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ewcspottesmith.bsky.social
Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
@ewcspottesmith.bsky.social
3.6K followers 2K following 410 posts
Ad Astra Fellow, Asst. Prof., School of Chemistry, @ucddublin.bsky.social‬ |
Editor, @joss-openjournals.bsky.social |
Personal: espottesmith.github.io |
Research group (@coreacter.org): coreacter.org |
orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-197X |
All opinions mine
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
grimalkina.bsky.social
For everyone who replies to stuff like this with "obviously"

- it's NOT LEGIBLE TO MANY INSTITUTIONS UNTIL IT'S MEASURED
- WE NEED TO HAVE EVIDENCE FOR THE THINGS "we all know"
- ACTUALLY SEEING THE MAGNITUDE AND NUANCES OF THESE KIND OF EFFECTS MATTERS AND IT MATTERS OVER TIME TOO
donmoyn.bsky.social Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d
*Women receive substantially lower "potential" ratings despite receiving higher performance ratings
*Differences in potential ratings account for half of the gender promotion gap
*Women’s lower potential ratings do not reflect future performance: women subsequently outperform male colleagues
aeajournals.bsky.social AEA Journals @aeajournals.bsky.social · 1d
Forthcoming in the AER: "“Potential” and the Gender Promotion Gap" by Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
November 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
aeajournals.bsky.social
Forthcoming in the AER: "“Potential” and the Gender Promotion Gap" by Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
“Potential” and the Gender Promotion Gap
(Forthcoming Article) - We show that subjective assessments of employee “potential” contribute to gender gaps in promotion and pay. Using data on 29,809 management-track employees from a large retail ...
www.aeaweb.org
November 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
krisshrishak.bsky.social
AI hype letter remains open for more signatures tinyurl.com/Sign-Letter-...
CryptPad
tinyurl.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
abeba.bsky.social
the @ec.europa.eu's President von der Leyen is uncritically echoing AI hype & corporate PR, particularly that “AI would approach human reasoning in 2026”. we find this unacceptable & ask the Commission President to retract it. please sign this open letter if you agree
November 10, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
angewandtechemie.bsky.social
@andrewrosen.bsky.social highlights @tibor-szilvasi.bsky.social’s work using ML potentials to model supported Ag nanoparticles - revealing that idealized shapes don’t match experiments below 8 nm. Read the Highlight: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #AngewandteChemieNovit
Capturing the Complexities of Catalyst–Support Interactions with the Help of Machine Learning
Maxson and Szilvási use a machine-learned interatomic potential to model supported silver nanoparticles. They show that the idealized nanoparticle shapes commonly invoked in the computational catalys...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
dynarski.bsky.social
New evidence on how ICE is affecting student learning

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erU5Oe0vJYdVjuqQi4sfhUGxS0BGjWl8/view?usp=drivesdk
November 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
davidho.bsky.social
Inevitable, but unfortunately, the barrier to working in China is more than visa.
China rolls out its version of the H-1B visa to attract foreign tech workers
It coincides with uncertainties over the U.S.'s H-1B program under tightened immigrations policies implemented by President Donald Trump.
apnews.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
millsgroupchem.bsky.social
We are hiring PhD students in very different research areas! Please see two adverts below, and note that the second position is restricted to UK students only. Please re-post; interested candidates please contact me by email:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
[FSE Bicentenary PhD] Controlling magnetic relaxation times in rare earth single-molecule magnets and qubits at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - [FSE Bicentenary PhD] Controlling magnetic relaxation times in rare earth single-molecule magnets and qubits at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
ninamarkl.bsky.social
real ‘we respect student opinion but only if we already agree’ vibes across the sector
November 10, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
mathijsvdsande.bsky.social
"[U]niversities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically."
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
philipncohen.com
"Diversity" was always already a defensive fallback. Then it became too much, so they reduced it to, "broaden the perspectives represented." Then they killed it.
UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program
Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.
www.insidehighered.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
otsumamiboy.bsky.social
Sounds based to me. More politicians should follow sex workers. Sex work is work and sexuality is normal. The weird thing is when religious people are conditioned to toxically entangle their faith & shame with regular sexual desires. The weird thing is stigmatizing & criminalizing working people.
axios.com Axios @axios.com · 2d
James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate who has put his faith at the forefront of his campaign, follows several adult film performers, escorts and OnlyFans models on Instagram, according to an Axios review.
Faith-forward Texas Senate candidate follows porn actors, escorts online
James Talarico has become a sensation in Texas politics by talking about how his Christianity is the basis for his progressive politics.
www.axios.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
2ashesandblood.bsky.social
FRIENDLY MONTHLY REMINDER TO PUT ALT TEXT ON YOUR IMAGES THAT DESCRIBES THE IMAGE *AND* TRANSCRIBES DIALOGUE/TEXT. ACCESSIBILITY IS COOL

I dont reblog/share art if it doesn't have alt text

Guide on writing alt text: accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-con...
Write helpful Alt Text to describe images | Digital Accessibility​
Alternative (Alt) Text is an essential part of making content accessible. When adding images, charts, icons or other graphic elements, alt text should be added to ensure your content will be accessibl...
accessibility.huit.harvard.edu
November 9, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
disabledinstem.bsky.social
ICYMI: The 2026 #DisabledInSTEM Mentorship applications are now open!

I look forward to seeing your applications soon! 💜
disabledinstem.bsky.social DisabledInSTEM @disabledinstem.bsky.social · 22d
It's that time of year again... time for #DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship applications! I'm so excited to be running this program for the sixth year and seeing the growth over the years!

Mentee form: forms.gle/um5DvYnBi3tn...
Mentor form: forms.gle/BvaxnQm8uhUR...

Applications due December 5th!
Promotional graphic for the DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship Program. The background is a dark blue gradient with flowing wave-like patterns in blue and gold. At the top, white text reads: “DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship Applications Now Open.” Below, a yellow box with black text says: “Seeking Disabled Mentees and Dedicated Mentors to Champion Inclusion in STEM.” At the bottom, white text states: “Applications due December 5th.” In the lower right corner, there is the DisabledInSTEM logo.
October 27, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
samuelmoore.org
I wonder if the differing responses to AI are down to arXiv having a sustainability model that's more mature and dependent on institutional funding, while Openrxiv is newer and looking to more to commercial services and partnerships for sustainability.
carlbergstrom.com Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 4d
A week after the arXiv was forced to tighten down on submissions because of overwhelming volumes of AI slop, bioRxiv is throwing the doors wide open.
mehr.nz samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 4d
disappointed that @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social is implicitly endorsing the use of LLMs to replace scientific thought

@richardsever.bsky.social this is a short-sighted move and a net negative for science
November 8, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
esedia.bsky.social
Remember: when cops strike, crime rates drop.

Abolition is the way!
November 8, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
skepteis.bsky.social
There definitively is an "AI" bubble in academia and, while I'm not sure about this specific case, it likely comes at the cost of the humanities and social sciences.
Both of which are more important than ever before.
November 8, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
chanda.blacksky.app
What could Elon Musk’s $1 trillion compensation package fund if it were returned to the people?
www.instagram.com/p/DQxKWX-E4L...
2/3 What federal programs could be funded with $1tn? • Snap benefits Federal spending for Snap benefits was around $99.8bn. One trillion dollars could fund Snap for 10.2 years. • Nasa Federal spending for Nasa in 2024 totaled $24.9bn. One trillion dollars could fund this budget for around 40 years. • Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Federal spending for HUD in 2024 totaled $70bn. One trillion dollars could fund HUD for 14.3 years. • USAID Federal funding for 2024 included $35bn. One trillion dollars could fund USAID for 29 years. Sources: US Government Budgent FY 2024, Planetary Org, Congress.gov, USDA Economic Research service,
November 8, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
hypervisible.blacksky.app
100!!!
Ohio State to hire 100 new faculty with AI expertise
The Ohio State University has announced a major Artificial Intelligence (AI) Faculty Hiring Initiative that will add 100 new tenure-track faculty with expertise in AI over the next five years. The ini...
news.osu.edu
November 7, 2025 at 9:24 PM
ewcspottesmith.bsky.social
In a time of increasing precaritization, 100 new tenure-track positions should be a boon. But the all-in plays on "AI", a term that, in its common usage, refers to technologies that are actively harmful - to students, teaching, and knowledge itself! - frightens and alarms me.

#HigherEd #AcademicSky
November 8, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
heydebigale.bsky.social
ooooh this (April) 2026 release looks really good:

#chemsky #chemchat

Chain Reactions: The Wonderous Chemistry of Everyday Life

www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...
Chain Reaction: The Wondrous Chemistry of Everyday Life
All around us are ever-evolving strings of chain reacti…
www.goodreads.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
canopyrobin.com
Immensely proud to share that I am the designer of the official badge for LGBT+ History Month 2026.

Last night, @lgbthm.bsky.social revealed that the 2026 theme for the month will be 'Science and Innovation', so get ready to learn about some amazing queer scientists next year!
Robin holding a sheet of pin badges with their design The LGBT plus History Month 2026 logo – an eruption of rainbow colours from a conical flask containing pink, white, blue, and brown fluids . At the top, the flask is fizzing yellow with purple bubbles . The overall effect reflects the colours of the intersex -inclusive Progress Pride Flag .
November 8, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)
heatherpaterson.co.uk
Today is Intersex Day of Solidarity and Remembrance.

It's an opportunity to highlight the continued struggles faced by intersex people globally, from unnecessary medical intervention or stigma.

We all deserve to be treated with dignity, and live a life free from discrimination.
November 8, 2025 at 7:49 AM