Paul Whaley
@dangerwhale.bsky.social
Research methods in environmental health. Can't write. Works with words anyway. Editor-in-Chief, Evidence-Based Toxicology. Other stuff too. https://linktr.ee/paulwhaley
Pinned
Paul Whaley
@dangerwhale.bsky.social
· Jun 14
Authors wanting to send a paper to my journal are asked to "submit" and I think that's absolutely correct, yes.
I KNEW THIS BEFORE THE STORY EVEN BROKE. JFC Guardian.
November 10, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I KNEW THIS BEFORE THE STORY EVEN BROKE. JFC Guardian.
HMRC are doing webinars to explain Making Tax Digital for self-employeds. My experience of HMRC trying to be helpful has been pretty positive so I would recommend signing up if you are affected. Also, it is cute that someone is still using gotowebinar. 😻 register.gotowebinar.com/rt/467677425...
register.gotowebinar.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:55 PM
HMRC are doing webinars to explain Making Tax Digital for self-employeds. My experience of HMRC trying to be helpful has been pretty positive so I would recommend signing up if you are affected. Also, it is cute that someone is still using gotowebinar. 😻 register.gotowebinar.com/rt/467677425...
Given that many of the problems we have in research stem from appeals to authority, Daniel's blog post is a welcome reminder of other ways of solving the problem of proliferation of misused, misunderstood, and insufficiently valid methods.
New blog post: Why we should stop using statistical techniques that have not been adequately vetted by experts in psychology daniellakens.blogspot.com/2025/10/why-... where I reflect on how we should check the quality of novel statistical techniques.
October 29, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Given that many of the problems we have in research stem from appeals to authority, Daniel's blog post is a welcome reminder of other ways of solving the problem of proliferation of misused, misunderstood, and insufficiently valid methods.
Today I decided not to frame an article about the future of peer-review in terms of autocannibalism.
October 21, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Today I decided not to frame an article about the future of peer-review in terms of autocannibalism.
WE NEED YOUR THOUGHTS, systematic review practitioners. Fill out this 10-15 minute survey about pain-points and challenges in SR methods in toxicology, environmental health, and related fields. Share or be square! www.surveymonkey.com/r/EHSR25
Systematic Reviews in Toxicology and Environmental Health: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Survey 2025
Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.
www.surveymonkey.com
October 15, 2025 at 11:44 AM
WE NEED YOUR THOUGHTS, systematic review practitioners. Fill out this 10-15 minute survey about pain-points and challenges in SR methods in toxicology, environmental health, and related fields. Share or be square! www.surveymonkey.com/r/EHSR25
Don't know if this is your bag, but if it is - register, and listen to two people try to have a sensible discussion about the role of LLMs in research (specifically, systematic review). Lena Schmidt knows her stuff, it should be good! events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e4e8f0...
October 14, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Don't know if this is your bag, but if it is - register, and listen to two people try to have a sensible discussion about the role of LLMs in research (specifically, systematic review). Lena Schmidt knows her stuff, it should be good! events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e4e8f0...
Seems consistent enough for a society that has had its fair share of eugenicists. 🤷
"I am increasingly concerned over threats to the values that allow science to flourish." Read the full statement from the President of the Royal Society Sir Adrian Smith: royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...
A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society
A statement from the President of the Royal Society regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.
royalsociety.org
October 1, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Seems consistent enough for a society that has had its fair share of eugenicists. 🤷
I did not realise the reviewer comments are available for the tylenol / autism SR. They are a fantastic case study in how editors can screw up, allowing authors to fake out a revision process because they are not sufficiently experienced to see what is going on and/or empowered to call it out.
September 26, 2025 at 11:09 AM
I did not realise the reviewer comments are available for the tylenol / autism SR. They are a fantastic case study in how editors can screw up, allowing authors to fake out a revision process because they are not sufficiently experienced to see what is going on and/or empowered to call it out.
Just wanted to share a really nice poster by @carrieprice.bsky.social and colleagues. As someone who deliberately invited librarians a lot when I was editing systematic reviews, I can vouch for what they add. Specific info about attitudes and priorities is really interesting. osf.io/8khyp
September 25, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Just wanted to share a really nice poster by @carrieprice.bsky.social and colleagues. As someone who deliberately invited librarians a lot when I was editing systematic reviews, I can vouch for what they add. Specific info about attitudes and priorities is really interesting. osf.io/8khyp
I have edited 500 systematic reviews and this is one of the worst pieces of work I have ever seen published - certainly in terms of salience to quality. I don't know where to begin. What was the journal thinking? (Probably not much.) Utterly egregious. ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Evaluation of the evidence on acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders using the Navigation Guide methodology - Environmental Health
Background Acetaminophen is the most commonly used over-the-counter pain and fever medication taken during pregnancy, with > 50% of pregnant women using acetaminophen worldwide. Numerous well-designed...
ehjournal.biomedcentral.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
I have edited 500 systematic reviews and this is one of the worst pieces of work I have ever seen published - certainly in terms of salience to quality. I don't know where to begin. What was the journal thinking? (Probably not much.) Utterly egregious. ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Reposted by Paul Whaley
Want some free career advice? #AcademicChatter
September 17, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Want some free career advice? #AcademicChatter
Just gonna say that this is a foundational principle of EBTC (ebtox.org) that I work for, where part of the function of the collaboration is to provide support for people who might be marginalised in their workplaces, and we have a cast-iron don't-be-a-dick policy for involvement.
September 13, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Just gonna say that this is a foundational principle of EBTC (ebtox.org) that I work for, where part of the function of the collaboration is to provide support for people who might be marginalised in their workplaces, and we have a cast-iron don't-be-a-dick policy for involvement.
You know what, this might be a rare occasion on which I have written a half-decent paper. Obviously, my co-authors bear the brunt of the responsibility for this. I hope you like the layered infrastructure of information concept! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
GRADE concept paper 9: rationale and process for creating a GRADE Ontology
As the rate of research production accelerates, the ability to efficiently and unambiguously communicate judgments relating to the synthesis, evaluati…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 9, 2025 at 6:35 PM
You know what, this might be a rare occasion on which I have written a half-decent paper. Obviously, my co-authors bear the brunt of the responsibility for this. I hope you like the layered infrastructure of information concept! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
what the heck is "awe-dropping" supposed to mean?
September 9, 2025 at 9:09 AM
what the heck is "awe-dropping" supposed to mean?
I find it weird how often researchers don't seem to understand what an algorithm is or how one works.
September 7, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I find it weird how often researchers don't seem to understand what an algorithm is or how one works.
This is an excellent article about peer-review, never mind AI. In fact, never mind AI: it is a reminder that science is a practice where the doing is what generates the results. If you stop the doing, where are the results going to come from? This was a problem before AI, now AI is accelerating it.
Folks are out here making peer review bots of themselves so I’m just gonna tap this sign.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
AI, peer review and the human activity of science
When researchers cede their scientific judgement to machines, we lose something important.
www.nature.com
September 5, 2025 at 8:48 AM
This is an excellent article about peer-review, never mind AI. In fact, never mind AI: it is a reminder that science is a practice where the doing is what generates the results. If you stop the doing, where are the results going to come from? This was a problem before AI, now AI is accelerating it.
🚨 New article 🚨 This paper in EBT cuts through the hype and the fury on AI and LLMs. (Have you heard of PLMs? No? I hadn't either.) Kudos to the authors for a sober and informative presentation on the application of language models in systematic review. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Large language models for data extraction in toxicology: implications and lessons learned from the clinical evidence domain
A living review of automated data extraction methods for clinical systematic reviews identified 76 papers up to the end of 2022 describing unique extraction algorithms and assessed their methods an...
www.tandfonline.com
September 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
🚨 New article 🚨 This paper in EBT cuts through the hype and the fury on AI and LLMs. (Have you heard of PLMs? No? I hadn't either.) Kudos to the authors for a sober and informative presentation on the application of language models in systematic review. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Paul Whaley
This absolute banger
September 4, 2025 at 2:00 PM
This absolute banger
I remember the days when I only had to invite 25 people to comment on a manuscript to get 2 reviewers.
September 3, 2025 at 4:11 PM
I remember the days when I only had to invite 25 people to comment on a manuscript to get 2 reviewers.
A notice to all predatory publishers: this is how to spam your prospective authors.
September 3, 2025 at 3:39 PM
A notice to all predatory publishers: this is how to spam your prospective authors.
THIS BIT OF THE PROOFING PROCESS WAS ACTUALLY GOOD! SOUND THE ALARMS!
huh, all the author affiliations that were in the manuscript but i could not add in editorial manager are present and basically correct, well done journal i was not expecting this 😎
September 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM
THIS BIT OF THE PROOFING PROCESS WAS ACTUALLY GOOD! SOUND THE ALARMS!
christ i hate article proofs a live-tweeted thread 🧵
September 1, 2025 at 5:03 PM
christ i hate article proofs a live-tweeted thread 🧵
Very much like this spodcast, especially the new alternating deep-dive / current affairs approach they have recently taken. Sub-editor earned their bowl of chips for this episode title. :)
Apple Podcasts users, we are aware there's an issue with today's new episode being tagged 'Subscribers Only' on the app. We are working to get it fixed.
Fully available for free as usual on Spotify and all other platforms though:
open.spotify.com/episode/72Nq...
Fully available for free as usual on Spotify and all other platforms though:
open.spotify.com/episode/72Nq...
The Very, Very Cross of St George
open.spotify.com
August 29, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Very much like this spodcast, especially the new alternating deep-dive / current affairs approach they have recently taken. Sub-editor earned their bowl of chips for this episode title. :)