Richard Sever
@richardsever.bsky.social
Chief Science and Strategy Officer, openRxiv. Co-Founder, bioRxiv and medRxiv.
"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 4:23 PM
"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/...
"hard to measure social and economic impacts of making papers and data free...little strong evidence of long-lasting and widespread effects [but] indicators remain to be fully developed" www.science.org/content/arti...
Is ‘open science’ delivering benefits? Major study finds proof is sparse
It’s hard to measure social and economic impacts of making papers and data free, researchers say
www.science.org
January 2, 2026 at 3:14 PM
"hard to measure social and economic impacts of making papers and data free...little strong evidence of long-lasting and widespread effects [but] indicators remain to be fully developed" www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Richard Sever
Check out this highly multidisciplinary approach to identifying new genes affecting color pattern, and more broadly, mechanisms driving cell fate diversification 🧪
Just in time for the New Year we have a new preprint up that focuses on white cells, often used as ornaments in fish.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 2, 2026 at 12:27 PM
Check out this highly multidisciplinary approach to identifying new genes affecting color pattern, and more broadly, mechanisms driving cell fate diversification 🧪
Reposted by Richard Sever
Magic Johnson was the grand marshal of the Rose Parade today, and as someone who remembers his November 1991 HIV announcement: if you had told anybody that day that he would be alive and healthy 34+ years later, I don't think they would have believed you. Medicine and research—they work.
January 1, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Magic Johnson was the grand marshal of the Rose Parade today, and as someone who remembers his November 1991 HIV announcement: if you had told anybody that day that he would be alive and healthy 34+ years later, I don't think they would have believed you. Medicine and research—they work.
New director of FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has "no expertise...no apparent experience in drug development, regulation or management..doesn’t seem to have any of the qualifications for running the drug-regulation department" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘She has no expertise’: the US medical community girds for Tracy Beth Høeg’s tenure at the FDA
The Danish American who doubted Covid shots is meant to lead drug regulation – but has focused on vaccines
www.theguardian.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:47 PM
New director of FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has "no expertise...no apparent experience in drug development, regulation or management..doesn’t seem to have any of the qualifications for running the drug-regulation department" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Richard Sever
“The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else.”
NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts
www.nytimes.com
December 31, 2025 at 8:35 PM
“The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else.”
openRxiv - a year in review. @tracykteal.bsky.social looks back at how far we have come this year 😀 openrxiv.org/2025-year-in...
openRxiv 2025 year in review - openRxiv
In March we launched openRxiv as an independent, researcher-led non-profit as the new organizational home for bioRxiv and medRxiv to continue advancing ‘communication at the speed of science’. This in...
openrxiv.org
December 31, 2025 at 7:42 PM
openRxiv - a year in review. @tracykteal.bsky.social looks back at how far we have come this year 😀 openrxiv.org/2025-year-in...
Reposted by Richard Sever
persistence of the identifier =/ persistence of the object. DOIs guarantee the former not the latter...
December 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM
persistence of the identifier =/ persistence of the object. DOIs guarantee the former not the latter...
Reposted by Richard Sever
before I started my lab, I asked several senior PIs what their one piece of advice would be and PI pointedly said: “Know when to drop a project.” And that advice has been invaluable in my lab. There are always other projects to follow up on, dropping one isn’t a failure in and of itself.
Blog post: Just quit
Quitting projects in science is hard, but we should be doing a lot more of it.
open.substack.com/pub/arjunraj...
Quitting projects in science is hard, but we should be doing a lot more of it.
open.substack.com/pub/arjunraj...
Just quit
Quitting projects in science is hard, but we should be doing a lot more of it.
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
before I started my lab, I asked several senior PIs what their one piece of advice would be and PI pointedly said: “Know when to drop a project.” And that advice has been invaluable in my lab. There are always other projects to follow up on, dropping one isn’t a failure in and of itself.
Reposted by Richard Sever
I don't want to participate in a transmission chain that brings the virus to them. I also just don't want the disruption that even a mild case of flu (or whatever respiratory pathogen) would introduce into my life.
Taking reasonable, evidence-based precautions for yourself has no bearing on others.
Taking reasonable, evidence-based precautions for yourself has no bearing on others.
December 30, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I don't want to participate in a transmission chain that brings the virus to them. I also just don't want the disruption that even a mild case of flu (or whatever respiratory pathogen) would introduce into my life.
Taking reasonable, evidence-based precautions for yourself has no bearing on others.
Taking reasonable, evidence-based precautions for yourself has no bearing on others.
Reposted by Richard Sever
I have 0 risk factors for severe flu. I am up to date on my flu and COVID-19 vaccines.
I am also in New York City, which just experienced a week with more flu cases than any other on record, and I am in contact with vulnerable people for whom flu would definitely not just be the sniffles.
I am also in New York City, which just experienced a week with more flu cases than any other on record, and I am in contact with vulnerable people for whom flu would definitely not just be the sniffles.
December 30, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I have 0 risk factors for severe flu. I am up to date on my flu and COVID-19 vaccines.
I am also in New York City, which just experienced a week with more flu cases than any other on record, and I am in contact with vulnerable people for whom flu would definitely not just be the sniffles.
I am also in New York City, which just experienced a week with more flu cases than any other on record, and I am in contact with vulnerable people for whom flu would definitely not just be the sniffles.
Reposted by Richard Sever
I don't understand how we are still stigmatizing people for wearing masks during respiratory virus season in 2025. Really, people?
December 30, 2025 at 12:09 AM
I don't understand how we are still stigmatizing people for wearing masks during respiratory virus season in 2025. Really, people?
Reposted by Richard Sever
Did you know there are 2 types of avocado varieties? A-types switch from female to male, B-types male to female, within a single day. This reciprocal sex alternation promotes cross-pollination and has a simple genetic basis. Read more in this recent preprint from the final chapter of my PhD thesis 🥑
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies an ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, pollination occurs via a synchronized rhythm of floral sex timing between two hermaphroditic flowering types. A-type plants present female-phase flo...
www.biorxiv.org
December 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Did you know there are 2 types of avocado varieties? A-types switch from female to male, B-types male to female, within a single day. This reciprocal sex alternation promotes cross-pollination and has a simple genetic basis. Read more in this recent preprint from the final chapter of my PhD thesis 🥑
I’m beginning to question the scientific premises of Stranger Things
December 26, 2025 at 6:32 PM
I’m beginning to question the scientific premises of Stranger Things
Reposted by Richard Sever
Remember the 1920s when nobody was left-handed
December 24, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Remember the 1920s when nobody was left-handed
Make a Bond movie academic
For Your Eyes Only: paywalled journals and global scientific inequity
For Your Eyes Only: paywalled journals and global scientific inequity
Make a Bond movie academic
Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
Make a Bond movie academic
Goldfinger: Bitcoin & the Semiotics of Digital Goldbugs
Goldfinger: Bitcoin & the Semiotics of Digital Goldbugs
December 26, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Make a Bond movie academic
For Your Eyes Only: paywalled journals and global scientific inequity
For Your Eyes Only: paywalled journals and global scientific inequity
Make a Bond movie academic
Goldfinger: unintended, but not unforeseen, commercial consequences of APC models and mandates
Goldfinger: unintended, but not unforeseen, commercial consequences of APC models and mandates
Make a Bond movie academic
The World Is Not Enough: Oil, Empire, and Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Caucasuses
The World Is Not Enough: Oil, Empire, and Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Caucasuses
Make a Bond movie academic
Tomorrow Never Dies: Post-Modern Media and Neoliberal Futures in Late 20th Century Southeast Asia
Tomorrow Never Dies: Post-Modern Media and Neoliberal Futures in Late 20th Century Southeast Asia
December 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Make a Bond movie academic
Goldfinger: unintended, but not unforeseen, commercial consequences of APC models and mandates
Goldfinger: unintended, but not unforeseen, commercial consequences of APC models and mandates
Make a Bond movie academic
Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
Make a Bond movie academic
Goldfinger: Bitcoin & the Semiotics of Digital Goldbugs
Goldfinger: Bitcoin & the Semiotics of Digital Goldbugs
Make a Bond movie academic
The World Is Not Enough: Oil, Empire, and Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Caucasuses
The World Is Not Enough: Oil, Empire, and Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Caucasuses
December 26, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Make a Bond movie academic
Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
“if you ask [LLMs] for factual information you don't have any guarantee it's going to be correct…not a good idea to rely on them for information you can't verify and that's somehow important” www.bbc.com/news/article...
Warning about using AI for festive swim tide time advice
The Coastguard warns about AI after two people are stranded after being given the wrong tide times.
www.bbc.com
December 26, 2025 at 1:54 PM
“if you ask [LLMs] for factual information you don't have any guarantee it's going to be correct…not a good idea to rely on them for information you can't verify and that's somehow important” www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reviving a Twitter tradition here: Happy Holidays @pracheeac.bsky.social @needhibhalla.bsky.social and other cocktail buddies!
December 25, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reviving a Twitter tradition here: Happy Holidays @pracheeac.bsky.social @needhibhalla.bsky.social and other cocktail buddies!
Reposted by Richard Sever
Yep - data are not a democracy. Some are better than others…
December 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Yep - data are not a democracy. Some are better than others…
On the training set for AI…
I know of about 3,000 papers (at the very least) that have the incorrect conclusion due to using a reagent(s) that is not as specific as claimed. After multiple corrective efforts, I‘ve concluded that the record is very difficult to fix and scientific literature has huge volumes of errors.
December 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
On the training set for AI…
It is simply not true that “you can’t publish negative results”. 👇
[what people normally mean when they say this is they’re annoyed they can’t get a Nature paper saying someone else’s Nature paper is wrong]
[what people normally mean when they say this is they’re annoyed they can’t get a Nature paper saying someone else’s Nature paper is wrong]
Giving the gift of negative data 🥰
Since I joined @lsajournal.org I have handled several stellar manuscripts that report null results. These papers do very well and reviewers almost always appreciate them!
Thanks @rockefeller.edu news team for the article!
www.rockefeller.edu/news/38829-t...
Since I joined @lsajournal.org I have handled several stellar manuscripts that report null results. These papers do very well and reviewers almost always appreciate them!
Thanks @rockefeller.edu news team for the article!
www.rockefeller.edu/news/38829-t...
The value of publishing negative data - News
Scientific journals love news-worthy results. Editors want to publish studies with novel data that scientists will eagerly read and cite in their own work. Because of this desire for novelty, studies ...
www.rockefeller.edu
December 23, 2025 at 1:50 PM
It is simply not true that “you can’t publish negative results”. 👇
[what people normally mean when they say this is they’re annoyed they can’t get a Nature paper saying someone else’s Nature paper is wrong]
[what people normally mean when they say this is they’re annoyed they can’t get a Nature paper saying someone else’s Nature paper is wrong]
Reposted by Richard Sever
I'm on the Board of @biologists.bsky.social. Many know them as publishers of @dev-journal.bsky.social, @jcellsci.bsky.social, @jexpbiol.bsky.social , DMM, and @biologyopen.bsky.social --but they also are a major funder of small grants that empower young biologists and enable scientific meetings 🧪
We believe that, as our future leaders in biology, it is vital to provide #ECRs with the right support during the early stages of your academic career. We offer a number of practical ways to help you meet the unique needs and challenges you may encounter: www.biologists.com/about-us/ear...
Supporting early-career researchers
On these pages we highlight the range of resources that we offer to early-career researchers.
www.biologists.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:26 PM
I'm on the Board of @biologists.bsky.social. Many know them as publishers of @dev-journal.bsky.social, @jcellsci.bsky.social, @jexpbiol.bsky.social , DMM, and @biologyopen.bsky.social --but they also are a major funder of small grants that empower young biologists and enable scientific meetings 🧪
The Weiss-Dunning-Kruger-Streisand-Hanlon effect. Did I get that right?
December 23, 2025 at 2:18 AM
The Weiss-Dunning-Kruger-Streisand-Hanlon effect. Did I get that right?