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Ultimately we don't have the option in the UK if we're university academic staff since our managers are highly motivated by the REF 2029.ref.ac.uk and if we are not generating "outputs" (journal papers) we will start having to have some very awkward conversations.

2029.ref.ac.ukand

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That said, the current state of academic publishing is utterly appalling. This is the contents slide for a talk I recently did on the subject for our PhD students.

A screenshot of a slide from a talk. The title is "Academic publishing". There is a picture of an agricultural muck spreader throwing out manure. The bullet points read:
*The current shitshow
*How did we get into this mess? - For-profit academic publishing -Open-access: the dream and its subversion - Predatory journals - Paper mills and fraud
* Case study: STOTEN
* Science is self correcting isn't it?
* What you can do

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2) Peer review, at least in my field, is mostly positive and improves papers. I'm working on a paper right now where reviewers' suggestions have greatly improved the model and will mean that the final paper is considerably better.

Disagree for two reasons. 1) I've spent a goodly chunk of my career editing journals at various levels and seen the amount of low-quality rubbish that we filter out so you don't have to make the same assessment.

Vincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍 @devoevomed.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Reposted by Rob Knell

I've said it before, and will say it again –– preprint and done.

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Reposted by Rob Knell

Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The fallout from the collapse of this glacier - a torrent of mud surging down the valley - killed hundreds of people. Gone, in a flash. Those people were wiped out by anthropogenic climate change. Our governments are simply not responding quickly enough to this disaster which is already upon us.

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Rob Knell @robknell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

As any fool knows, the arithmetic mean is affected disproportionately by extreme outliers. Thus, the mean worth of humanity has just decreased by a small but measurable amount. RIP Dolly www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

bbc.co.uk

Dolly Parton, legendary US country singer, dies aged 80

In a statement confirming her death, the singer's team says she will be remembered as an "inspiration" and for her "wit, warmth, and kindness".

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Reposted by Rob Knell

Martin Whiting @lizardlab.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

New PhD opportunities in behavioural ecology at the University of Tasmania and Macquarie University working with Geoff While and Martin Whiting plus multiple international collaborators on lizard sociality and communication. Please spread the word! #phd

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Rob Knell @robknell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

People will you please stop publishing interesting papers that I’m going to have to spend time reading. I’ve got risk assessments to write, damnit.

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Rob Knell @robknell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Rutland Osprey Project has just announced that *24* chicks have fledged this year from 12 nests. 24! Here is one of the proud Dads (NB I have posted this photo before). #birds #ukbirds #ukwildlife

An Osprey flies left-to-right against a background of dark vegetation. The bird is holding a fish in its talons and there is water dripping from both fish and bird.

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Fair point, and the numbers you’ve posted are convincing: but IMO the people I’ve pointed out are ultimately responsible for enabling him and putting him in the position where he then became such an easy target.

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Have you seen the plagiarism in the thesis? It’s not a few phrases or sentences. I’ve sat on a few academic misconduct boards and we would have come down on this one like a ton of bricks.

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Because they failed in their duty to uphold academic standards he continued in his fantasist career when they could have stopped it and got him the help he needed.

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They gave him a PhD when they should not have done and they failed to take action when the very serious problems with it were reported to them.

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This is total bollocks. The amount of plagiarism in the thesis was massive and I am pretty confident that if I did it I would lose my job.

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They did not find zero evidence of plagiarism, they decided that the plagiarism in the thesis was within academic norms or some equal weasel words.

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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

You have a point but it doesn’t in any way mean that the senior staff at Cambridge and LJMU who are responsible for this shitshow are blameless.

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Reposted by Rob Knell

Trump and RFK Jr need to shut up about MMR vaccine. WELL SAID, Christina Pagel! christinapagel.substack.com/p/trump-and-...

christinapagel.substack.com

Trump and RFK Jr need to shut up about the MMR vaccine

A reminder of how terrible these diseases used to be

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Yeah. I read the article to that point and nope-d out straight away from that obvious bullshit.

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Talking of Cambridge and EDI, they require further maths a-level for entry to maths, thereby automatically excluding a substantial percentage of kids who go to comprehensive schools, many of which don’t offer further maths. They talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk.

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Jason Arday found dead after resigning from Cambridge over plagiarism claims

There must be a reckoning for this. The senior staff at Cambridge who exploited this obvious fantasist and who, when alerted to the issue, deflected, denied and threatened instead of dealing with the problem need to answer for their actions. #Arday www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Academic was pronounced dead at his home in south London after police called to address after 3pm on Friday

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Known arsonist, don’t want to alert him to current fire risks?

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Hmmm. Maybe. I think a lot of us underestimate the proportion of people who simply never read the news and would genuinely be unaware of this. Anyone in doubt is welcome to come and chat to some of my students.

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Schmidt Ocean Institute @schmidtocean.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I’m sorry you had to see that.

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Reposted by Rob Knell

This is a deep-sea isopod. Dr. Johanna Weston, a deep-ocean biologist and guest investigator at @whoi.edu, is confident this is Bathyopsurus nybelini, one of her favorite animals. Learn why via the YouTube caption: youtube.com/shorts/DenUj...

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This should put you off for life.

A nausea-inducing emoji of a yellow blob sadly hugging a heart.

So much better than that nausea-inducing "sad hug" button on Facebook.