Manuel Will
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manuelwill.bsky.social
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social
1.4K followers 320 following 59 posts
Researcher in Paleolithic/African Archaeology & Paleoanthropology! Lecturer at University of Tübingen. Associate Editor Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manuel-Will
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Reposted by Manuel Will
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 Manuel Will
stripplab.bsky.social
I wonder if anyone ever got rejected from MDPI
November 11, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
annemiekemilks.bsky.social
Latest paper: Boxgrove is a key European site dating to 480,000 years ago. At GTP17, hominins knapped handaxes and then butchered an adult female horse. A fragment of the horse's scapula appeared to have evidence of impact from a wooden spear.....
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
mariaoconnor.bsky.social
@robertosaezm.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Early Oldowan technology thrived during Pliocene environmental change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya - Nature Communications
Here, the authors present archaeology of the Namorotukunan site in Kenya’s Turkana Basin that demonstrates adaptive shifts in hominin tool-making behaviour spanning 300,000 years and increasing enviro...
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 5:29 AM
manuelwill.bsky.social
Just finished my 100th review for a journal article - not sure if I should celebrate this anniversary or not 👀 #academia #reviewernumber2
October 27, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social
Die @unileipzig.bsky.social, @maxplanck.de & @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social bauen ihre Zusammenarbeit in Forschung & Lehre aus: 5 gemeinsame Professuren & geplanter Master-Studiengang f. evolutionäre Anthropologie an der Fakultät f. #Lebenswissenschaften der Uni Leipzig. www.eva.mpg.de/de/presse/ak...
Evolutionäre Anthropologie: Gemeinsame Berufungen beschlossen, neuer Studiengang geplant
Universität Leipzig, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft und -Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie schließen Vereinbarung über gemeinsame Berufungen
www.eva.mpg.de
September 26, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
sebastiankir.bsky.social
Immer schön, mit tollen Gesprächspartnern komplexen Inhalten auf den Grund zu gehen. Danke @manuelwill.bsky.social und Ph. Gunz @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social dafür #Evolution #Anthropologie #Archäologie 

www.br.de/nachrichten/...
Fossiler Schädel: Homo sapiens viel älter als angenommen?
Bisher waren Forschende sich weitgehend einig: Der Homo sapiens hat sich einst in Afrika entwickelt und von dort aus verbreitet. Eine neue Studie über die Rekonstruktion eines fossilen Schädels aus Ch...
www.br.de
October 10, 2025 at 3:23 PM
manuelwill.bsky.social
Fossiler Schädel: Homo sapiens viel älter als angenommen? | via BR24
br.de/nachrichten/... @br24.de
#Evolution #Anthropology
Fossiler Schädel: Homo sapiens viel älter als angenommen?
Bisher waren Forschende sich weitgehend einig: Der Homo sapiens hat sich einst in Afrika entwickelt und von dort aus verbreitet. Eine neue Studie über die Rekonstruktion eines fossilen Schädels aus Ch...
br.de
October 10, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
eshesociety.bsky.social
The #ESHE2025 meeting in Paris starts tomorrow (please use this hashtag for sharing). If you are interested in the program, you find it here mcusercontent.com/9347aa3598d5... - Members have received an email for accessing the live stream! We hope you all enjoy the conference in person or online. /MW
mcusercontent.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
manymindspod.bsky.social
You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong?

From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...
September 9, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
tdcapellini.bsky.social
1) I am delighted to present this terrific tour de force research conducted by my post-doc Dr. Gayani Senevirathne @gayani.bsky.social and published today in Nature -
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps - Nature
The human pelvis exhibits distinct spatiotemporal ossification patterns and an ilium cartilage growth plate that is shifted perpendicularly compared with those of other mammals and non-human primates—...
www.nature.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
'we find that, based on current evidence pertaining to these costs, the case for inferring know-how copying abilities in Oldowan or even Early Acheulean stone toolmakers is weak..this points to a later date for the establishment of this crucial human skill' link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Costs of Early Stone Toolmaking cannot Establish the Presence of Know-how Copying - Human Nature
Compared to other apes, humans show a distinctive capacity for the cultural learning and transmission of know-how: we extract know-how from other individuals and artifacts in ways that regularly give ...
link.springer.com
July 21, 2025 at 11:38 AM
manuelwill.bsky.social
For my German-speaking followers: A 20-minute Podcast episode in which I discuss the results of our recent paper in Nature within the wider context of the global dispersal of our species in the Pleistocene! detektor.fm/wissen/forsc... #archaeology #evolution #podcast #scicom
Ökologische Anpassung: Aufbruch nach Eurasien
Vor 50.000 Jahren gelangten erstmals Menschen aus Afrika nach Eurasien. Wie haben sie das geschafft? Womöglich durch ökologische Anpassung.
detektor.fm
August 26, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
katharv.bsky.social
Job Alerts!🚨 We are looking to fill three Independent Junior Research Group Leader positions in the 'HUMAN ORIGINS' Cluster of Excellence at the University of Tübingen
Application deadline: Sept. 10, Starting Jan. 1, 2026

1. Genotype-Phenotype interactions:
uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...
Independent Junior Research Group Leader (m/f/d, 100%)
uni-tuebingen.de
August 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
shumon.bsky.social
ZOOGESTURES has a web presence now! 🐒🦥🐻‍❄️

zoogestures.uni-koeln.de

with @nakedprimate.bsky.social @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social

🏺🗃️📕
August 18, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
nnwiss.bsky.social
ZEIT Wissen3 stellt heute die Initiative PD Prekär vor. Mehr dazu gab es vor kurzem im Wiarda-Blog. Sehr erhellendes Gespräch u.a. zu den Absurditäten der Titulaturlehre als Grundbedingung dafür, den Titel ‚Privatdozent*in‘ behalten zu dürfen. www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/07....
July 24, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
Where do the Dmanisi hominins fit on the human evolutionary tree?
dx.doi.org/10.1101/2025...
July 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
people-erc-stg.bsky.social
And it's a wrap! After 7 weeks of fieldwork filled with discoveries and new encounters, the team has returned to Bordeaux.

See you soon at SAfA 2025 in Portugal!
July 13, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
jmwiarda.bsky.social
"Der Traum verliert an Anziehungskraft"

DHV-Präsident Lambert Koch über Wissenschaftlerkarrieren, Tenure Track, die Rolle der Habilitation – und warum verbindliche Befristungsquoten an Hochschulen für ihn keine Lösung sind, sondern neue Probleme schaffen könnten.

www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/07...
July 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
shumon.bsky.social
www.sidestone.com/books/contes...

Perhaps this PhD of mine will finally become a book reality after all 😱

🏺🗃️📕
Contested Deep Pasts @ Sidestone Press
This book offers the first in-depth analysis of French-Anglophone research conflicts in Palaeolithic archaeology. By carefully examining a range of case studies and discursive contexts, the author sho...
www.sidestone.com
July 8, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
dfg.de
Jetzt online: Der neue DFG-Jahresbericht. Er bildet statistische Kennzahlen zum #Förderhandeln 2024 ab, inkl. Rückschau auf die vorherigen 4 Jahre. 1/2

Zum Download 📑https://www.dfg.de/resource/blob/359464/69bb27de4890eef0491daeb3d05f9522/dfg-jb2024-data.pdf
Zahlen zur DFG-Förderung 2024 3,9 Milliarden € Fördervolumen 31.000 laufende Projekte 16.400 Gutachter*innen 21.500 Förderentscheidungen
July 3, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
huwgroucutt.bsky.social
"Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?" See comment by @elliescerri.bsky.social and myself here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 30, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
eshesociety.bsky.social
In 2025, #ESHE elections for regular board members will be held again! If you are interested in standing for a board member, please send a short biography and a photograph to [email protected] no later than 20 July 2025!
June 26, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Manuel Will
mu-peter.bsky.social
Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal 🏺🧪
Emily Y. Hallett, @manuelwill.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Found that this expansion was driven by humans increasing their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts.
Map of dated archaeological sites in Africa.
June 20, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Manuel Will
hannesrathmann.bsky.social
An amazing study by brilliant colleagues and dear friends. Give it a read!
June 19, 2025 at 10:52 AM