

Hilda - I read your post (and the one from Feb) and it's still not clear to me why Europe PMC would not take this on. Why not beef up solid infrastructure that already exists instead of building something from scratch?

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