Tom Hostler
@tomhostler.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer at MMU. Interested in (Critical) Metascience, Academic Capitalism, Open Research, and Emotion Processing.
Reposted by Tom Hostler
There’s no ‘could’ about doing less research. Colleagues here being told they can’t go for bids that don’t cover overhead (ie all the charity funders)
Here's some more craziness from the waste of tax money in Higher Education: state R&D spending is huge, but pouring it into a collapsing system risks just pouring loads of it away. Making everything dependent on a Wild West of undergrad recruitment has gone spectacularly wrong.
July 23, 2025 at 9:02 AM
There’s no ‘could’ about doing less research. Colleagues here being told they can’t go for bids that don’t cover overhead (ie all the charity funders)
Really enjoyed this episode of @bjkspod.bsky.social with @mbaldwin.bsky.social talking about the history (and possible future) of peer review: www.buzzsprout.com/1390924/epis...
Interesting to learn just how recent the idea that "research must be peer reviewed" is (70's), and that its original...
Interesting to learn just how recent the idea that "research must be peer reviewed" is (70's), and that its original...
115. Melinda Baldwin: A triple history of Nature, scientific journals, and peer review - BJKS Podcast
Melinda Baldwin is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland. We talk about her work studying the history of Nature, scientific journals more broadly, what it means to be a scien...
www.buzzsprout.com
July 23, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Really enjoyed this episode of @bjkspod.bsky.social with @mbaldwin.bsky.social talking about the history (and possible future) of peer review: www.buzzsprout.com/1390924/epis...
Interesting to learn just how recent the idea that "research must be peer reviewed" is (70's), and that its original...
Interesting to learn just how recent the idea that "research must be peer reviewed" is (70's), and that its original...
Reposted by Tom Hostler
How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Which Kind of Science Reform
What hope is there for science reform, if we can't agree on what to reform? Right now, principles are more important than practices.
elevanth.org
July 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Why I'm more optimistic than others about metascience (or metaresearch)
(I wanted to write up some thoughts on #metascience2025 but I just don't have the time so this thread will have to do.)
(I wanted to write up some thoughts on #metascience2025 but I just don't have the time so this thread will have to do.)
July 6, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Why I'm more optimistic than others about metascience (or metaresearch)
(I wanted to write up some thoughts on #metascience2025 but I just don't have the time so this thread will have to do.)
(I wanted to write up some thoughts on #metascience2025 but I just don't have the time so this thread will have to do.)
This is an interesting reflection on the relationship between metascience and research culture. There’s some excellent and relevant work that gets done under the banner of “research culture”, especially around things like inclusivity, recognition, and community building and I agree...
I had a thoroughly lovely time at #Metascience2025 but was struck by the lack of explicit mention of research culture or environment. What gives? And what’s the difference anyhow? Some train-journey thoughts on the symbiosis between metaresearch and research culture. www.linkedin.com/pulse/two-he...
Two hemispheres: Metascience vs Research Culture
Just back from Metascience2025 in London, its fourth global gathering and the first outside of the US (held online in 2021). 830 participants representing 65 countries, some better acclimatised to the...
www.linkedin.com
July 3, 2025 at 2:23 PM
This is an interesting reflection on the relationship between metascience and research culture. There’s some excellent and relevant work that gets done under the banner of “research culture”, especially around things like inclusivity, recognition, and community building and I agree...
Reposted by Tom Hostler
as spectator and also participant in various metascience-informed things like prereg, github etc, I can't help but notice a parallel between metascience-as-management (rather than science) and academic-leadership-as-management (rather than academic leadership)
So yeah exactly my curiosity about the deprioritization of science in "science of science".
July 3, 2025 at 4:37 AM
as spectator and also participant in various metascience-informed things like prereg, github etc, I can't help but notice a parallel between metascience-as-management (rather than science) and academic-leadership-as-management (rather than academic leadership)
If a drug company funds a study showing that their product is highly effective, we would be rightly skeptical of the results; if tech companies fund #metascience into how AI can improve science should we be equally sceptical?
July 1, 2025 at 5:10 PM
If a drug company funds a study showing that their product is highly effective, we would be rightly skeptical of the results; if tech companies fund #metascience into how AI can improve science should we be equally sceptical?
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Looking forward to being part of the panel at this online event this afternoon on critical Metascience, I'll be talking about the alignment between open research reforms and academic capitalism. Details in the post below 👇 #metascience
Next Monday (23.06, 4pm) our team member S. Bartscherer co-organises a Pre-Conference Virtual Symposium on "Critical #Metascience: Does Metascience Need to Change?" bringing together key voices from a variety of disciplines. Register in the link below:
nomadit.co.uk/confer... @ibi-hu.bsky.social
nomadit.co.uk/confer... @ibi-hu.bsky.social
VS06: Critical Metascience: Does Metascience Need to Change?
Despite broad uptake, metascience and the Open Science reform movement have garnered ample criticism. Such criticism is also known as critical metascience. We will reflect on central critiques by bringing together key voices from a variety of disciplines, asking what needs to change, how and why?
nomadit.co.uk
June 23, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Looking forward to being part of the panel at this online event this afternoon on critical Metascience, I'll be talking about the alignment between open research reforms and academic capitalism. Details in the post below 👇 #metascience
A sunny Friday afternoon so I'm in a beer garden working my way through my stack of "interesting papers to read" and thought I'd do a mini thread of the best. Today's paper (actually a book chapter) is Jochen Gläser's 2019 "how can governance change research content?" doi.org/10.4337/9781...
June 20, 2025 at 2:46 PM
A sunny Friday afternoon so I'm in a beer garden working my way through my stack of "interesting papers to read" and thought I'd do a mini thread of the best. Today's paper (actually a book chapter) is Jochen Gläser's 2019 "how can governance change research content?" doi.org/10.4337/9781...
This is a great post and really underscores the need for metascience reforms to seriously consider the context of their implementation, and the impact this has on researchers - "Get to know your audience"
I wrote a blogpost on something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: how metascientists could (and should) think more about their users when designing tools and reforms.
Would love to hear any thoughts on this topic!
#metascience #usercentered
Would love to hear any thoughts on this topic!
#metascience #usercentered
When Good Tools Fail: The Missing Step in Scientific Reform — Meta-Research Center
This blogpost was written by Anouk Bouma. Anouk her PhD project focuses on studying and enhancing various interventions for improving scientific robustness at journal level, supervised by Marcel van A...
tinyurl.com
June 17, 2025 at 10:51 AM
This is a great post and really underscores the need for metascience reforms to seriously consider the context of their implementation, and the impact this has on researchers - "Get to know your audience"
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Let's have some fun. In this NYT story, we see a picture of an OpenAI billboard on a college campus, suggesting the following prompt: "Give me a guide for mastering this Calc 101 syllabus. In two weeks. Small steps please."
What happens when we actually use ChatGPT to do this? THREAD!
What happens when we actually use ChatGPT to do this? THREAD!
June 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Let's have some fun. In this NYT story, we see a picture of an OpenAI billboard on a college campus, suggesting the following prompt: "Give me a guide for mastering this Calc 101 syllabus. In two weeks. Small steps please."
What happens when we actually use ChatGPT to do this? THREAD!
What happens when we actually use ChatGPT to do this? THREAD!
This is a great post and was nice to see my paper on the invisible workload of open research quoted (journal.trialanderror.org/pub/the-invi...). Imposing mandates on researchers to perform time intensive open research practices is particularly unreasonable when combined with cuts to time and budgets
June 3, 2025 at 11:49 AM
This is a great post and was nice to see my paper on the invisible workload of open research quoted (journal.trialanderror.org/pub/the-invi...). Imposing mandates on researchers to perform time intensive open research practices is particularly unreasonable when combined with cuts to time and budgets
Reposted by Tom Hostler
🆕 COS statement on the "Restoring Gold Standard Science" Executive Order
The EO names important open science principles, but their application here is counter to open science's purpose to accelerate discovery, advance treatments, & create knowledge.
📄 Read our statement: www.cos.io/about/news/c...
The EO names important open science principles, but their application here is counter to open science's purpose to accelerate discovery, advance treatments, & create knowledge.
📄 Read our statement: www.cos.io/about/news/c...
COS Statement on “Restoring Gold Standard Science” Executive Order
The Executive Order issued on May 23, 2025, Restoring Gold Standard Science, references several open science practices championed by COS and the open science and metascience communities more generally...
www.cos.io
May 29, 2025 at 8:27 PM
🆕 COS statement on the "Restoring Gold Standard Science" Executive Order
The EO names important open science principles, but their application here is counter to open science's purpose to accelerate discovery, advance treatments, & create knowledge.
📄 Read our statement: www.cos.io/about/news/c...
The EO names important open science principles, but their application here is counter to open science's purpose to accelerate discovery, advance treatments, & create knowledge.
📄 Read our statement: www.cos.io/about/news/c...
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Just astonishing: which airport book is ‘email jobs’ from, and which 1970s fantasy about everyone being in ‘production’ is this? Just utter ‘know your place’ stuff.
Certain Blue Labour backbenchers seem happy to publicly attack higher education, saying Britain needs vocational roles instead.
But what did they choose for themselves? Elite higher education, of course.
www.theneweuropean.co.uk/james-ball-i...
But what did they choose for themselves? Elite higher education, of course.
www.theneweuropean.co.uk/james-ball-i...
May 29, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Just astonishing: which airport book is ‘email jobs’ from, and which 1970s fantasy about everyone being in ‘production’ is this? Just utter ‘know your place’ stuff.
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Its just warm words - like all funding agencies, universities, journals ("excellence" etc)... Only the implementation & detail really matters to me. (Not taking 'a side' on this one!)
May 27, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Its just warm words - like all funding agencies, universities, journals ("excellence" etc)... Only the implementation & detail really matters to me. (Not taking 'a side' on this one!)
Here's a thought experiment for you all: If a seemingly sane and science-literate government (I.e., not Trump) passed a law saying that all government policy must be based on reproducible, transparent research thats open to null findings, how would everyone react? #metascience
May 27, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Here's a thought experiment for you all: If a seemingly sane and science-literate government (I.e., not Trump) passed a law saying that all government policy must be based on reproducible, transparent research thats open to null findings, how would everyone react? #metascience
Any researchers in the Netherlands interested in the effects of #openresearch policies/practices on academic workload or administrative burden? Please get in touch! I would love to collaborate with you on a project for this funding opportunity
A new funding opportunity to do research on #openscience. Open for researchers ánd professional support staff working in the NLs. Help build the evidence base for #openscience. A budget of 2,7m€ is available for ~10 projects of 250k€.
More information:
www.openscience.nl/en/news/rese...
More information:
www.openscience.nl/en/news/rese...
May 27, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Any researchers in the Netherlands interested in the effects of #openresearch policies/practices on academic workload or administrative burden? Please get in touch! I would love to collaborate with you on a project for this funding opportunity
Reposted by Tom Hostler
There’s the weaponization of open science y’all. Basically ripped from @cos.io’s website. The ROI for leaders speaking up is the highest it will be now, and only decline over time as these policies take shape and grow teeth.
May 24, 2025 at 4:05 AM
There’s the weaponization of open science y’all. Basically ripped from @cos.io’s website. The ROI for leaders speaking up is the highest it will be now, and only decline over time as these policies take shape and grow teeth.
Trying to keep up with this #metascience EO debate but this seems bang-on. To everyone saying "if it wasn't the science reform mvt it would be something else to justify this"...what else could possibly exist that would support the EO so effectively than a decade of 'science in crisis' literature?
The result of this is a literature that near fully supports the policies. They don’t have to twist the science to weaponize it. If they cut funding because science is broken, and universities challenge—they can just cite a decade of work saying science is wasteful to persuade the judge.
May 27, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Trying to keep up with this #metascience EO debate but this seems bang-on. To everyone saying "if it wasn't the science reform mvt it would be something else to justify this"...what else could possibly exist that would support the EO so effectively than a decade of 'science in crisis' literature?
Reposted by Tom Hostler
1. It's Fustilarian Friday and today's drop is the "Restoring Gold Standard Science" executive order.
My read is that this is designed to (1) protect far-fringe figures such as the antvaxxers now heading our health agencies, and (2) kneecap efforts to use scientific evidence in regulatory policy.
My read is that this is designed to (1) protect far-fringe figures such as the antvaxxers now heading our health agencies, and (2) kneecap efforts to use scientific evidence in regulatory policy.
Restoring Gold Standard Science
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United
www.whitehouse.gov
May 24, 2025 at 5:24 AM
1. It's Fustilarian Friday and today's drop is the "Restoring Gold Standard Science" executive order.
My read is that this is designed to (1) protect far-fringe figures such as the antvaxxers now heading our health agencies, and (2) kneecap efforts to use scientific evidence in regulatory policy.
My read is that this is designed to (1) protect far-fringe figures such as the antvaxxers now heading our health agencies, and (2) kneecap efforts to use scientific evidence in regulatory policy.
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Also the anti-pluralist stance embedded in the reform to further this reductionist narrative has from the getgo had authoritative, at times fascist tendencies.
This isn't the time to talk about our good intentions; we're way past that. It's time to take responsibility, to be humble and accountable.
This isn't the time to talk about our good intentions; we're way past that. It's time to take responsibility, to be humble and accountable.
May 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Also the anti-pluralist stance embedded in the reform to further this reductionist narrative has from the getgo had authoritative, at times fascist tendencies.
This isn't the time to talk about our good intentions; we're way past that. It's time to take responsibility, to be humble and accountable.
This isn't the time to talk about our good intentions; we're way past that. It's time to take responsibility, to be humble and accountable.
Reposted by Tom Hostler
Again, this is not a blame issue for me but points to the fact that (as I have said many times) the seemingly apolitical nature of science reform works against the (imo) real issues of labour and collective organisation.
May 24, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Again, this is not a blame issue for me but points to the fact that (as I have said many times) the seemingly apolitical nature of science reform works against the (imo) real issues of labour and collective organisation.
This paper is an interesting case study example to come along so soon after the equally viral discussion on "stop using the phrase 'scientific consensus' and start using 'convergent evidence' instead'" - see www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 19, 2025 at 10:38 AM
This paper is an interesting case study example to come along so soon after the equally viral discussion on "stop using the phrase 'scientific consensus' and start using 'convergent evidence' instead'" - see www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hello followers! I'm back on Bluesky after 6 months of work-free parental leave. What have I missed? Please share with me any interesting Open research/Metascience publications, blog posts, or juicy scandals I should catch up on! #openresearch #metasci
April 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Hello followers! I'm back on Bluesky after 6 months of work-free parental leave. What have I missed? Please share with me any interesting Open research/Metascience publications, blog posts, or juicy scandals I should catch up on! #openresearch #metasci