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We need more kindness & trust in research. Plus join our board!
New resources for preprints, a guide for new PIs and so much more!
Jonny Coates
September 30, 2025
News from Rippling Ideas
We’re giving our first keynote talk next month! All our slide decks will be available on Zenodo. Check out our YouTube channel for brand new videos - including one on why we focus on preprints.
We’ve formally registered as a non-profit company this month 🎉 Join our board - Expressions of interest due by 31st October.
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Preprints & Open Science
Preprints in Motion
Rippling Ideas latest activity
Selected News
Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons
Publishing Beyond the Market argues that the move to open access should focus less on the free accessibility of research outputs and more on who controls the publications and infrastructures for scholarly communication. New from Samuel Moore and the top of my reading list. See also this op-ed.
NIH explores capping APCs: Let’s look at the evidence
Should be required reading for anyone thinking of responding. See also this from Chris Marcum.
How the Global South is reshaping scholarly communication
It’s so important to stop ignoring the contributions of the Global South in favour of our own ideas. This piece gives a great example for Diamond OA in particular.
How to be a scientist in a post-journal world
“Preprint your work. Write for the scientists who will build on your research, not for editors and reviewers who will judge it.“
Open Science Hardware Foundation announces priority programs
From Surviving to Thriving: A Convening to Reclaim and Sustain Open Science Communities
For the first time the effect of OS indicators on citations has been investigated for an entire country
An article sharing data is linked to 14.3% increase in citations.
An article published as a preprint is linked to 19% increase in citations.
UN Scientific Advisory Board adopts landmark statement on Open Science
HHMI adopts plan U [response by Prachee Avasthi & Mike Eisen]
This Mandates preprinting, stops paying for APCs and redirects savings into open science
A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication
Understanding Indian researcher’s perspectives on preprints: insights from a nationwide survey
The same issues coming up as other surveys; fear of scooping, unclear journal policies, lack of recognition or formal evaluation.
Academic Culture
Selected News
Research Integrity needs kindness agenda or we will lose ECRs
This is the essence of Rippling Ideas. Also the second month in a row we’re featuring an article by the brilliant Maddi!
Systemic territoriality in academia: The Gollum effect’s impact on scientific research and careers
MA3 Challenge: Modernizing Academic Appointment & Advancement
$50-250k grants to develop better academic reward systems for US based institutions. Really great to see funding dedicated to this, even if it is only US.
Can a bold ‘social contract’ make data sharing more palatable?
Reputation versus sunlight – universities and the new duty of candour
The new Public Office (Accountability) Bill has huge potential for improving academic culture.
Distributed Peer Review – How the wisdom of the crowd can allocate grant funding
Academia.edu now requires “worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to any users voice and likeness for any manner”. I’d urge researchers to consider deleting their accounts and not agreeing to these new terms.
Lack of geographic diversity in peer review skews “publishable” research
The Max Planck Survey Report 2024
“28% of postdocs show signs of moderate to severe clinical depression, and 25% of postdocs show signs of moderate to severe anxiety, both of which are three times higher than the general German population of the same age”
Language, economic and gender disparities widen the scientific productivity gap
Trust in Research
Rippling Ideas latest activity
Selected News
Utrecht University has decided not to renew its licence for access to the Web of Science
Millions of taxpayers’ money has been awarded to researchers associated with fictitious network & After retraction: the missing link of research funding accountability
“I’d Like to Think I’d Be Able to Spot One”: How Journalists Navigate Predatory Journals
More excellent work from Alice Fleerackers! “We find that journalists have relatively limited awareness and/or concern about predatory journals. Much of this attitude is due to confidence in their established practices for avoiding problematic research, which largely centre on perceptions of journal prestige, reputation, and familiarity”
The focus on peer-reviewed articles is concerning as it just reinforces the notion of peer review performing a function that is simply not backed by evidence
Slaying the hydra of journal impact factor obsession in evaluating conservation biology research
What do researchers acknowledge ChatGPT for in their papers?
Diversification and Decentralization of Peer Review: Part 1—Initiatives at the Forefront
openRxiv partners with Dryad to streamline data sharing and curation
ChatGPT is blind to bad science & Prestige over merit: An adapted audit of LLM bias in peer review
More of these kinds of studies is vital. ChatGPT perpetuates retracted research & prioritises “prestigious” affiliations.
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Join our board! Expressions of interest due by 31st October.
What’s coming up?
We’ll be at the CZI Open Science meeting in October
We’re presenting at the preprints.org webinar ‘Who Has a Voice in Open Science?’ on October 13 [register]