iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Eric Schares

James Balamuta @coatless.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

webrarian is a new R package. It turns a folder of R scripts and data into a static website where R runs in the visitor's browser, with no compute server and nothing to install. blog.thecoatlessprofessor.com/posts/introd... #rstats #webr #webassembly

A card for the R package webrarian. Large text reads "A folder in. A website out." On the left, a small card lists a folder named lab-01 holding lab.R, setup.R and a data folder. A red arrow points from it to a browser window that shows a scatterplot of car weight against miles per gallon with brick-red points. The address coatless-wasm.github.io/webrarian is on the card.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"This opens a real opportunity to say plainly what the biggest commercial publishers have spent decades obscuring: publisher fees are not required to ensure public access in the first place....there is no cost to comply with a public access mandate." #AcademicPublishing

thehill.com

End the false choice of expensive research fees

Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC, argues that the Office of Management and Budget should clarify that researchers can satisfy federal public access mandates by depositing manuscripts in …

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm sure someone has already made this observation, but now I have too.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

European buildings index like Python (start at 0), US buildings start at 1 like R.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Aw nuts you’re right, I did mean 12,540 unique journals.Thanks!

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Sounds more like he’s auditioning for the new James Bond but pretty nervous about it.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Presented a #DAG poster at the STI 2026 conference in Antwerp. Good discussions about causal modeling and journal prices.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Kinda like how NUTS was named after Alfred P. Nutzenheimer, then later became No U-Turn Sampler /s

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Wow, an appreciation post for #OATP. I go through the OATP Primary every day, and most of what I end up reading comes to me through there. I am always amazed at the breadth and depth of things tagged. I truly don't know how he finds it all. I'm sorry to hear this. Thank you @petersuber.bsky.social.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

It's a great question. Would require a centralized and complete registry of such agreements (the ESAC Registry is a good start but voluntary), or more metadata information on each article about who paid and how much. esac-initiative.org/about/transf...

esac-initiative.org

ESAC Registry of Open Publishing Agreements – ESAC Initiative

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Indirectly, it does. Authors covered by a Read & Publish agreement may not personally pay APCs, but those costs are still paid by someone - in this case, by the library who negotiates and pays APCs as part of these large agreements. So they are still costs borne by the global academic community.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Please do! I had toyed with the idea of making the APC dataset into an R package, but then ran out of steam.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

This analysis combined OpenAlex journal-year article counts with an accompanying APC dataset that's free and open for your reuse. Tracking 2,540 unique journals across 14 publishers and seven years, for 69,856 journal-year combinations. doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

doi.org

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

We include graphs to break down patterns by publisher, OA type, and year, and again look at APCs listed/offered vs. APCs chosen/paid.

Line charts of Fully OA vs. Hybrid by publisher, across years

Violin plots of APCs listed vs. paid, by publisher

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

🚨Update: Our analysis of global APC expenditure has now been expanded to cover more publishers (7 -> 14) and more years (2019-2025). We estimate $15B in APCs paid over seven years, $3.7B in 2025 alone. Elsevier crosses the $1B threshold by itself in 2025. arxiv.org/abs/2608.16322 #ScholComm

Line chart showing 5 biggest publishers from 2019-2025

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Interesting study! Possible error on the Science slide: 2.4% should be the 17.4% you quote (11845 / 68047)?

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I suspect it depends heavily on the state. Wife is a MS teacher here in Iowa if that helps.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

That data may work for some situations, but not here. It is voluntary, anonymized, and closed (pay to view). The APC information within the tool is distributions of list prices, the same as we have. Since revenue is anonymized it can't break down by publisher, journal title, or other facets.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Did you present some of this at the STI conference in 2023 (Leiden) or 2024 (Berlin)? I remember your uncovering the Seaborn plotting bug.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Choose the pot with setwd() or here::here?

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

...which was the inspiration for a paper on normalization I'm collaborating on!

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The six-author part was clever and very interesting to me. I can understand collaborations, but 73% of the submissions with exactly six? Seems like open slots for sale.

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Reposted by Eric Schares

Jeffrey Brainard @jeffreybrainard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Hundreds of ads by #papermills, offering authorship on scientific articles for a fee, wound up published in conference proceedings. Are these venues a back-door route that’s too easy? #scicomm #retractions #peerreview @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Hundreds of paper-mill papers peddled in ads were later published

More than one-fifth of some IEEE conferences’ papers appear linked to authorship for sale

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Welcome to the Tummy Time Gym, where every day is neck day.

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Reposted by Eric Schares

Bianca Kramer @msphelps.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Collective action for open research information: ORION-DBs starts a new @force11.bsky.social working group to coordinate amongst providers and explore alternatives to proprietary cloud systems Join the public webinar on Sept 4 2026 15:00-16:15 CEST www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

universiteitleiden.nl

Toegang geblokkeerd / Access Blocked

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Reposted by Eric Schares

Juan Pablo Alperin @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca · 03/08/2026

1/ In 2024, I filed a false claims act lawsuit against Elsevier, Springer, Wiley & Informa alleging they systematically overcharged US federal grants for article processing. The gov declined to intervene and now it's public. Some thoughts on what this is, and what it isn't:

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Reposted by Eric Schares

Retraction Watch @retractionwatch.com · 01/08/2026

A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Informa of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges.

retractionwatch.com

Federal lawsuit accuses four major publishers of extorting article processing charges

iStock A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses four major publishers of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges…

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

If you "liked" that one, we are very close to publishing an update hopefully in August. Expanding to cover more publishers and more years. Spoiler: it's more money now!

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Reposted by Eric Schares

Howie Hua @howiehua.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

It's Mental Math Monday! If Eric can type 36 words in 24 seconds, how many words can he type in one minute? Please share your thought process in the comments. @eschares.bsky.social

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Reposted by Eric Schares

Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Very happy to announce I'm a top three finalist in this week's New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest! You can vote through July 12 if you feel so inclined. You do need an account to vote. I also made finals back in June 2009, but placed second that time. www.newyorker.com/cartoons/con...

Cartoon of two turtles, one with a soccer ball shell and satellite dish. Three possible captions: It's really popular across the pond; I have no idea what's going on, I just like to watch them run; I'm headed to the 2030 games.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Case in point: “apple salad” Green apples, whipped cream, and Snickers bars

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

“Yes, I’d like some ranch topping, please.”

Inglorious Basterds three finger gesture scene

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I guess *topping* is also acceptable, but in practice would immediately out you.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Maybe an elaborate buffet metaphor. If you have all these great options, why limit yourself and choose one? Could get the Gregory Corso quote in there. “If you have a choice of two things and can’t decide, take both.”

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I met the real Lightning McQueen. From the movies. The actual one they used. He’s real.

Red Lightning McQueen car behind velvet ropes, me in shirt and khakis gesturing and smiling

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Agree the APC level (or lack therof) should be more prominently displayed in any of the posts around this launch. The following was posted to a listserv. $0 for the first two years, TBD after that.

For the first two years of operation, there will be no article processing charges of any kind, removing all financial barriers to publication. Beyond that period, the association will strive to keep costs as low as possible and to offer waivers for submissions from the Global South

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Bought an electric car this week, a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5. We're calling it The Spaceship. I have never experienced Fahrvergnügen until now.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Click through to watch the video. It's every bit as uncomfortable as it deserves to be.

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Researchers starting to realize the days of publishing wherever they want may be over. "the journals I used to recommend are now unaffordable. Why should I pay $8,810..simply bc the publisher has refused to allow zero-embargo (immediate) access to my peer-reviewed paper as req'd by federal policy?"

statnews.com

We published in Nature Medicine in 2025 for free. In 2026, it cost us $12,850

In 2025, Elizabeth Selvin and her colleagues published in Nature Medicine for free. In 2026, it cost them $12,850, she writes.

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