@petersuber@academicchatter It's a bit strange that most of the Nature commentary goes out of its way to quote other Chinese scientists who claim things are not that bad, actually.
I've gotten to that delirious, sleep-deprived point of the submission process where looking up a list of species names has me thinking that "Gorilla gorilla gorilla" is something I need to share with other humans.
Can #UK#academics explain these spammy emails from publication agencies who want to feature my academic articles? I've been told this this a scam, but I'm not sure how -- do they charge money to do this? Is this related to the dreaded #REF?
As far as I'm concerned, if some publication wants to write a feature based on one of my publications... go for it. You don't need to contact me about it.
I'm invited to be jury of a #PhD thesis in #Porto 🇵🇹 which defence could be attended either in person or remotely. I find a decent route by #train from #Marseille 🇫🇷 , via #Madrid 🇪🇸 for a total of 4 trains to reach the destination and about 2 days in the train / stations, both ways for 2 days in Porto.
Regardless of the cost,, and considering the potentiel benefit in terms of exemplarity, would you attend in person ?
@AlexSanterne
I think you know the answer already. 😃
And I'm pretty sure it will be also a better experience for the candidate, in particular if you have the chance to talk to him/her in person before the defence. @jknodlseder@academicchatter
Seven a.m. and I cannot sleep. Very happy to say that my doctoral defense yesterday went as well as it could.
So, as my co-supervisor put it, I'm now "on the academic market" :D
I think the best part of this (except for my wonderful colleagues and friends, who celebrated me yesterday) is that I may now write about whatever I feel like (after finishing the projects I'm already involved in …)! #PhDlife @academicchatter
Let me count some ways that Academia Edu has declined in its zeal to monetize. The latest is that no URLs in articles that I've seen are active links anymore!
Before, non-members could scroll down to read articles, but now they have to provide personal info.
As a free member I'm usually hit with a pop-up on arrival. They flatter users by citing a large but false number of mentions to get them to become paying members. One Indian professor was boasting on FB thousands of citations, but I found only 27 for him on Google Scholar. When I pointed that out, he blocked me.
There were Academia Letters and then journals, first free and then pay to publish (like $2,000).
Academia Edu can amplify our works if they want, with nearly 300 million users signed up. That's the attraction to us, but their temptation to exploit. Comments?
After many criticisms of Academia Edu, I didn't have space to discuss alternative research repositories like ResearchGate, or open access repositories like Knowledge Commons (which also maintains a sizeable Mastodon instance) -- details under: https://hcommons.social/@SteveMcCarty/112635424860940626
ResearchGate purports to be more exclusive but still allows non-members to scroll down to read in-text articles. However, they might also be tempted toward #enshittification (in Cory Doctorow's colorful parlance). To an extent we have to hold our nose ;-) to gain the network effects of Academia Edu and ResearchGate, but if they become too unethical or difficult to reach readers, we can move our works and links to an open access repository like Knowledge Commons. Most members use it additionally for blogging, but I recommend it as a free Website host as well, such as my central Website on Japan, online education, bilingualism, and the academic life: https://japanned.hcommons.org
SPPS has issued an "expression of concern" about an article from 2015 because first author had two articles retracted and the PhD degree revoked bc of data fabrication. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506241261712 As I see it, there is no direct evidence yet for data fabrication for the article under scrutiny.
Honest question: Is it justified to post an expression of concern? I see the that the odds of data fabrication are increasing for every other article by the author that is retracted. 1/ @academicchatter
I think it makes sense to alert readers to the heightened probability of fraud, so this „expression of concern“ (not a verdict yet) makes sense to me. Maybe they just should keep it as a warning sign. But the process seems to require a decision that either leads to a correction/retraction or a removal of the expression of concern.
@AlexSanterne@academicchatter I don’t think scientists have changed because people haven’t changed, and man is the history of science littered with petty shit
"ChatGPT Edu, powered by GPT-4o, is designed for universities to responsibly integrate AI into academic and campus operations. This advanced AI tool supports text and vision reasoning, data analysis, and offers enterprise-level security."
Based on everything we know about AI, I am sure nothing could possibly go wrong with this new tool to integrate it into our #teaching and campus operations more broadly.
/Obvious sarcasm
Closed out the paperwork for the Spring term yesterday and, with my first post-semester deadlines approaching, I'm realizing that I seriously under-budgeted the amount of time I would need to stare into near space.
@RonaldVisser@academicchatter totally agree that it is a problem that being unlucky to end up in a toxic department does not make the existence of the toxic department OK.
by the way, now that I work in Germany I learned that in Germany this department was widely known as being toxic at that time already, so there were also mentoring issues in the sense that she was not warned what she was getting into. Very sad.
@freyablekman@academicchatter
So sad! I know all too well that some people can create toxic environments and that you are not always warned beforehand... I think that she correctly identifies some causes on her video. I hope the future of academia will be more open and more supportive and less a competitive rat race...
Interviewing PhD candidates for the first time and the role reversal feels... weird! All the candidates bring something different to the table and it's such a tough call to decide who makes the cut.
It's an exciting task, isn't it? Remember that you're hiring the best fit, a person who will grow and help others grow, not necessarily the best scientist/potential scientist on paper.
🧵 What is this? After pushing UC for 4 years now to quit designing buildings where inaccessibility is the default, a main entrance to a building is wheelchair accessible?
Ah, there's the UC Davis we know. Unnecessary steps because you weren't specifically PAID to do your duty under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act nor to actually make a public university accessible to the public.