Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

in sum: it's cool to see how a meta-scientific self-evaluation system keeps effectively adapting to the world around it, is epistemically based on multiple types & sources of knowledge (incl actual research), and does its best to serve the scientific community and its funder (society)

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

as a solution to more clearly assessing MDPI, frontiers etc for levels O/1 we now have a solid list of features to consult (use translate again) -- visibly, this is basically a list of things that MDPI/frontiers need to change if they want to return to 1 🔥🔥🔥

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Tarkistuslista: Tieteellisten lehtien laadunarviointikäytäntöjen puutteet

Tarkistuslista: Tieteellisten lehtien laadunarviointikäytäntöjen puutteet Kutsut Tutkijoita lähestytään toistuvasti sähköpostitse kirjoittajiksi, arvioijiksi tai toimittajiksi ilman heidän omaa aloite...

docs.google.com

1 1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

then some truly sensible discussion about MDPI & frontiers, as usual -- you should first read @jpolonen.bsky.social 's highly informative post about how/why things have moved, use translate if you don't read FI

blogs.helsinki.fi/thinkopen/vu...

Suurin osa MDPI:n ja Frontiersin lehdistä Jufon nollatasolle – miten arviointia tehdään ja miten lehdissä julkaisseet näkevät tilanteen?

Kaikkiaan 271 MDPI- ja Frontiers-kustantajien lehteä pudotettiin vuoden 2025 alusta Julkaisufoorumin tasoluokkaan 0 osana harmaalla alueella toimivien lehtien arviointia. Voidaanko yksittäisen lehden ...

blogs.helsinki.fi

1 1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

there's also a plan to provide a bonus for universities publishing in diamond journals -- not sure how this will play out but could be very welcome if it's implemented in the right way (i've personally always called for open/published review bonuses but they're not mentioned)

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

another fun update is to block closed society journals from level 2 if membership is required for some submissions -- not sure who it'll be interpreted but likely (hopefully) it means that journals like PNAS go down to basic level 1 too

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

starting 2026 the ranking will go from 0-1-2-3 to O-1-2 where O=unranked 1=basic 2=good journals, and to be a good journal it must offer *immediate* OA -- hence, eg all nature portfolio journals seem to go down to basic 1 (!)

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 7h

The meeting notes of this autumn's JUFO board meeting are out & can say these are the most interesting meta-science published every time they come out (highlights🧵)

julkaisufoorumi.fi/sites/defaul...

https://julkaisufoorumi.fi/sites/default/files/2025-10/Julkaisufoorumin_f_ohjausryhmän%20pöytäkirja_08092025.pdf

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 12h

this is also something to keep in mind for all revolutionary new publication formats: never end up in a situation where the majority serves a single institution/org but seek ways to ensure sustainable diversity

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 12h

one might think "sure that's a problem" but personally i'd say that's rather the solution: when critical decisions need to be made (think of pubpeer criticism etc), if the entire board serves a traded stock price, this isn't a good basis for scientific decision making

1 2

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 12h

a nice consequence of this rule is that nature journals like the new "nature cities" is classified to level 0 with predatory journals, as the entire board comes from springer nature

www.nature.com/natcities/

Nature Cities

Nature Cities features timely and impactful cutting-edge research, opinion, and ideas relevant to urbanisation and understanding the role of cities in our ...

www.nature.com

1 1 3

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 12h

this is actually quite sensible: you don't want closed circles to make publication/reject decisions -- and while there are many types of circles for sure, this isn't the worst way to prevent circle-forming

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 12h

Been this year in the JUFO panel evaluating journals & learned some interesting things, such as: the criterion that a journal to qualify for any formal recognition it needs a board with ppl representing diverse institutions /3

1 2

Michael Eisen @mbeisen.bsky.social · 21h

Finally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!! formatmypaper.com

17 120 370

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 1d

this would be a core RQ for whoever work on new meta-infrastructures, I don't think it's impossible but it needs some dedicated work at some point!

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 1d

Yep, that's where everyone agrees i think; the BS needs to go & we need to build better system(s)-- that's also the difficult part: how to distribute knowledge in some efficient + reasonable way, knowing that knowledge won't distribute itself well

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 1d

of course agreeing 99% & having already spent way too many hours of this short life to make some change to better, but as always, need to reserve that 1% for some pushback

bsky.app/profile/mkar...

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · Aug 16

over the years i've gradually come to change my view on preprints, which now is: they're harmful & doing net damage (unpopular opinion but there are actual reasons /3

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · Aug 16

It wasn't even a paper! It was a blog post! (a pdf on the pre-print server ArXiv). I love ArXiv and preprints (and also the entire field of economic publishing) but this is the downside: blog posts picked up in the media as ready for public consumption, when it's not. gizmodo.com/mit-backs-aw...

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 1d

Didn't read all but seems v ambitious eg "Ministry of Education and Culture will convene a strategic group to develop an internationally competitive operational environment for responsible openness in research through the vision for higher education and research [&] permanent operational structures"

Marin Dacos @marind.bsky.social · 8d

Finland Now Has a National Roadmap for Open Science and Research Funding avointiede.fi/en/news/finl...

Finland Now Has a National Roadmap for Open Science and Research Funding

avointiede.fi

2

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

this is technically a health journal i guess but if anyone is curious what the discourse looks like, the below debate paper generated several commentaries

doi.org/10.1111/camh...

<em>Child and Adolescent Mental Health</em> | ACAMH Journal | Wiley Online Library

Should academics collaborate with social media and gaming companies to identify and reduce mental health impacts on children and young people? While opinions on this question sharply diverge within t....

doi.org

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

in this mess, in the end, the antidote is ofc active reflexivity (for everyone: authors, editors, readers) but that's hard and comes only by slow culture evolution & change

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

at the same time when ppl don't know how & what COIs to report (if it's allowed) the COI -- extremely rare -- is also a huge red flag for readers who, in turn, don't know to read COIs either (and who does anyway)

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

on the other hand, 99% of related research has zero market impact-- typically works address curiosities of player behaviour, cultural trends, and all sorts analysis simply interested in how the world works; the logical standard for journals is to not even offer COI sections

1 2

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

example: scientific games research is often done in game design departments, the existence of which depends on industry success & most students are for industry careers-- essentially, all tenured researchers there have chronic COIs

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

How COIs operate in social science & humanities is a huge topic that few talk about, not least as it's damn difficult grasp the tons of variation in RQs, epistemologies, and histories of fields --

Sebastian Karcher @adam42smith.bsky.social · 2d

There are very little norms about this in social science IME. At least in my areas of it, industry funding is, comparatively, so rare, that it doesn't figure prominently in training or guidance, so people literally don't know whether to disclose affiliation or funding source twice.

1 1

Sebastian Karcher @adam42smith.bsky.social · 2d

There are very little norms about this in social science IME. At least in my areas of it, industry funding is, comparatively, so rare, that it doesn't figure prominently in training or guidance, so people literally don't know whether to disclose affiliation or funding source twice.

2

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

the latter, ie order things by true deadlines and importance! (sadly, these days many things with deadlines & importance tend to be below 30min tho..)

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 2d

I'd distinguish between general statistical effects (they're everywhere for sure) & those of psych like macbeth (which come with one-off narrative theories)-- there's nothing wrong with effects as long as we acknowledge their function isn't intrinsic but instrumental :)

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 3d

"Subjectively, the surface of human behavior is phenomenology; objectively it is meaning. Commitment to phenomenology and meaning, despite their scientific impenetrability, is the indelible mark of a human science."

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 7d

Haven't posted much lately-- busy. One of my Substack projects is republishing my chapters from the Kendler and Parnas series on the philosophy of psychiatry. The books are expensive and hard to find. This is, "The Hard Question in Psychiatric Nosology." /1 @awaisaftab.bsky.social

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 3d

Priority list helps me a lot-- what matters (for diverse reasons) goes on top regardless of task size & makes easier to push the rest aside

1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 4d

it's likely possible to find individual cases from any field but personally wouldn't think psych is comparable to medicine and certainly cannot see anthropology via this lens at all -- but I guess any comparison is an empirical question in the end!

1 1

Veli-Matti Karhulahti @mkarhulahti.bsky.social · 4d

looking at psych and related fields that have evolved from abstract theorising & qualitative work to experiments, the strong need to identify as 'science' and active distancing from the past likely keeps them stuck with the status quo for a long while still

1