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Pablo Gómez Barreiro

@pagomba.bsky.social

1.4K followers 230 following 220 posts

🌱 Seeds |🌿 Plants |📜Academic publishing Most limited of all specialists. Infamous bibliometrician. Amateur photographer of tiny things 📷🔬. 👨‍💻 Too much R. Proud father of #MDPIexploreR. 📈 Surfing the strain: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00327

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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Nov 22

Our recently peer-reviewed paper on the current Strain on Scientific Publishing is covered by The @economist.com today.
I'm not surprised by Frontiers and MDPI continuing to champion the virtues of rapid publishing. 🧪
www.economist.com/science-and-...

QSS paper here: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever

Concerns about some of their business models are building

www.economist.com

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks @iansample.bsky.social at @theguardian.com podcast for chatting #ScientificPublishing.

This pod follows from The Strain on Scientific Publishing & reports of publisher profit margins rivalling Google etc...

Paper: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Pod: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Fraud, AI slop and huge profits: is science publishing broken?

Podcast Episode · Science Weekly · 02/10/2025 · 18m

podcasts.apple.com

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

BSBI Cymru / Wales @bsbicymru.bsky.social · 15d

Very different looking seeds between Drosera anglica (gwlithlys mawr / great sundew) and D intermedia (gwlithlys hirddail / oblong-leaved sundew). In the hybrid between D anglica and D rotundifolia the seed pods don’t really open and the seeds are just soft pale brown bits. #sundews #drosera

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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · 8d

If you’re planning to submit to #MDPI, is it even worth posting a preprint first—since the paper could be out in ~37 days anyway? Genuine question.
Also, do we know which journals most preprints from preprints.org eventually end up in?

Sebastian Samwald (Basti) he/him @samwalds.bsky.social · 8d

Okay, so how are people feeling about MDPI having their own preprint server (www.preprints.org)?
I'm assuming they are doing it as a direct competition to bioRxiv/arXiv and to allow even more direct funnelling of preprints towards their paper publication pipelines? 🤔

www.preprints.org

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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · 11d

🍄 It’s emoji season 🍄

Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · Sep 4

Hey #AcademicSky, have you guest edited a special issue for any Frontiers journals?

I'm curious what sort of proposal form is given to guest editors. The initial proposal page is sparse, so I imagine more "meat" comes later.

If you have, please email/DM me! #ResearchIntegrity

Suggest a research topic

www.frontiersin.org

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

New Zealand Geographic @nzgeo.bsky.social · Aug 24

A tiny silly fun thing in the midst of all the chaos... We're on the hunt for a mate for Ned, a 1 in 40,000 left-spiralling snail. www.nzgeo.com/stories/lets...

Let's find a mate for Ned

One in 40,000 snails have the spiral on the left side of the shell, and they can only mate with other lefties. Can you help Ned find true love?

www.nzgeo.com

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Jonas Frei @jdfrei.bsky.social · Aug 28

Medicago seedpods.

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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Aug 15

Do I spot the @rbgkew.bsky.social's Palm House in The Sandman? 🤗

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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Aug 10

Meanwhile, in "Travel to Mars-like Places on Earth: A New Branch of Sustainable Ecotourism in Lut Desert World Heritage Site, Iran" www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15...

Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · Aug 2

Electric Six’s second less successful single

A sign reading: danger! High voltage
A sign underneath reading: danger! Compressed air

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Joaquín Baldwin @joabaldwin.com · Jul 29

This is truly depressing... Look at how they abused these amazing photos by @nickybay.bsky.social ... Everyone needs to be super extra careful when sharing or liking cool/pretty/funny stuff anywhere.

AI Abuse to Skirt Copyright Law - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay

In the past week, a number of prominent nature photographers showed how their photographs were being stolen and mangled into "AI-nonsense", deceiving countless others into believing the made-up storie...

www.nickybay.com

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · Jul 29

Got a letter published in @theguardian.com a couple of weeks ago, which argues that indeed there’s more than enough (taxpayer) money already going into academic publishing. The problem is that it’s often more than one third of it is leaving academia as shareholder profits 💸💸💸

Public Knowledge Project @pkp.sfu.ca · Jul 24

📢 Broken incentives & hijacked #OpenAccess — sound familiar?

@theguardian.com article sparked responses including a powerful one at #ScholCommLab @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca @eschares.bsky.social Leigh-Ann Butler & @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

#AcademicSky

Scientific publishing needs urgent reform to retain trust in research process | Letters

Letters: Readers respond to an article on how too many low-quality papers and journals are being churned out

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Lonni Besançon @lonnibesancon.bsky.social · Jul 26

La haine et véhémence de mes harceleurs (qui prouvent malgré le point exact de l'article) est l'un des premiers moteurs de:
- ma motivation à ne pas flancher face à la mauvaise science
- mais aussi de la réussite de cet article (nature.com/articles/d41...) 🤣
Changez rien :)

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Nature @nature.com · Jul 22

Lonni Besançon faced online abuse, threats and legal challenges in response to his research integrity sleuthing during the COVID-19 pandemic

go.nature.com/4m5DN0X

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.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex @smutclyde.bsky.social · Jul 13

In which a Springer executive bravely speaks up on behalf of the underdog & defends the papermills who want to go on papermilling.

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

James Wilsdon @jameswilsdon.bsky.social · Jul 1

The past, present & future of UK metascience: new paper by me, @ludowaltman.bsky.social @andre-brasil.bsky.social & Ben Steyn

Published yesterday by DSIT as part of the govt’s ‘A Year in Metascience’ report

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685bcd...

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Phil Garnock-Jones @theobrominated.bsky.social · Jul 1

Most flowering plants have two seed leaves (cotyledons), but a large group, the monocotyledons, have only one. This red campion (Silene dioica) seedling is an odd one out of about 100 in having three. It's only a developmental abnormality, but I'll be interested to see what the true leaves do.

Tiny green seedling with three seed leaves, each one about 4 x 2 mm. The stalks of the seed leaves have a few hairs along their edges.

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · Jun 29

I just noticed that the capsules on Dionaea muscipula open to form splash-cups for raindrop dispersal of the tiny, black seeds (known to the cognoscenti as ombrohydrochory). How cool is that?! #Droseraceae #dispersal #ombrohydrochory #carnivorousplant #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of a cyme of small capsules, opened to reveal a sky-facing cluster of tiny, shiny, black seeds.

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Kew Gardens @rbgkew.bsky.social · Jun 24

Tiny orchid seeds, big AI breakthrough! 🌱🤖

We’re training a machine learning model to spot viable orchid seeds - each smaller than a grain of sand - using a simple chemical stain and thousands of microscope images from our Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst 👇 1/3

👉 ow.ly/8q1g50We924

How machine learning can help us conserve orchid seeds

Learn how we are using machine learning to tell us if our orchid seeds in the MSB are still alive, and how this will benefit us in the future.

ow.ly

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Jun 18

Has someone found a good way of getting money out of research? Don't stop it.

Copy it.

APC charges cost billions. MDPI leads with over $1.7bn (est. 2015-2023). Springer-Nature ‘only’ got $1.1bn and so what do they do?

They copy MDPI.

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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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Jun 20

HOROCCO

JAMES HEATHERS @jamesheathers.bsky.social · Jun 20

Wake up, losers - new giant rat testomcelles have just dissilced, and they have truly got their dck out.

If you go to Africa, here are some localities you should avoid:

GUTNED
CLINE LSOGLE
NAOZAWA V
GROSGRIVER

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Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Jun 16

That is the main lesson, there are no winners with lithium chloride :D

Pablo Gómez Barreiro @pagomba.bsky.social · Jun 16

Working with lithium chloride solutions to control relative humidity (niche, we know)? We just published a paper + app for you:

📰 www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ista...

🖥 pagoba.shinyapps.io/LiClcalc/

Use these tools to make, tweak, or mix solutions to hit your RH target.
#seedscience

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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

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?

A 🧵

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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Reposted by Pablo Gómez Barreiro

Martin Jung @martinjung.eu · Jun 11

Academic and still reviewing papers?
Reed this post and consider again if you hear about a journal named 'Discover XXX' asking for your help...

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · Jun 10

New from The Strain Team:
🎊 Springer Nature Discovers MDPI 🎊

Springer Nature has spawned a copycat journal series called "Discover" mimicking #MDPI journal titles and citation behaviours. We even made a browser game to prove it (see 🔗).

Gross! 😀 1/n

#ResearchIntegrity #SciPub #AcademicSky

Spinger 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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