Alejandro Montenegro
@aemonten.bsky.social
Molecular Biologist (aemonten.github.io) 丨Chief Editor @ CSH Protocols (cshprotocols.cshlp.org) 丨Head of the Integrity in Publishing Group at CSHL Press 丨Chair "Molecular Biosystems Conference" (molbiosystems.com) 丨(Oxford) Comma King 丨Central Dogma Police
Pinned
🚀 Another edition of the Molecular Biosystems Conference is in the books! #mbiosys25
Thank you to our amazing speakers, participants, and sponsors, including ICGEB and @unubiolac.bsky.social, for making Puerto Varas a hub of exciting discussions on gene regulation and functional genomics. 🔽
Thank you to our amazing speakers, participants, and sponsors, including ICGEB and @unubiolac.bsky.social, for making Puerto Varas a hub of exciting discussions on gene regulation and functional genomics. 🔽
Thank you all. And we hope to see you again in 2027 for the premier conference on gene regulation in Latin America!
Journal Editors
January 5, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Journal Editors
A study shows that more than half of peer reviewers (53%) now use AI. The reviewers claim using AI mostly to draft reports (59%), summarize findings (29%), or flag potential misconduct (28%).
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/12...
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/12...
January 5, 2026 at 7:04 PM
A study shows that more than half of peer reviewers (53%) now use AI. The reviewers claim using AI mostly to draft reports (59%), summarize findings (29%), or flag potential misconduct (28%).
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/12...
www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/12...
"A New Year’s resolution for researchers: Before asking “Is this publishable?”, ask “Is this worth its environmental cost? Quality over quantity is no longer optional. It is an ecological imperative."
lnkd.in/eqdZXVjf
lnkd.in/eqdZXVjf
January 5, 2026 at 6:10 PM
"A New Year’s resolution for researchers: Before asking “Is this publishable?”, ask “Is this worth its environmental cost? Quality over quantity is no longer optional. It is an ecological imperative."
lnkd.in/eqdZXVjf
lnkd.in/eqdZXVjf
A new issue of CSH Protocols is out! @cshlpress.bsky.social
The cover image highlights the work by Peng and Rader, who describe the use of a pComb3 family phagemid derivative, pC3C, for the generation of chimeric rabbit/human Fab libraries for phage display.
⬇️Links below
The cover image highlights the work by Peng and Rader, who describe the use of a pComb3 family phagemid derivative, pC3C, for the generation of chimeric rabbit/human Fab libraries for phage display.
⬇️Links below
January 5, 2026 at 5:47 PM
A new issue of CSH Protocols is out! @cshlpress.bsky.social
The cover image highlights the work by Peng and Rader, who describe the use of a pComb3 family phagemid derivative, pC3C, for the generation of chimeric rabbit/human Fab libraries for phage display.
⬇️Links below
The cover image highlights the work by Peng and Rader, who describe the use of a pComb3 family phagemid derivative, pC3C, for the generation of chimeric rabbit/human Fab libraries for phage display.
⬇️Links below
January 5, 2026 at 4:52 PM
January 5, 2026 at 2:20 PM
"Medicine journals are less international than journals in other disciplines and do not increase their levels of internationalization, whereas physics journals appear to be segregating between those that are international and those that are not"
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
The evolution of interdisciplinarity and internationalization in scientific journals
Analysis of ~50 million articles published in ~50 thousand journals demonstrates that journals have become more diverse in terms of both interdisciplinarity and internationalization but with some disc...
doi.org
January 5, 2026 at 2:17 PM
"Medicine journals are less international than journals in other disciplines and do not increase their levels of internationalization, whereas physics journals appear to be segregating between those that are international and those that are not"
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Interesting.
"I confess to a belief (...) that the opacity of IF decision making is a blessing in disguise. It’s impossible to fully ‘game’ metrics you don’t know, and can only guess at… Sometimes, a separation of powers, and minimizing transparency, is the best way to keep everyone on their toes"
"I confess to a belief (...) that the opacity of IF decision making is a blessing in disguise. It’s impossible to fully ‘game’ metrics you don’t know, and can only guess at… Sometimes, a separation of powers, and minimizing transparency, is the best way to keep everyone on their toes"
Fiona R. on Journalology
It sounds like a wonderful idea. I do expect that the process of defining the standard itself would be lengthy and contested — given the multiplicity of stakeholders. Yet, for precisely those reasons,...
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Interesting.
"I confess to a belief (...) that the opacity of IF decision making is a blessing in disguise. It’s impossible to fully ‘game’ metrics you don’t know, and can only guess at… Sometimes, a separation of powers, and minimizing transparency, is the best way to keep everyone on their toes"
"I confess to a belief (...) that the opacity of IF decision making is a blessing in disguise. It’s impossible to fully ‘game’ metrics you don’t know, and can only guess at… Sometimes, a separation of powers, and minimizing transparency, is the best way to keep everyone on their toes"
"Here we present the adaptamer (ADAR modulatable aptamer), a compact (<120 bp) RNA switch that couples an FDA-approved small-molecule–responsive aptamer with endogenous ADAR–mediated RNA editing to regulate expression"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Regulatable In Vivo Gene Expression via Adaptamers
Precise, reversible control of transgene expression is essential for safe and durable gene therapy, yet current inducible systems remain difficult to translate in vivo due to large size, limited induc...
www.biorxiv.org
January 5, 2026 at 1:35 PM
"Here we present the adaptamer (ADAR modulatable aptamer), a compact (<120 bp) RNA switch that couples an FDA-approved small-molecule–responsive aptamer with endogenous ADAR–mediated RNA editing to regulate expression"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Day of sending reminders.
January 5, 2026 at 12:01 PM
Day of sending reminders.
I wonder what people prefer...
For people to use AI to help with their writing, to level the field regarding language, or
For everyone to write in their own language, and then we use AI for translation
For people to use AI to help with their writing, to level the field regarding language, or
For everyone to write in their own language, and then we use AI for translation
January 5, 2026 at 11:35 AM
I wonder what people prefer...
For people to use AI to help with their writing, to level the field regarding language, or
For everyone to write in their own language, and then we use AI for translation
For people to use AI to help with their writing, to level the field regarding language, or
For everyone to write in their own language, and then we use AI for translation
And if you can't make it, we at CSH Protocols have put together a collection of reviews and protocols for work on Xenopus! Guest edited by Hazel L. Sive.
Link below.
Link below.
January 4, 2026 at 10:38 PM
And if you can't make it, we at CSH Protocols have put together a collection of reviews and protocols for work on Xenopus! Guest edited by Hazel L. Sive.
Link below.
Link below.
Great. Because pricing based on articles published is always a terrible idea.
Guess what other system was like that, that didn't care about articles published...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-publ...
Guess what other system was like that, that didn't care about articles published...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-publ...
UK publishing deals with ‘big five’ hailed as ‘key milestone’
‘Global first’ agreements break link between pricing and the number of articles published for the first time
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Great. Because pricing based on articles published is always a terrible idea.
Guess what other system was like that, that didn't care about articles published...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-publ...
Guess what other system was like that, that didn't care about articles published...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-publ...
As you'd expect, "IN MICE".
If you get me as the editor, I'll add it to the title.
If you get me as the editor, I'll add it to the title.
Single-cell map of the female brain across reproductive transitions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.03.697507v1
January 4, 2026 at 2:48 PM
As you'd expect, "IN MICE".
If you get me as the editor, I'll add it to the title.
If you get me as the editor, I'll add it to the title.
This, of course, is absolute nonsense. But some continue to hold that pernicious view about professional editors.
January 3, 2026 at 8:42 PM
This, of course, is absolute nonsense. But some continue to hold that pernicious view about professional editors.
I recently went to a workshop at the Company of Biologists and we were asked about Development, CoB and publishing. My anecdotal takeaway was that, if Development's IF was 15 and not 3.5, people would send all their best work there and would dominate +
January 3, 2026 at 8:40 PM
The reviewers are us.
"revision requests can expand beyond what is feasible...we've been told reviews are unnecessarily harsh... reviews can seem formidable but usually represent constructive critiques"
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
The hard truth about how hard it is to publish in Development
Every researcher knows the anticipation and trepidation that come with submitting a paper to a journal. Years of effort have been distilled into a few thousand words and a handful of figures containin...
journals.biologists.com
January 3, 2026 at 4:24 PM
The reviewers are us.
"Gene regulatory networks? These are correlations, at best"
January 3, 2026 at 1:03 PM
"Gene regulatory networks? These are correlations, at best"
Amen.
"Potential degradation of the literature by technology reinforces the value of a record maintained with human scientific experience and expertise"
Editorial by @holdenthorp.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
"Potential degradation of the literature by technology reinforces the value of a record maintained with human scientific experience and expertise"
Editorial by @holdenthorp.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Resisting AI slop
It’s hard to talk about any topic in science or education today without the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) coming up—whether large language models should be allowed to aid in searching for a ...
www.science.org
January 2, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Amen.
"Potential degradation of the literature by technology reinforces the value of a record maintained with human scientific experience and expertise"
Editorial by @holdenthorp.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
"Potential degradation of the literature by technology reinforces the value of a record maintained with human scientific experience and expertise"
Editorial by @holdenthorp.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Alejandro Montenegro
Instead, I think it is more pressing that *institutions* get involved and check what is being submitted with their names...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Put pressure on publishers to follow best practice — external regulation is the answer
Journals that work hard to meet the needs of both authors and readers should be acknowledged publicly — encouraging others to follow suit.
www.nature.com
December 31, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Instead, I think it is more pressing that *institutions* get involved and check what is being submitted with their names...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Yup
I'm fine with folk submitting in December (I did it myself last month) - there are professional reasons to do so. But do it with the full expectation that it's going to sit on the editors desk untouched until at least the first week of January
January 1, 2026 at 1:04 PM
Yup