Conor Kelly
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Conor Kelly
@conor-kelly.bsky.social
44 followers 91 following 2 posts
Chemistry Researcher at UCD (@ucddublin.bsky.social) 🇮🇪👨‍🔬🏳️‍🌈
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Reposted by Conor Kelly
irishlittimes.bsky.social
Lá Fhéile Bríde #imbolc
February 1, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Conor Kelly
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Conor Kelly
compoundchem.com
It's #NationalPumpkinDay! 🎃

Why are pumpkins orange, and what do pumpkins have to do with pumpkin spice? Here are the chemical answers in @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/articles/93/...

#ChemSky 🧪
Infographic on the chemistry of pumpkins. The colour of pumpkins is due to carotenoid compounds such as beta-carotene, the same compound that gives carrots their orange colour. The vegetal aroma of pumpkins is mainly due to cis-3-hexen-1-ol, along with other six-carbon alcohols and aldehydes. Canned pumpkin is often not the same type of pumpkin as those used for carving, and consequently, the aroma compounds differ, including burnt-smelling 2-methylbutanal, coffee furanone, and furfural. Pumpkin spice flavour has little to do with pumpkin and more to do with the spices added, including cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.
October 26, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Conor Kelly
compoundchem.com
The 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry was awarded today for the development of metal-organic frameworks, molecular sponges with applications in gas storage, water purification and more: www.compoundchem.com/2025/10/08/2...

#ChemSky 🧪
Infographic on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks. The infographic explains that metal-organic frameworks are molecular sponges built up from metal ions and organic compounds that act as linkers. Small molecules such as gases can move into and out of cavities in these frameworks. The graphic highlights some of the MOFs the laureates have developed and concludes by looking at possible future uses of MOFs, including gas storage and extracting water from air.
October 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Conor Kelly
chemistryworld.com
Congratulations to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi! For more reaction, follow our live blog.
The 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry as it happens – live
Join us as we provide analysis and commentary in the run up to the announcement of the biggest prize in chemistry
www.chemistryworld.com
October 8, 2025 at 9:50 AM
conor-kelly.bsky.social
Our latest article is now online in @daltontrans.rsc.org! We looked at the role of molecular symmetry in determining spin state in a family of Fe(III) complexes.

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
September 12, 2025 at 12:48 PM
conor-kelly.bsky.social
chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Broken Symmetry and Elastic Frustration in Isostructural MnIII Spin Crossover Crystals
Opening of both symmetry breaking and non-symmetry breaking thermal evolution pathways is demonstrated for isostructural crystals of a MnIII spin crossover cationic complex embedded in lattices with ...
chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM