For a forthcoming article, I need some statistics to illustrate how PubPeer performs. AFAIK know there is only one report from 2021 so I had to try something by my own.
Continue reading PubPeer Statistics
It’s always interesting if we can find a discussion under a PubPeer article with more than 3 comments. Elisabeth Bik collected some of these interesting #PubPeer Pearls at Twitter while I am starting a new collection here.
The longest thread that I remember is this one with 290 comments around a retracted article while my most appreciated PubPeer author Continue reading PubPeer Pearls I
We all know that there are animal co-authors in the scientific literature like the dog of Polly Matzinger. Here is another example, see a further nice story of Sophie Fessl …
Three journalists writing about science journalism, administration & support jobs
In recent years, we have seen ‘support’ jobs become more important at research organizations, including roles such as data stewards, research software engineers, scientific community managers and program managers. We have seen how a diversity of roles and contributions drives progress and success in research and innovation. We have come to see the sharp distinction between ‘academics’ and ‘support staff’ as a barrier to effective research because it discourages a culture of collaboration and appreciation of a diversity of roles and contributions. As professionals, we make a significant contribution alongside conventional academics….We work in partnership with researchers, contributing unique expertise and skills.
I think this is much more a trauma from the inside of journalists, department managers et al. than from “active scientists” aka academics who plan, analyse, publish and teach a continuous stream of new ideas. Without standing on the shoulders of others, also the most prolific scientist would fail immediately.
Es irrt der Mensch solang er lebt, weil er so gern nach dem Falschen strebt (Uhlenbrock). Nach längerem Tiefflug nun wieder mal ein Fischer Höhenflug über Irrtum und Schuld
Der Mensch ist nicht allwissend. Sagen wir: Er könnte alles wissen, weiß es aber nicht. Was ihn auszeichnet, ist sein Zwang zur Kausalität. Der Hering nimmt die Welt, wie sie kommt. Der Schimpanse zweifelt. Der Mensch ist sicher, dass alles im Universum eine Ursache hat. Wenn er sie nicht kennt, ändert er diese Ansicht nicht: Er kennt die Ursachen dann eben »noch« nicht. Wenn alle Wissenschaft vollbracht ist, werden wir alle Ursachen und Folgen des Kosmos kennen. Wer das nicht glaubt, kann immer noch an Gott glauben. Nur wer die Welt für ursachenlos hält, ist verrückt.
Wolf Lotter im Standard
Alle halten sich für kreativ. Doch unsere Kultur produziert Verwalter am laufenden Band.
Die Realität ist ein Witz, den man ernst nehmen muss. Auf einem Foto, das im Web kursiert, sieht man elf Männer auf einer Baustelle. Jeder von ihnen hat eine Bildlegende, in der steht, wofür sie zuständig sind. Der Erste sitzt entspannt. Das ist der Human-Resources-Manager.
Rechts neben ihm steht, die Hände locker in die Hüften gestemmt, der Marketing-Manager, daneben der Logistik- und der Communication-Manager, die sich dem Internal Supervisor zuwenden, der sich erschöpft auf einer Schaufel abstützt. Dahinter checkt der Security-Manager seine Mails, das macht auch der IT-Manager gleich nebenan, und der Project-Manager rechts von den beiden unterhält sich mit dem Product-Development-Manager, der seinen Fuß cool auf einem Erdhaufen abstützt. Den hat einer ausgehoben, der von all den anderen umringt wird, er steht in einem Loch und schaufelt und schwitzt.
es ist höchst angebracht: Springer nennt endlich seine Zeitschriften um
| Der Anaesthesist | Die Anaesthesiologie |
| Der Chirurg | Die Chirurgie |
| Der Deutsche Dermatologe | Deutsche Dermatologie |
| Der Diabetologe | Die Diabetologie |
| Der Gastroenterologe | Die Gastroenterologie |
| Der Gynäkologe | Die Gynäkologie |
| Der Hautarzt | Die Dermatologie |
| Der Internist | Die Innere Medizin |
| Der Kardiologe | Die Kardiologie |
| Der MKG-Chirurg | Die MKG-Chirurgie |
| Der Nephrologe | Die Nephrologie |
| Der Neurologe und Psychiater (DNP) | DNP – Die Neurologie & Psychiatrie |
| Der Onkologe | Die Onkologie |
| Der Ophthalmologe | Die Ophthalmologie |
| Der Orthopäde | Die Orthopädie |
| Der Pathologe | Die Pathologie |
| Der Pneumologe | Zeitschrift für Pneumologie |
| Psychotherapeut | Die Psychotherapie |
| Der Radiologe | Die Radiologie |
| Der Unfallchirurg | Die Unfallchirurgie |
| Der Urologe | Die Urologie |
https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.0638 explains an experiment leading to an increase of 774 citations in 129 papers basically as they
created a fake researcher (Marco Alberto Pantani-Contador — a reference to two infamous cyclists, Marco Pantani and Alberto Contador, each of whom was accused of blood doping). Copying and pasting text from a website, adding a few figures and graphs and lots and lots of self-citations … created six fake documents, translated them into English using Google Translate, and uploaded them to a new webpage under their university’s domain. It was a process, the authors explain, that took less than half a day’s work.
from referee3
Even citation counts, the supposed gold standard, are close to worthless: only a tiny fraction of citations represent serious evaluation or validation, whereas the great majority represent nothing more than lazy copying and fashion-following. Two anecdotes demonstrate just how worthless citation counts can be:Some of the most highly-cited researchers in the world have been exposed as gaming the citation system and as charlatans. Papers with thousands of citations turn out to be false; obviously not one of those citations represented a serious validation.
Es gibt zwar viele Fallgeschichten von out of body experience und Nahtoderfahrung. Angeblich soll der Körper auch 21 Gramm leichter werden aber verlässliche Daten gibt es keine. Eine neue Arbeit beschreibt aber nun die Hirnaktivität eines 87jährigen der einen Herzstillstand unter laufendem EEG erleidet.
Cross-frequency coupling revealed modulation of left-hemispheric gamma activity by alpha and theta rhythms across all windows, even after cessation of cerebral blood flow. The strongest coupling is observed for narrow- and broad-band gamma activity by the alpha waves during left-sided suppression and after cardiac arrest.
Die Vorerkrankung schränkt die Aussagekraft zwar ein, aber die Autoren schreiben
The alpha band is thought to critically interfere in cognitive processes by inhibiting networks that are irrelevant or disruptive … Given that cross-coupling between alpha and gamma activity is involved in cognitive processes and memory recall in healthy subjects, it is intriguing to speculate that such activity could support a last “recall of life” that may take place in the near-death state.
I think most active researchers are against the permanent rating of their work by research administrators like
as nobody can reliable measure the true relevance of their work.
There is an interesting study “When Good People Break Bad: Moral Impression Violations in Everyday Life” by the Canadian PhD student Kate Guan and her advisor Steven Heine. It is a phenomenon that is annoying many people if we look at the reactions to Twitter posts und PubPeer entries accusing scientists of wrong doing. The paper provides some explanations Continue reading Good scientists doing wrong
PubMed had an own comments feature “PubMed Commons” which had been shut down in 2018.
NIH announced it will be discontinuing the service — which allowed only signed comments from authors with papers indexed in PubMed, among other restrictions — after more than four years, due to a lack of interest.
But there is no lack of interest, if we look at the ever increasing rates at PubPeer – the counter today is 122.000.
The main difference between PubMed Commons and PubPeer is the chance of submitting anonymous comments. While I also see a risk of unjustified accusations or online stalking, I believe that the current PubPeer coordinators handle this issue very well. We can post only issues that are obvious, directly visible or backed up by another source. Continue reading PubPeer should be merged into Pubmed (at some time point)
One of those papers I wish I would have had the idea ;-)
The question is how phrases expressing nonsignificant results have been reported in RCTs over the past 30 years.
incredible … and it is even tortured science to rely on p<0.05 – for a discussion see references 1, 2 and 3.
