iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

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Reposted by Brad McFadyen (he/him)

Ed Gibney @edgibney.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

I could not agree with this more.

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Brad McFadyen (he/him) @bjmcfadyen.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Joris Boulo talking about the affects of an inactive lifestyle on one's daily locomotor ability such as navigating crowds. If you are interested in the VR platform used that included collaboration with @anneheleneolivier.bsky.social, come see us.

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Brad McFadyen (he/him) @bjmcfadyen.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Great discussions during and after thanks to all attending

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Brad McFadyen (he/him) @bjmcfadyen.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Thank you Melvyn. I am very honored, especially to receive this from a society so near and dear to my heart.

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ISPGR @ispgr.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Looking forward to seeing you all in a few days time and hearing all about the exciting new work in the areas of posture and gait (and everything between!) #ISPGR2025

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Reposted by Brad McFadyen (he/him)

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Paper is finally up and open access (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...), it's a sequel to an earlier paper where we'd argued that there's not good evidence that pre-publication peer review is a net benefit (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/...). So in this one we suggest an alternative.

Jury Theorems for Peer Review
Marcus Arvan, Liam Kofi Bright, and Remco Heesen

Abstract:

Peer review is often taken to be the main form of quality control on academic research. Usually journals carry this out. However, parts of maths and physics appear to have a parallel, crowd-sourced model of peer review, where articles are posted on the arXiv to be publicly discussed. In this article we argue that crowd-sourced peer review is likely to do better than journal-solicited peer review at sorting articles by quality. Our argument rests on two key claims. First, crowd-sourced peer review will lead on average to more reviewers per article than journal-solicited peer review. Second, due to the wisdom of the crowds, more reviewers will tend to make better judgements than fewer reviewers will. We make the second claim precise by looking at the Condorcet jury theorem as well as two related jury theorems developed specifically to apply to peer review.

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Anna Ciaunica PhD @annaciaunica.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Don’t miss the deadline for this fantastic event in Montreal next Fall ! Deadline extended for early bird registration - May 28 Thank you for having me 😊🙏 iwaiworkshop.github.io @activeinference.bsky.social

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Brain, Body, & Technology Lab @bbt-lab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Humans project tactile sensations from a tool into space, as if part of the body. How? We show tactile feedback is projected into gaze-centered coordinates, offering a framework for tool-based sensory projection. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @lukemillerneuro.bsky.social @pmedendorp.bsky.social

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Journal of Biomechanics @jbiomech.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

😃 A new article published in J Biomech by Bailey et al shows that motor fluctuations in treadmill gait of young adults were characterised by four gait fluctuation phenotypes, interpreted as repeaters, replacers, moderate fluctuators, and mixed fluctuators 👀 buff.ly/BnlohXD #BiomechSky

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David Elfstrom 🍁 @davidelfstrom.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Jeff Douglas reprises his iconic 2000 ad "I am Canadian." with "We are Canadian." youtu.be/1LzhCLzfJFg?...

youtu.be

We are Canadian.

YouTube video by Average Joes

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Reposted by Brad McFadyen (he/him)

Sjoerd Bruijn @smbruijn.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Come to Amsterdam this fall (Oct 8-10) for the International Motor Impairment Conference!

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Reposted by Brad McFadyen (he/him)

Mel Goodale @action-brain.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Really looking forward to discussing the operation of size constancy in visual perception and visually guided action as part of the Psychonomic Society's One World Seminar Series on Feb 26 at 11:15am to 1pm Eastern Time. 🧪🧠 Abstract and registration here. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Psychonomic Society One World Seminar “How big is that bagel? Differences in size constancy for perception and action" by Mel Goodale Time: 11:15am Eastern Time on February 26. There's also a head shot of Mel Goodale, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

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Jonathan A. Michaels @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Old school cool

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Journal of Biomechanics @jbiomech.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

😃New article published in J Biomech! "Adapting lateral stepping control to walk on winding paths", by Render et al. 👀 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #journalofbiomechanics #BiomechSky

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Reposted by Brad McFadyen (he/him)

Elmar Kal @elmarkal.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

My colleague Jon Warne and two of our excellent MSc Physiotherapy students are conducting a survey on inclusion health They’re specifically interested in awareness and knowledge of inclusion health groups among health and social workers Completing/sharing the survey would be highly appreciated!

app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk

Awareness of Health and Social Workers on Inclusion Health Groups in the UK

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Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Don't let Elon Musk interfere in our elections. Here is my letter to Elections Canada to protect our electoral process from interference by the X algorithm. www.charlieangus.ca/_files/ugd/5... If you are worried about Musk's extremism please send an email to: Stephane.Perrault@elections.ca

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Science Magazine @science.org · 22/01/2025

“The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating.” scim.ag/40ureTO

scim.ag

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring

Researchers facing

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Brad McFadyen (he/him) @bjmcfadyen.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Sorry "academic" bsky for this politically-based message, but despite the great respect I have for my US colleagues, I am moved after the incoming US president's constant threats directed our way to point out wherever I can that Canada is the TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE! 🇨🇦

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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗲𝘂𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 If you are a statistician, teach statistics, or even just use statistics, this is a highly recommended read. What a horror story which probably most of us know little about. nautil.us/how-eugenics...

nautil.us

How Eugenics Shaped Statistics

Exposing the damned lies of three science pioneers.

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Brad McFadyen (he/him) @bjmcfadyen.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Very cool project. Check it out if looking for a graduate position www.bath.ac.uk/jobs/Vacancy...

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Sjoerd Bruijn @smbruijn.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Just updated my code to stream (acc, gyr, mag, etc) data from your phone to Matlab, so that it also works with newer versions of Android. Want to do some fun measurements with your phone, check it out! github.com/SjoerdBruijn...

github.com

GitHub - SjoerdBruijn/StreamPhoneData: Some matlab scripts to stream sensor data from Android and Iphone to Matlab

Some matlab scripts to stream sensor data from Android and Iphone to Matlab - SjoerdBruijn/StreamPhoneData

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psudingwelllab.bsky.social @psudingwelllab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Recruiting Ph.D. Students!! The Penn State Locomotor Control (LoCo) Lab is actively recruiting highly qualified graduate students interested in starting in Fall (Aug) 2025 to study the biodynamics and motor control of human walking.

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Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 30/10/2024

Want to make beautiful scientific figures? Easy! The NIH released a library of 2000+ free scientific illustrations called *BioArt*. Check it out! bioart.niaid.nih.gov #AcademicSky #PsychSciSky 🧠🟦 🧪

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