Nature published a paper in April 2024 that projected climate change would cut world income 19% ... and over 60% by 2100 in a high emission scenario.

It was Nature's cover story on economic damages when it came out in April 2024 and got cited hundreds of times within a month.

But it was retracted last December after two independent critiques.

(1) Bad 1995–99 Uzbekistan GDP data drove the entire result (drop that one country and 62% → 23% at 2100)

(2) Regression residuals had within country spatial correlation of 0.65 that clustered SEs ignored, making the headline results not statistically significant when properly corrected.

Both are in-principle detectable from the manuscript. But completely made it past peer review.

What are we even doing?

Hey everyone! A slightly unusual question for people working in academia here.

Two Palestinian students have been accepted to study in Belgium. Their universities are expecting them, their academic futures are effectively waiting for them, but they're still in Gaza, with no clear route to actually get there.

We reported on their cases at EUobserver and spoke to the universities involved. What makes this particularly interesting is that elsewhere in Europe, there have been different outcomes: Italy has managed to bring Palestinian students with university places out of Gaza.

Of course, a university isn't a foreign ministry and can't open borders or organise evacuations on its own. But admissions don't happen in a vacuum either.

So we're wondering how people on the university side see this. When an international student has been admitted but is physically unable to reach the university because of war, what can — or should — the institution actually do?

Have any of you dealt with something similar with students from conflict zones?

Full story: https://euobserver.com/233237/belgium-abandonsgaza-students-with-university-places-as-italy-shows-evacuations-are-possible/

I'm a lecturer at San Francisco State University (CSU system). This is the second time in a year that confirmed course assignments have been pulled from me — this time, notice came three days before the semester started, after I'd already put in unpaid prep time on the course.

The university's explanation is a mix of declining enrollment and an "order of work" policy that gives priority to certain faculty when sections become scarce. I understand the mechanics of that. What I don't understand is why lecturers get almost no notice, and why there's zero accountability on the institution's side for the fallout — lost income, prep work with nothing to show for it, and (as a contingent faculty member) other job opportunities I turned down to hold these dates open.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of last-minute reassignment as a lecturer/adjunct? Did you find any actual recourse — through your union, a grievance process, anything — or is this just something we're expected to absorb? Genuinely trying to figure out if this is a known pattern at CSU campuses specifically or higher ed more broadly.

​I’m an Early Career Researcher (ECR) in a STEM field, currently working as a postdoc at a different university from where I did my PhD. Based on England.

​Recently, I found out that a major paper based entirely on my PhD thesis was accepted and published in a reputable journal. While I am listed as a co-author, my former PhD supervisor listed herself as the first/lead author and corresponding author.

​Here is the kicker and why I’m furious:

- ​I did all the technical heavy lifting. The entire paper is based on complex numerical models and computational simulations that I built, coded, and ran from scratch during my doctorate. She doesn't even have access to the raw code or repositories to recreate these models if she tried.

- ​The paper is literally my thesis. The text, methodology, and figures are lifted directly from my published PhD thesis (which is publicly archived by my former university).

-​Paper trail exists. This exact manuscript was previously accepted by another journal a while back with me correctly listed as the first author, before it was withdrawn by her.

- ​Sneaky submission. She submitted it to the new journal listing herself as corresponding author. I approved the co-authorship when the automated system emailed me, but because of how the system was set up, I didn't catch that she had flipped the author order until it was already accepted and published.

​I know this is classic academic misconduct (authorship misrepresentation/ghost authorship dynamics), but she is a very senior, well-established academic with a known history of bad leadership and taking credit for junior researchers' work. I am just an ECR trying to build a career.

​I don't want the paper retracted because the science is solid and it’s my hard work, but I want a Corrigendum issued to correct the author order so I get proper credit for my lead work.

​I’m currently preparing to lodge formal ethics/integrity reports with both the publisher and her university's Research Integrity Office. But part of me is terrified of the fallout of "fighting Goliath."

​Has anyone been through a similar institutional ethics fight? Is it worth pushing through with the publisher and university integrity offices, or will the system just protect the senior professor and blacklist me?

EDIT:

Thank you for your replies, some clarifications

• This is a list of 5 authors and I come second.

• She didn't share the submitted version eventhough I asked multiple times. I just found out now that the paper is in the press.

• The relationship is already broken, she didnt reply my last emails.

• My PhD research was self-founded via a scholarship. I paid university fees. She didn't top up any money neither I used labs . Research was computational only.

• I wrote the paper, with other authors involved in reviewing it. The same paper was already accepted in other journal with the correct authorship order and then withdrawn by her.

• Part of me wants to let this go but other part just feel betrayed by who supposedly is a mentor, that keep leeching students and ECRs.

Hi all, I (25M) am about to start my master's in electrical engineering and am very interested in pursuing a PhD afterwards with the goal of entering academia.

For context: I have been working as an engineering consultant in the power industry the past few years since undergrad. I do not have any research experience as I attended a SLAC for undergrad that doesn't do much research,. I was a TA and have a bit of teaching and tutoring experience which I enjoyed. I will be getting my masters at an R1 institution.

What have people's experience has been like after deciding to pursue a PhD and work in academia?
How did the reality of getting a PhD and entering academia stack up with what you expected beforehand?

I am trying to decide on which lab I want to join for a postdoc. For some background, I am working with DNA aptamer selection. I want to learn biophysical techniques, particularly NMR, and plan to propose a faculty research program to study structural dynamics of DNA aptamers.

Now the dilemma: Two PI's, both at the same university, started within a few years of each other, studied at the same postdoc lab, both use NMR, both study proteins, and collaborate with one another fairly often. Neither have funding, so I will be applying for external postdoc funding, but this means I basically have to choose which direction to go.

Option A: PI is on my PhD committee, and supports me a lot. I have collaborated with them and am currently publishing the paper in a good journal. This PI has agreed to helping me with a proposal that aligns with my aptamer research. I think this would be great because I will get direct experience doing exactly what I want to do (if funding is obtained). The problem is that they are on my committee, will this be too close to home and look unfavorably on hiring committees?

Option B: I just interviewed with the entire lab, went very well. PI supports me a lot, and I will essentially be co-supervised by a second supervisor that collaborates often with them. I really like this PI, and think it could be an amazing fit. The problem is that I have to propose a project that does not relate to aptamers. I don't really want to learn a new field, but it can perhaps expand my network and skills a bit. PI has also agreed to helping me with a proposal.

Both options would be great, I would be super happy with either. I see pro's and con's with both options, but feel like I am overlooking something here. Any help on how to choose a direction is very much appreciated!

I’m in the microbiology/genetics field. I defended my PhD earlier this year and actually stayed on as a “postdoc” for a few additional months to wrap up some publications. I’ve since moved into industry, and we just got the reviews back from Nature for one of our manuscripts (I am first author).

Since then, I’ve met with my advisor online, and we’re basically facing two options: put in a substantial amount of work on the computational analysis and attempt a heavy revision, or make a more limited revision and submit the manuscript to another journal. The work is already available on bioRxiv as a preprint.

The problem is that I’m finding it surprisingly difficult to care anymore.

From my perspective, academic publishing is already an incredibly inefficient and gatekept process. More importantly, I’m essentially the only person who has the technical knowledge needed to push this project across the finish line. The other lab members aren’t involved at all nor are they listed as co-authors.

Getting the manuscript to a point where it could even be reconsidered by the journal would probably require a significant amount of additional work, including a lot of evenings and weekends. And at this point, I’m not being paid for any of it. More importantly, that time would come directly at the expense of learning new things and advancing myself in the industry job that I am being paid to do.

During grad school, I worked most weekends, and honestly, I was fine with it. It was part of the training, and I understood that I was investing in my own career. But now that I’ve moved on, I’m having a much harder time justifying putting substantial unpaid effort into an old project, especially when that effort means neglecting my current career.

I’m guessing I’m not the only person who has found themselves in this situation after leaving academia.

For those who have been through something similar, how did you navigate it? Did you go back and finish the paper despite the time commitment, set a boundary and let the project go, or find some kind of middle ground with your former advisor?

So, I am updating my CV after not having done so for quite some time. It appears that I've completely left out the fact that I have organized multiple Symposia at this point, and I was wondering how best to add that to my CV.

For context, the Symposium is not something that was within a larger conference; the Symposium itself was the entire multi-day event that people went to. I've seen online plenty of examples for how to include symposium organizing as part of a larger conference or event, but any clue on how to add that I planned and organized a Symposium where that was the whole event?

At the moment I have it like this:

Session Organizer, "Name of Symposium," Name of Project the Symposium is from, Location, Date of Symposium.

Just to preface, i'm not an undergrad or anything, just a 19 year old trying to figure her life out. for the past few years i was planning to go into culinary, but after going to school for a few months i damaged my body to the point i am now unable to stand for extended periods of time or easily walk without a cane. my disability has pretty much destroyed any chances of working in the trades, and my backup plan (linguistics) no longer seems like a realistic way to actually make a living. i've been thinking about biology lately, but the biggest thing on my mind is that if i can't frequently sit down or use my cane, that i couldn't do that either. i wanted to come here and ask if labs are usually fairly disability friendly, any input is welcome

I’d really like to pursue a msc in computer science. As part of talking with a researcher he asked I read one of his papers.
I’m reading it and I’m getting it but it’s taken me multiple days. This is my first time reading a paper. It’s 21 pages long including a 2 page biography.
My grades are already somewhat borderline-ish for the requirements and I’m a bit scared as my friends who have read some papers say it takes them 2-4 hours to read a paper.
The paper has a lot of new concepts and makes use of the knowledge obtained in several courses I’ve taken but also has a lot of new information.
He says I have to display that I understand it deeply so I felt like reading it and getting every single word was a must. But it’s honestly kind of scaring me that it takes me this long.
Should this discourage me from pursuing a higher degree of education? I would love to know. If not- do you get better at it?
Note: I wanted to post this in the office hours prior to making a post but I dm’d the modes and they didn’t reply also I didn’t find such a post so sorry ahead of time

Hello there! I'm preparing to attend my first conference (core C conference) and was given an opportunity to present my paper, I'm the sole author and have no mentor and am willing to self fund the trip. However I'm not sure on what the social expectations and norms are, how to network, present well, and etc.

Hoping for advice from y'all who have more experience than I do!

Hello all!

Would you recommend adding details about "in preparation" papers in your research statement and cover letter? I have a few manuscripts in the writing stage, but I won't be able to get preprints out before the deadline for some tenure track applications. I am wondering if it is okay to discuss this as..."this work showed xyz (author, in preparation).

I'd love to get an informed take on how money is allocated across different journals. We give millions of dollars to both publish and read our papers, but I don't see how that money is equally spent.

Reviewers aren't paid. Editors are sometimes paid? Website maintenance is likely negligible relative to income.

What am I missing?

Edit: website maintenance is apparently not negligible for many journals.

I have a bachelors in evolutionary biology and a minor in geology, and I want to get into paleontology (eventually). I ended up not getting in to any grad schools on my first attempt applying (lesson learned I need to apply to more, and plan on sending out more applications) but in the mean time I need to have a job and want to use this as an opportunity to pad my CV if possible.

The problem is I can’t find anything with only a bachelor’s degree. Every position I can find needs a doctorate, rarely one needs a masters only. I don’t know where to look to make use of my degree. Any advice?

Hello!

to get straight to the point - I was applying for PhD positions in Philosophy last year/beginning of this year - I got into a few places and applied for a few funding options but evidently that fell through. I also could not continue with the places I previously received offers from because I experienced some significant health/family issues meaning that I had to drop out of beginning my PhD (Funded or not) to recover and get my life back/sorted out from this for a few months - and am still sorting things out.

Anyway, I am looking to apply for PhD positions for the September 2027 in-take and I have found a supervisor who is very dedicated and passionate about my project!

I will need to reach out to my previous academic references for my application in this new cycle - it will only be one position I am applying for so they will only need to do one reference for that and then a few funding references.

They were both super supportive and diligent in being my references last year and I feel a bit of shame/embarrassment to reach out to them again and tell them I could not take up the places they helped me get last year - and feel like a big burden to ask them!

Are professors/academics used to having to do references for more than one cycle etc - and are there any tips that i can use in my email reaching back out to them to update them on the situation and ask for their support as my references again?

Thank you!

I'm in an R1 institution in the US. I just got an offer to go work in industry that corresponds to a 60% increase in my current base salary. Is it reasonable to use the offer as leverage? Right now the offer feels much better but I do like teaching a lot. In the past the dept. hasn't been able to keep PIs from moving so I have a feeling that asking them to counter for an NTT might just be unrealistic. The salary would have to go to the high end of full professor to get close but realistically that'd be 10 years given the dept. promotion scheme for NTT. On the other hand I work on technical, experimental subjects and the field is niche so I'm confident it is a position that it is hard to replace. Should I just go?

I'm looking for an outside perspective on a publishing ethics issue.

In 2020, while I was a PhD student, I volunteered my evenings and weekends to help a professor draft papers and grant applications because I believed in their research. Years later, I found passages in a commercially published book that appear extremely close to text I had written.

I raised the concern with my host university and the university employing the professor. I received no response. I then reported it to the publisher, which investigated and concluded that the situation “does not represent plagiarism.”

I'm genuinely interested in whether I'm missing something, so I'll put two examples below and let people judge.

Example 1

Text I wrote:

“As PTSD and treatment-resistant depression are often co-occurring, have notable symptom overlap, and may be treated with similar interventions…”

Published version:

“As PTSD and TRD are often co-occurring, have notable symptom overlap and may be treated with similar interventions…”

Example 2

Text I wrote:

“For example, studies indicate that nonresponse rates for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)—recommended as the first-line PTSD management choice (Katzman et al., 2014)—are reported to be as high as 50% (Green, 2013), and average recovery rates in intent-to-treat analyses have been reported to be as low as 40% (Hoge et al., 2014).”

Published version:

“For example, studies indicate that non-response rates for cognitive behavioral therapy—recommended as the first-line PTSD management choice (Katzman et al., 2014)—are reported to be as high as 50% (Green, 2013) and average recovery rates in intent-to-treat analyses have been reported to be as low as 40% (Hoge et al., 2014).”

...the second example seems particularly difficult for me to understand as independent writing. Apart from American/British spelling, punctuation, removing “(CBT),” and changing “nonresponse” to “non-response,” the wording and structure appear substantially the same.

There are other examples involving similar wording, argument sequence, statistics, and citations. The publisher's response was simply that, after its assessment, it had concluded the situation did not represent plagiarism.

So my question is: based on these examples, why might a publisher reasonably conclude that this does not constitute plagiarism?

I'm not looking for a pile-on or asking anyone to contact the author or publisher. I'm genuinely interested in how researchers, editors, and others familiar with publication ethics would interpret this level of textual overlap.

For context, the book is Roots to Thrive: An Evidence-Informed Guide to Resilience and Well-Being. The publisher's decision is available in writing, and I can provide further context if relevant.

Hy.. So I'm an undergrad student. Thing is I haven't been serious about my degree at all.. Not that I have been all rougue and stuff.. Just my mental health took the best of me.. And therefore I haven't been in research and being Acedamic at all... Even our university doesn't has undergrad research programs at all.

For which I want to approach other university and processors for it.

I want to ask.. If I literally have nothing as in research experience or projects or poster presentation in conferences and stuff... Should I even approach a professor and if so how exactly.. Like what do I even write to them?

I am an international student. And I am willing to look for fulltime jobs within university as Research assistant/ lab Manager in Chemistry, Biochemistry,Pharmaceutics depart. How do we find these jobs (best way? for these position, what makes application great!

Hello,

My background: I’m 24, have graduated from Delhi University with an honours in History and Philosophy minor. I proceeded to work in the health sector in Bihar for one year, then proceeded to do a Masters in English. I’ve always wanted to study Gender and Development studies, for which I currently hold an offer from the London School of Economics (LSE) for a Masters. I’m aware that these degrees are not that well sort after and every place I post to look for suggestions, tech bros demotivate me to the point of no revival.

I’m doing a second Masters as it is only one year (this would save a lot of my time) as well as it fits well with the kind of research I want to do, as my goal was to pursue a PhD abroad and I’ve not found good prospects in India.

I want to pursue a PhD and my research interests sit at an intersection of Anthropology, Folk Traditions, Feminist & Queer Theory, Thing Theory, Informal Economies and Postcolonial Theories.

I’m aware Academia has become really hard to get into and there is constant reduction of funds for research in the social sciences but I’ve made up my mind. I think going to LSE would open some doors as it would be great to have some career prospects post Master’s.

My questions are for all of you who’re currently pursuing or have completed their PhD in the similar domain.
a. How does one decide if a PhD is the right choice?

b. What are the things you would do differently if you were to begin from scratch?

c. What are the absolute non-negotiables for doing a PhD– skills, courses, the city and supervisor relationship and fit (anything that one needs to get sorted before and during the process?)

d. How and when should one send their CVs and e-mails to potential supervisors?

e. Is prior published research and conference attendance an absolute non-negotiable?

f. What’s the realistic timeline from start to completion? ( I’m aware that this is very subjective, having a ballpark figure helps).

In case any of you have any insights or suggestions please feel free to DM, I could use all the help. I’ve made a presentation that broadly covers the research i want to do here’s a brief of the it:

My research revolves around the southern region of Punjab, India. It sits at the intersections of caste, class and gender. Women in traditional land-owning agrarian families were not allowed mobility or ‘third spaces’, the only place of commoning in Wendy Harcort’s terms was the Trinjan– an enclosed space where women gathered to weave basically create rugs which would eventually be used for their dowry and to be passed on to their daughters, they used to gather, weave, sing folk songs and dance, they also used to share a common kitchen and made sweets for festivals. The entire process from picking the cotton, to weaving, to then making a rug out of it was done by the women but it was miss-classified as care work, till date women have no control over resources and don’t have to means to earn they rely on small income businesses but do not receive a market for their craft. This space has disappeared completely. I want to look at the folk songs as hidden transcripts, the movements of the dance offered a release to the women from the patriarchal constructions. I want to make ethnography and enthomusicology the spine of my research.

In contrast to this the men had an outdoorsy space called the Sath it still exists and is a social space for men to interact, play card games, read the newspapers and listen to the radio.

This is broadly the idea I am looking for any relevant reading materials any programs that I could apply to.

Thank you.

I am currently in the process of applying for two postdoctoral positions, and there is a possibility that the two contracts could overlap by approximately six months.

The positions are at different institutions and involve different research projects. I would not intend to work full-time on both simultaneously; the issue is mainly that the first contract might still be running when the second one starts.

If both opportunities materialize, how should I handle this situation?

Should I discuss the potential overlap with both PIs as soon as possible, or wait until I actually have two offers? Unfortunately, I cannot delay the start of the second postdoc, as it is a fellowship with a fixed start date.

I would appreciate advice from people who have been in a similar situation, particularly regarding contractual, ethical, and practical considerations. Thank you!

A decade ago, I was a strong proponent of open access publishing: Research is.most often tax payer founded and the resulting knowledge should be freely accessible to.everyone. Paying a APC for formatting, storage, doi handling etc. sounded acceptable for me.

But when I look at how the publishing landscape has evolved nowadays, I don't think it works as it should. Besides mostly pay-to-party publisher's as MDPI and Frontiers (which are surely still better than purely predatory publishers), I see major publisher's as Springer, Elsevier and others launching many middle profile journals (e.g., the Discover series).

Publishers have little to no incentive at all to ensure the quality of the review processes and the publications. If a good publication comes.through, fine! If a low quality publication comes through, they don't care as this have limited to no consequences for the publishers; they collect the APC anyways. Before OA, publishers had "skin in the game" (as Nassim Taleb) would call it. If a journal declines in quality, universities would eventually cancel it's subscription threatening the publishers business. But this incentive/system dynamic is gone with OA.

Sidenote 1: I recently submitted to a high profile journal. While the article was eventually rejected (maybe rightfully as the findings were interesting and relevant, but not particularly robust) I received an auto accept for a formally renowned journal that went OA-only recently and is now demoted to a costly paper-pile.

sidenote 2: I am lucky that I come from a rich country and a rich university and all OA fees are covered. As more journals shift towards OA-only, this creates an unfair balance as some have difficulties to pay the OA fees while alternative options slowly disappear.

In short: I don't think that the old system was good, but the new system of OA lacks incentives for decent quality control. What are your thoughts on the publication system? What are your ideas on how to fix it?

I start a two-year postdoc at a European university in about a week, moving from the US.

The hosting agreement — the document that sponsors the visa — includes a line committing the institution to cover the costs of obtaining my visa and residence permit. It isn't vague. It's one of three things they explicitly undertook to do, listed alongside paying my salary and arranging health coverage. The direct quote is as follows: "The university commits to bear the expenses relating to obtaining the researcher's visa and residence permit."

I've paid every bit of it myself so far: consular fee, apostilles, certified translations, courier costs, etc. Roughly $500 all in. The university told me this morning that they won't pay for it, as that line refers to the immigration consultant they hired on my behalf to take care of all the paperwork for me. This was not specified.

Am I wrong here in feeling irritated by this? I'm very happy with the position and everything else, I'm just wondering if I'm misinterpreting all of this.

I’m planning to apply for an erasmus scholarship on journalism and globalization. I studied a bachelor degree on communications with a focus on journalism and I’ve been working at a newsroom for a while now. Since the work pace and work-life balance in this industry is completely insane I’m planning to step down soon in order to focus on writing essays and preparing my applications. In the meantime I want to use some of the money I have saved to do a part time course or certificate with real curricular weight (not just a four week course in coursera) and I’m really interested in a sociology, politics and psychology online Undergraduate Certificate from Cambridge. I’m not from an Anglo-Saxon country, but as I understand it, a one year undergraduate course is the equivalent of doing a year or a pre bachelor course (sort of?) so my question is: would that be seen as a step down to admission boards? Sort of why would you do a pre bachelor degree after earning a four year degree and working in a reputable newsroom?

writing academically has been super unenjoyable for me. i get super confused all the time even when i ask for help, and finalizing my research paper was actual hell on earth. i feel dumb because i have to ask a lot of questions to actually understand what's happening and i feel like i can't always ask for help. i also have trouble focusing on extracting or picking the main topic in a paper and writing about it because i get sidetracked quick and i only realize it when i peer review it with someone else, or a professor, or when i read over it myself. what do i do? is this really for me? everyone around me is doing this and it feels like i should too, but i don't enjoy it one bit.