Matt Hardy

@DrHelenECollin1 That's awesome - well done, Helen!

I am incredibly thankful to be honored by the American Physiology Society in the name of Dr. Guyton. Extremely thankful to my mentors at at UofL SOM, the Envirome Institute, and the Center for Cardiometabolic Science (and beyond) for supporting my laboratory and career. Special thanks to Steven Jones, Bradford Hill, and Merry Lindsey for believing in me especially when I didn’t necessarily believe in myself, and for wholeheartedly supporting me. Now I better get to work and continue the marathon.

🚨Deadline Approaching! We’re calling for applications for the Physiological Reviews Editor-in-Chief position! 📅Application deadline: April 30, 2026 🎙️Candidate interviews: Spring 2026 🖱️Apply now! ow.ly/ktbc50YCOz2

New UK screen time rules just dropped — and they’re stricter than most parents expected. From 27 March 2026, England says: zero solo screens for under-2s (except quick video calls with family), and max one hour a day for 2–5 year olds — no screens at meals or the hour before bed. Co-view everything, stick to slow-paced content, and ditch fast social-media clips and AI toys completely. The science is sobering: toddlers’ brains process info up to 10 times slower than adults. Fast-paced screens push them into fight-or-flight mode — racing heart, surging energy — while they’re sitting still. Researchers at the University of East London say this mismatch can wire kids for more tantrums and emotional struggles later. Using screens to calm meltdowns? It often backfires long-term. As a parent, it’s brutal — we all know that explosion the second you take the tablet away. But this feels like evidence finally catching up with what our gut has been telling us. How are you handling screens with little ones — strict limits, co-viewing, or mostly winging it?

When a machine can now mimic the work of a human being, many of us, especially students, must be asking what the point is anymore. That’s a much more dangerous and slippery problem than students submitting AI-generated work.

It’s brutal in academia right now. A lot is out of our control, but it doesn’t cost anything to remember that there are humans behind papers and grants. Reviewers, program officials and funders can be more empathetic in the face of all the chaos in the US scientific enterprise.

Calling all UK-based education-focused academics! We know what an Early Career Researcher (ECR), but what is an Early Career Educator (ECE)?! We're keen to create a definition of the ECE to understand the challenges faced in this role and make informed suggestions to better them.

Here is our updated database of grants for early careers researchers in all fields. It goes way beyond traditional NIH and NSF funding opportunities. We list 428 types of grants. Download it here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-op…

@fake_journals have you seen this?

@fake_journals Sadly, I have often been impacted by whether I need to source article processing charges or not.

Are journal metrics quietly replacing editorial judgement? When researchers decide where to submit a paper, the discussion often begins with numbers. ⚫️ Impact Factor ⚫️ CiteScore ⚫️ Quartile rankings ⚫️ Journal lists These indicators appear precise. They are widely used by universities, promotion committees and research assessment systems. As a result, they have become embedded in the culture of scholarly publishing and are used to inform many decisions, including which journal to submit to. But there is an uncomfortable question behind this behaviour. Are journal metrics quietly replacing editorial judgement? ________________________________________ Taking the road of least resistance Metrics make decisions easier. Instead of examining how a journal actually operates, researchers can look at a single number and feel confident that they have chosen a “good” venue. In practice, many submission decisions are influenced by signals such as: ⚫️ Impact Factor or CiteScore ⚫️ Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 rankings ⚫️ Presence in major databases ⚫️ Journal rankings used by institutions None of these indicators are meaningless. They provide a rough signal about visibility and citation performance. However, they tell us very little about how a journal actually handles manuscripts or whether it is the best place for your paper. ________________________________________ What metrics do not show A journal metric does not tell you: ⚫️ How rigorous the peer review process is ⚫️ How decisions are made by editors ⚫️ Whether editorial board members are active ⚫️ How carefully reviewers engage with submissions ⚫️ Whether the journal maintains consistent editorial standards Two journals with very similar metrics may operate in completely different ways. One may run a careful, editor-led review process. Another may rely on minimal editorial oversight. Yet to the outside world, the numbers can make the journals look almost identical. ________________________________________ The risk of metric-driven behaviour Metrics were originally intended as descriptive indicators. Over time they have become decision tools. When this happens, a subtle shift occurs. Researchers stop asking questions about how journals function and begin to rely on the number itself. This can create a situation where reputation is inferred from metrics rather than from editorial practice or publishing standards. In extreme cases, the metric becomes the journal. ________________________________________ A simple question Before submitting your next paper, consider this. Do you evaluate the editorial quality of a journal? Or do you mainly look at the metrics attached to its name? Many of us probably recognise both behaviours in ourselves. I would be interested to hear how others approach this decision. When you choose a journal, what matters most to you?

⏰ 6 DAYS LEFT TO APPLY ⏰ Are you an ECR seeking some Editorial Board experience? 🎓 Our #EditorialBoardFellowship is a great opportunity to be directly involved in the editorial process under the guidance of a Senior Editor! Apply now:⤵️ buff.ly/gYZGdKA

Don't miss this great opportunity! #ECR

@DrHelenFry Dr. Stewart F. Alexander, who not only saved many lives by recognising the presence of Mustard Gas after the air raid at Bari (when it shouldn't have been there), but whose discoveries at that air raid were also instrumental for the future development of chemotherapy.

Who is a WW2 hero or heroine that everybody should know about?

🚨We’re calling for applications for the Physiological Reviews Editor-in-Chief position! 📅Application deadline: April 30, 2026 🎙️Candidate interviews: Spring 2026 🖱️Apply now! ow.ly/HlqW50YbNfp

@ProfLowande @seanjwestwood Hey! Can we keep beards out of this? I used AI to grow mine.

@seanjwestwood this "prophet of academAI doom" thing wouldn't work without the beard. No one as well positioned as you; keep it coming.

Faculty raging against AI: are you just openly abdicating your responsibility to prepare students for what's coming? AI is the future. Your anger doesn't change that. It just means your students learn it from someone else--or don't learn it at all. Enrollments will respond.

Whether by intent or not, there is no denying the truth in the title of this article.

I'll bite. Large language models CANNOT write systematic literature reviews because they are token-prediction models. "Reviews" that they produce are not "reproducible" in the way that systematic literature reviews must be. Maybe time for social "science" to stop playing

Looking to add a little humour to your #meded life? Look no further than the 60th Anniversary issue: Medical Education Unleashed. Check it out here: …epublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652923/2… #MedEd @asmeofficial

This paper introduces the idea of narrative candour - how doctors can share counter narratives that introduce stories of everyday imperfection, rather than unachievable tales of heroism #MedEd @asmeofficial …epublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/me…

@nationalrailenq @GC_Rail @northernassist And the diverted trains didn't rejoin until Hebden Bridge.

@nationalrailenq @GC_Rail @northernassist but not Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, Todmorden etc. The second point would be, that if the bus won't travel to the end of the route, at least get it to where trains are travelling from (e.g. today's finished in Halifax, when there were no services onwards)

⚠️NEW #BradfordInterchange - Disruption at Bradford Interchange expected until 15:45 nationalrail.co.uk/service-disrup…