Mara Breen
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mbreen.bsky.social
Mara Breen
@mbreen.bsky.social
720 followers 760 following 18 posts
Professor of psychology at Mount Holyoke College; Cognitive scientist studying speech and music
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Mara Breen
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 Mara Breen
oecs-bot.bsky.social
Language Production by Zenzi M. Griffin: https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.b076f599
November 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
donmoyn.bsky.social
Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. "
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
Early Career Rescue Fellowship
www.uni-konstanz.de
November 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
colinphillips.bsky.social
Opportunity for early career researchers to spend 3 years working with us in Oxford. Cool surroundings, interesting people. Eligibility: need some UK academic connection. Get in touch if interested! Details: www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/news/2025/11...
November 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
hadley.nz
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....

genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
ethanweed.bsky.social
3-year postdoc at The Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab (LALP), with a focus on toddlers at risk for autism and DLD, hosted by @vulchanovamila.bsky.social
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Language acquisition and language processing lab (287298) | NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Job title: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Language acquisition and language processing lab (287298), Employer: NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Deadline: Sunday, November 16, 2025
www.jobbnorge.no
November 7, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Mara Breen
ceej.online
dawg they’re live laugh loving the white house. president homegoods
onestpress.onestnetwork.com Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 8d
New sign outside the Oval Office..
November 5, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
abeba.bsky.social
📣 I am hiring a postdoc! aial.ie/hiring/postd...

applications from suitable candidates that are passionate about investigating the use of genAI in public service operations with the aim of keeping governments transparent and accountable are welcome

pls share with your networks
October 30, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
wutsaiyale.bsky.social
📣 Calling experimental, computational, or theoretical researchers!

WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/...

Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525

#KnowTogether
October 6, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
auditoryjoel.bsky.social
The editorial leadership team for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance seeks nominations for intern junior editorial positions for early-career psychologists (IJEs).
October 25, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
nataliebrito.bsky.social
Judy DeLoache passed away yesterday. She was a brilliant scientist and giant in the field of developmental psychology. She will be missed dearly.
October 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
secondnaturemb.bsky.social
It's polar bear season in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada and I'm a guide. My polar bear photos always engender a lot of questions, so I thought I'd take a moment to answer some of the most common ones so you can better understand these amazing animals and our relationship with them in Churchill. 🐻‍❄️ 1/
A group of 19 people standing in front of a large, white tundra buggy after a fun day out looking for polar bears. The buggy is marked as number 9 and stands 9 feet tall at the bottom of the 11 windows along the side. A woman in a green parka and teal coloured toque smiles as a grey (Canada) jay lands on her head. She has a large camera strapped to her and is standing in the snowy woods. A large polar bear stares ahead at the photographer as it comes of a rise on a rocky seashore.
October 25, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Mara Breen
matti.vuorre.com
I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social.

We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.

tiu.nu/22989
An aerial photograph of the Tilburg University campus.
October 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
chrisbaldassano.bsky.social
Columbia Psych is hiring *two* junior faculty in Cognitive Science/Neuroscience this year! If you work on cognition (broadly defined), submit your application materials as soon as possible (review starts Nov 1). If you have questions you can reach out to me by email! apply.interfolio.com/175428
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
alexlw.bsky.social
Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is publishing a special issue on “The Vision-Language Interface.” Send in your research about reading, perceptual learning, sign language, dyslexia, etc! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Text of the call for papers which can be found here: https://jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlanguageinterface.aspx
October 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
bcbl.bsky.social
🤔 Are you interested in working at #BCBL?

We have a new PhD student position available under the #INPhINIT Predoctoral Fellowship sponsored by Fundación LaCaixa.

📆 Application deadline: 10/11/2025

+info⬇️

www.bcbl.eu/es/unete-a-n...
October 23, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
markhisted.org
The NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad.

I made a video explainer about why.

Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social

1/4
🧪
October 23, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Mara Breen
andreaeyleen.bsky.social
OPEN PHD POSITION - Come join our group! The IMPRS at @mpi-nl.bsky.social is offering an PhD position on modelling structured meaning in the brain, supervised by me and Helen De Hoop at the Centre for Language Studies in the @dondersinst.bsky.social -
www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe... #NeuroJobs #cogsci
IMPRS PhD Fellowships 2026 | Max Planck Institute
www.mpi.nl
October 23, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Mara Breen
neuromdl.bsky.social
Job announcement! UN Reno Psychology (Cognitive & Brain Sciences division) is hiring for a tenure-track position. Come join us! We have a great group! Deadline December 1. Please share!

nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external...

#neuroskyence #neuroscience
Assistant Professor, Cognitive and Brain Sciences
The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) appreciates your interest in employment at our growing institution. We want your application process to go smoothly and quickly. Final applications must be submitt...
nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
mattgoldrick.bsky.social
Deadline Nov 10: Asst prof (tenure track), Speech, Lang, + Hearing Sci. (area open), Cal State Univ, East [San Francisco] Bay careers.pageuppeople.com/873/eb/en-us...
October 19, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
abeba.bsky.social
i’m looking to recruit a postdoc to work on this (documentation + evaluation on accuracy, reliability and societal impacts). hope to advertise detailed descriptions of the role in the coming weeks
abeba.bsky.social Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 26d
anyone working on documentation (compiling some kind of inventory database) of use of llms within government bodies and for public service use, particularly in europe?
October 18, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
markhisted.org
I made a video about the shutdown, and why this government worker won’t be a pawn.

When the president and Supreme Court are both acting lawlessly, Congress must stand up and stop it.

US science is collapsing and Congress needs to act.
🧪
Full video here: www.instagram.com/reel/DP1tXXE...
October 16, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
mattgoldrick.bsky.social
Open immediately -- postdoc, speech motor control and speech motor neuroscience w/ C. Niziolek + B. Parrell, U. Wisconsin Madison blab.wisc.edu/join-the-lab/ [see Postdoctoral researchers tab]
October 14, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
carlzimmer.com
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
nyti.ms
October 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Mara Breen
nikweiskopf.bsky.social
We are looking for “Data Scientist or ML/AI expert” who will work at the cutting edge of data science and neuromaging in a collaboration between @mpicbs.bsky.social and the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility (MPCDF).

Deadline: 10th Nov. 2025.

Apply here:
Data Scientist or Machine Learning / AI expert (m/f/d)
Data Scientist or Machine Learning / AI expert (m/f/d) to join the AI and High-Performance Data Analytics division of MPCDF.
www.mpcdf.mpg.de
October 13, 2025 at 11:00 AM