David Harding

This animated globe by @tylermorganwall gives us a rather immersive view of global population. I particularly love how clear the "empty hemisphere" appears.

@fake_journals In short, No. In long, read the papers submitted and judge whether the applicant has reached the University standards based on that. Use external referees if you are concerned about internal issues.

Should universities rely on journal quartiles in promotion/hiring decisions? In many universities, publication quality is often judged using journal quartiles. Q1 and Q2 are seen as the most prestigious. Q3 and Q4 follow behind. The logic seems simple: if a researcher publishes in higher-ranked journals, the work must be of better quality, right? But this raises an important question. Should promotion and hiring committees be relying so heavily on journal quartiles? ________________________________________ Why quartiles became popular Quartiles simplify evaluation. Committees must compare researchers across disciplines, outputs and career stages. Journal rankings offer a quick signal. ⚫️ Q1 = strong ⚫️ Q2 = solid ⚫️ Q3/Q4 = weaker This makes decisions easier. But easier is not always better. ________________________________________ What quartiles actually measure Quartiles are based on citation metrics such as Impact Factor (Clarivate) or CiteScore (Scopus). They reflect the average citation performance of a journal, not the quality of an individual paper. A strong paper can appear in a lower-ranked journal. A weaker paper can appear in a highly ranked one. As I discussed in a recent paper, metrics are often presented as single numbers without context, making them easy to misinterpret. ________________________________________ The shift in academic judgement When quartiles dominate, academic judgement shifts. Instead of asking: ⚫️ What is the contribution of this article? ⚫️ How influential is the work? The question becomes: ⚫️ How many Q1 papers has this researcher published? Institutions risk outsourcing judgement to ranking systems. ________________________________________ The incentives this creates Researchers respond to how they are assessed. This can lead to: ⚫️ Targeting journals for their quartile, not their audience ⚫️ Avoiding niche or specialist outlets ⚫️ Playing it safe with research topics Over time, this shapes research culture. ________________________________________ Some practical questions for institutions ⚫️ A journal can sit in different quartiles across categories (e.g. Q2 in one, Q3 in another, even in the same indexing platform). Do you ask for the category? ⚫️ Quartiles change year-on-year. Do you ask which year they are citing from, why that year is used and whether it is consistent across the CV? ⚫️ Simply saying “Q1” on a CV is not good enough. You need to know the indexing platform (as a minimum) ________________________________________ Final thoughts Metrics should inform judgement, not replace it. How does your institution approach this? I’m also interested in hearing how promotion/hiring panels handle this in practice. ________________________________________ Reference ⚫️ Kendall, G. (2024) More Transparency is Needed When Citing h-indexes, Journal Impact Factors and CiteScores. Publishing Research Quarterly, 40(1): 80–99. buff.ly/Fhk0qHc

@simongerman600 I think this is really interesting. It's something we see in movies too. Everything has become darker and humour is sadly lacking in drama at a time when I'd argue we need it most.

In the 1990s we all watched sitcoms. Now we don't (if so its probably Friends or Seinfeld reruns). Source: statsignificant.com/p/the-rise-and…

@Ella_Maru It's a real minefield and in published work I do not currently use AI. But I note that national funding agencies here in Thailand frequently use AI generated images (it's really easy to spot this). Like you I wonder what images were used to train these AI tools?

🤖 Can you submit an AI-generated image to a scientific journal? Not always - and the rules depend heavily on the journal. In our new Matter of Opinion, “Patchwork policies: Mapping the divergent AI-image rules in scientific journals,” published in Matter by Cell Press, we looked at how journals handle AI-generated visuals. cell.com/matter/abstrac… What we found is a real patchwork of policies. Some journals completely ban AI-generated images, others allow them only with disclosure, and a few take a more flexible approach. For authors, this creates a confusing landscape when deciding what is acceptable before submission. 🔎 To clarify this landscape, we summarized policies across many major publishers in a table (attached image). We grouped journals into three categories: ▪️ AI images not allowed ▪️ Allowed with conditions ▪️ Flexible or experimental policies But the differences between policies highlight a deeper issue. Many journals now ask authors to disclose the AI tool used. However, disclosure alone does not answer a critical question: Were the images used to train the model created and licensed with permission? Our conclusion: Disclosure ≠ Permission. Simply naming an AI tool does not guarantee that the training data was licensed or that the resulting image can legally be used in a publication. Beyond legal concerns, AI-generated visuals can also introduce scientific inaccuracies (“hallucinations”) that look convincing but are factually incorrect, and generating them can also have a significant environmental footprint. In our view, AI-generated images should be allowed only when the models were trained on datasets developed or licensed with proper permissions. At the same time, there is a need for a clearer, unified approach that encourages innovation without compromising scientific integrity. Curious to hear your thoughts. #ScientificPublishing #AI #SciArt #ResearchIntegrity #AcademicPublishing

@felixdemoya In fact, this would be useful across the SCImago rankings.

@GroupHarding Good idea! Will try It.

The first infographics are now available on the SCImago Integrity Risk Indicators platform (scimagoiris.com/viztools.php). These charts allow users to filter IRIS results by region and indicator for the period 2020-2024, based on Scopus data.

@Ajarncom I sometimes think that part of the appeal was the nostalgia for a different time. The truth is that even in its prime, it was showcasing a UK that no longer existed.

There wasn't a sitcom I hated more. It was always the Sunday night before a new week at school ... and you hadn't done your French homework. 50 years later, even the theme tune makes me want to burst into tears. You could write the scripts. The three old boys find two planks of wood and four old pram wheels behind a hedge. The rest you can guess. It was utter shite.

I think a ranking of ASEAN unis would be more helpful for unis in the region. I do think that changes in the weighting will be needed for ASEAN universities, in particular a lower weighting for the Cite Impact indicator to ensure fairness.

@SebVidalChem We studied this in geography. It's called the 'empty diagonal' and exists largely due to the terrain in these parts of France and the movement of people into cities in the 19th and 20th centuries. It extends into Spain too.

Funny how France is nearly empty apart from Paris and sea shores

@simongerman600 I would argue that’s because music was more distinctive in the 80s. But if I am honest I lost interest by the early 00s and I have no idea who the new musical acts are.

We remember the 80s perfectly, but the 2000s are a mess. Analysis of 18,000 guesses on song release years. Source: reddit.com/user/simongerm…

I note that the minister for MHESI said most unis are on a break anyway. Universities don't only teach, they have research and academic service and this doesn't only happen during term time. It concerns me that the minister seems unaware of this.

@Ajarncom @emirates We had to cancel our trip to the UK last minute and got about 90% of our money back (I think). I can’t remember how long it took. But this was just after Covid when airlines were being more lenient.

For those with experience, what are @emirates like at giving out refunds? How long do you typically have to wait until you see money back in your account?

This is an incredibly sad statistic. Reading is a path to knowledge, imagination and fun. With what's going on in the world, I find the need to read even more than ever.

I joined Twitter 11 years ago apparently. Much has changed in that time and it's sad that the Twitter chemistry community has largely left the platform. #MyXAnniversary

That’s pretty blatant. I always wonder why anyone would do this? But there are questions about how the pressures that unis put on their staff contribute to this behaviour.

⚠️ SHUT UP: Everything is “Fine” Say Billionaires. #BrokenNews

Our recent accounts on Triple-stranded supramolecular helicates enable host–guest synergy, tunable spin-crossover, single-ion magnetism, anion recognition, and quantum coherence advances. Cheers to All 😇😊@labmoldesign pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

As a Brit living in Thailand, naturally this map is wrong!

Our Beginner’s guide to spin crossover is now available as an advance article. Thanks to #CrystEngComm for getting the review published so quickly and if you do find the review useful, please cite it often! #spincrossover #molecularswitches pubs.rsc.org/en/content/art…

Distribution of average scientific integrity risks by universities and regions of the world (scimagoiris.com) according to information provided by Indicators of Research Integrity by SCimago (IRIS). Data source @Scopus, period 2020-2024.