Dan Brockington | Lightnews

Robin (she/he-ella/él) @merryrobin.bsky.social · 9d

I loved learning that she loved nature so much she would carry all those haevy clothes to get there

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 9d

Is it just me, or is this video about the wonderful artist Julie Hart Beers incredibly skillful - tender and intimate like the artist herself.

youtube.com/shorts/66hsv...

@metmuseum.org @merryrobin.bsky.social @artherstory.bsky.social @womensart.bsky.social @annaplesset.bsky.social

A Closer Look: “Ducks in the Woods” (1875) by Julie Hart Beers

YouTube video by The Met

youtube.com

ICTA-UAB @icta-uab.bsky.social · 9d

Un estudio señala que las grandes editoriales científicas priorizan su beneficio frente a la ciencia.

Liderado por el investigador del ICTA-UAB @danbrockington.bsky.social

exitoeducativo.net/un-analisis-...

#BraveSienceForAChangingWorld

Un estudio señala que las grandes editoriales científicas priorizan su beneficio frente a la ciencia - ÉXITO EDUCATIVO

Las cuatro principales editoriales, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley y Taylor & Francis, generaron más de 7.100 millones de dólares en ingresos solo

exitoeducativo.net

Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 10d

Intense discussion with The Drain authors today about where to submit Part II.. And somehow @lariviev.bsky.social launched the idea of hockey jerseys?! Thanks for your service, ChatGPT. @danbrockington.bsky.social @hansonmark.bsky.social @stephenpinfield.bsky.social @aileenfyfe.bsky.social

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 10d

Here's a really useful blog exploring the difficulties, but pre-eminent need, of taking back control over scientific publishing.

shorturl.at/dNYCV

Understand the Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Stop the Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820

The drain of science: a call for action and the bridges we burned

Commercial academic publishing oligopolies are draining science. Beigel et al. (2025) call for community control, but the Lithuanian case shows this is difficult after dismantling domestic journal pub...

shorturl.at

ICTA-UAB @icta-uab.bsky.social · 23d

La ciencia bajo el control de las grandes editoriales

Un estudio del ICTA-UAB liderado por @danbrockington.bsky.social revela cómo el sistema de publicación científica prioriza ganancias frente al avance del conocimiento y la integridad académica.

digitum-um.blogspot.com/2025/12/la-c...

La ciencia bajo el control de las grandes editoriales

El dominio de las publicaciones científicas en el Norte Global por parte de las grandes editoriales comerciales es perjudicial para la ciencia.

digitum-um.blogspot.com

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 23d

Funders ‘hold all the cards’ to reform publishing, say academics.

Paper urges structural changes to stop “drain” of research resources by for-profit publishers.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-o...

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 23d

There are three more days to submit your ideas for papers to #POLLEN2026 panels. The last day is 5th December. We will not be extending the deadline.

Here is the link to send in your submission:
tinyurl.com/yumc2tsx

Call for presentations & posters - POLLEN

The call for presentations and posters is now open until 23:59 CET on Friday 5th December. Before proposing anything, please read the conference rationale & purpose, the rules below, and then browse t...

tinyurl.com

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 23d

The best thing to do next April has suddenly become a lot clearer. Looks like a wonderful gathering.

Bram Büscher @brambuscher.bsky.social · 24d

Please consider joining our 2026 Political Ecology spring school!

Planetary Political Ecologies: Environmental disasters, conflicts and possibilities in & beyond capitalism

▶️ 13-17 April 2026
▶️ Wageningen

With Annah Zhu, Erik Swyngedouw, Sumit Vij & others!

wass.crs.wur.nl/courses/deta...

WASS Courses

Prof. Bram Büscher (Wageningen University) Prof. Robert Fletcher (Wageningen University) Prof. Erik Swyngedouw (Manchester University) Dr. Annah Zhu (Wageningen University) Dr. Sumit Vij (Wageningen University)

wass.crs.wur.nl

Bram Büscher @brambuscher.bsky.social · 24d

Please consider joining our 2026 Political Ecology spring school!

Planetary Political Ecologies: Environmental disasters, conflicts and possibilities in & beyond capitalism

▶️ 13-17 April 2026
▶️ Wageningen

With Annah Zhu, Erik Swyngedouw, Sumit Vij & others!

wass.crs.wur.nl/courses/deta...

WASS Courses

Prof. Bram Büscher (Wageningen University) Prof. Robert Fletcher (Wageningen University) Prof. Erik Swyngedouw (Manchester University) Dr. Annah Zhu (Wageningen University) Dr. Sumit Vij (Wageningen University)

wass.crs.wur.nl

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 25d

This is potentially significant. The CNRS are one of the best in the world. Reliance on metrics controlled by private companies is a problem for science. We need the powerful organisatios to take the lead.

Understand the strain: tinyurl.com/2b6wxx5r
Stop the drain: tinyurl.com/3jfscscy

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 25d

I was so glad to hear about this project and workshop. This would be my dream ERC project.

ERC Ocean Crime Narratives @ocn-uib.bsky.social · 25d

🌊 Exciting news!
We’re thrilled to announce that several of our international keynote speakers have now been confirmed for the upcoming conference "Seas of consequences: Social and Natural Science Narratives on Environmental Harm and Crime at sea". Meet the speakers at: ocn.uib.eu/conference-p...

ERC Ocean Crime Narratives @ocn-uib.bsky.social · 25d

🌊 Exciting news!
We’re thrilled to announce that several of our international keynote speakers have now been confirmed for the upcoming conference "Seas of consequences: Social and Natural Science Narratives on Environmental Harm and Crime at sea". Meet the speakers at: ocn.uib.eu/conference-p...

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 25d

I know of few people who get the economics of scientific publishing better than @paolocrosetto.bsky.social This thread on the incentives that are driving bad publishing practice is golden.

For the darkly funny side of this see:
the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

Paolo Crosetto @paolocrosetto.bsky.social · 26d

Since AI slop is again all over Scientific Reports, a thread on the economics of grey-zone publishing.

Why does slop keep getting published? What does it mean for science? How can we stop this?

Background readings:
Understand the strain: tinyurl.com/2b6wxx5r
Stop the drain: tinyurl.com/3jfscscy

An obviously AI-generated figure with AI slop and fake text all over it, recently published in Scientific Reports.

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 28d

This morning was particularly beautiful. Be warned, its a 5 minute video and too big a file to add to a skeet. Sunup 2 mins in.

youtu.be/fuZFqNAbhdc

dawn 28 nov

YouTube video by Dan Brockington

youtu.be

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 28d

Here's a typically thoughtful piece from
@anotherbobsmith.bsky.social: the push to generate prioritisations stems from not understanding how they become effective. Are journal editors also culpable, as they have lapped up lots of this science. Why did they think it might help? shorturl.at/Of5h3

Twenty-five years of misinterpreting the biodiversity hotspot approach - Nature Ecology & Evolution

A quarter of a century after its publication, the biodiversity hotspot concept remains one of the most cited and influential frameworks in conservation science. But its real-world impact is poorly doc...

shorturl.at

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 29d

Many thanks for this fascinating discussion

Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 29d

Yay, our first podcast citation @danbrockington.bsky.social @paolocrosetto.bsky.social et al.
They discuss The Drain starting at minute 33:20 in the context of a protein science journal published by Wiley and also mention @elife.bsky.social. It's introduced as "almost an economics paper" :D

Stephanie Wankowicz @stephanieaw.bsky.social · Nov 24

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 29d

Yay, our first podcast citation @danbrockington.bsky.social @paolocrosetto.bsky.social et al.
They discuss The Drain starting at minute 33:20 in the context of a protein science journal published by Wiley and also mention @elife.bsky.social. It's introduced as "almost an economics paper" :D

Stephanie Wankowicz @stephanieaw.bsky.social · Nov 24

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Episode 9: I Can Do It With a Broken Grant Cycle

Podcast Episode · The Tortured Proteins Department · 11/23/2025 · 1h 1m

podcasts.apple.com

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Nov 26

@geofrancismasse.bsky.social I gather you are cold. Come here for a swim. You will feel warm and invigorated.

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Nov 26

Another beautiful dawn. Air a but cold, but the water is warm. I think you can see water vapour in the air low over the sea when the air is that much colder than the sea is.

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Nov 23

One of the great things about Barcelona - working with the @pollenetwork.bsky.social secretariat: Laila, Ele, Rebecca and Blanket (the cat). Here planning POLLEN comms up the coast in Masnou. We will be recruiting one more person to this team.

LSE Blogs @lseblogs.bsky.social · Nov 21

Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science

@danbrockington.bsky.social @aileenfyfe.bsky.social @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca for @lseimpactblog.bsky.social

Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science - Impact of Social Sciences

Have the interests of commercial publishers now become antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge?

blogs.lse.ac.uk

Ted Meissner @tedmeissner.bsky.social · Nov 20

"The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science..."

arxiv.org/pdf/2511.04820

#science #peerreview #scientificmethod #scientificpublishing

arxiv.org

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Nov 20

Am in Leeds for a viva and am so lucky to catch the Peninnes in a cold snap. Glorious orange and pink clouds and views from the train this morning.

walkhighlands @walkhighlands.co.uk · Nov 19

First proper snowy woodland walk of the winter. Magic.

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Nov 20

Where do they all go? Surely the building has to fill up with spoons at some point.

Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · Nov 20

70 teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute & observed weekly over 5 months. 80% of spoons disappeared; spoon halflife~81 days. Communal room halflife lower than in specific labs. 250 spoons annually required to maintain 70 spoon population.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute

Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting Research institute ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · Nov 20

This blog summarises the crippling intellectual and scholarly consequences of the financial drain of commercial scientific publishing.

Builds on earlier work on strain and oligopoly of publishing:

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: bit.ly/StrainQSS
Oligopoly: bit.ly/OligSciPub

Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · Nov 20

70 teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute & observed weekly over 5 months. 80% of spoons disappeared; spoon halflife~81 days. Communal room halflife lower than in specific labs. 250 spoons annually required to maintain 70 spoon population.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute

Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting Research institute ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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