Category Archives: Scientific journals

Zombie theories: why so many false ideas stick around

When I talk to friends or family members who do not work in academia, they have beliefs about how science works — beliefs that appear entirely sensible. Most published results are correct or at least plausible, because scientific journals are the most thorough outlets. Errors occur very rarely, and if they do, they are corrected… Read more »

Antidotes to cynicism creep in academia

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This is one of these blog posts that doesn’t read well if you stop halfway. First, I provide evidence that academia can look pretty broken: there is low-quality work everywhere you look, the peer-review system has long outlived its utility, and academic publishing is a dumpster fire. Add considerable work pressure, the publish-or-perish culture, and… Read more »

Academia: trapped in the upside down of publishing

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TL;DR: this post explains the basics of academic publishing; highlights several severe problems; discusses the recent activities of the American Psychology Association (APA) targeting psychological researchers; suggests some ways forward; and ends with an unexpected plot twist: an APA journal invited me to join their editorial board while I was writing this APA-critical blog post…. Read more »

Becoming a journal editor in 15 minutes: a 3-step tutorial

To boost your academic career, early career researchers should consider picking up at least one associate editor position for a scientific journal. After all, spending countless hours on administrative duties will get you a long way in science. Below I provide a 15-minute 3-step tutorial on how you can easily do that, based on my… Read more »

Call for papers on PTSD symptomics

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I am very happy to announce that Cherie Armour and me are organizing a special issue for the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, together with the editor-in-chief Miranda Olff. In summary, we are looking for papers on: PTSD symptom networks, either on the level of groups or individuals, in cross-sectional or time-series data The stability of… Read more »