New on our YouTube - Metascience Observatory founder Dan Elton (@moreisdifferent) explains our fetchpdf package for downloading PDFs legally. In many cases you can download XML when you can't get a PDF & then convert the XML to a PDF! pip install fetchpdf youtube.com/watch?v=ifjcwuPc…

"We measure AI-generated writing in the dissertations of a near-census of US STEM PhD graduates from 2019 to 2026 and link graduates to their subsequent employment. AI writing is absent before 2023, present in 29% of dissertations filed in 2026, and rapidly growing." (link below)

A paper recently came out claiming to show that nuclear power plants cause cancer. Using the exact same methodology, researchers at @TheBTI showed the following also "cause cancer". (link below)

.@arXiv is making some updates in light of a deluge of paper submissions: blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/up…

Interesting. "Robustness is better assessed with a few thoughtful models than with billions of regressions" pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pna…

"... almost all participants had experience with irreproducibility... 58% had failed to replicate a result from the published literature.... Participants reported feelings of self-doubt, frustration, and depression while experiencing irreproducibility.. " journals.plos.org/plosone/ar…

Here's the duplication issue we found in "LDL receptor-related protein-1 is a sialic-acid-independent receptor for myelin-associated glycoprotein that functions in neurite outgrowth inhibition by MAG and CNS myelin" - It's awaiting moderation here: pubpeer.com/publications/E2C…

We found another duplication issue in the @J_Cell_Sci paper Sholto found issues in (10.1242/jcs.113191). Sholto suggests looking at PhD theses. In one co-author's PhD thesis we found same image but w different coloration and diff labels. Video shows transform & blink comparison.

We found a minor duplication issue in the supplementary info of 2017 Oncogene paper. What's interesting is this is from the lab of Dr. Kenneth Anderson at DFCI. @addictedtoigno1 previously flagged 16 of his papers previously as part of case that ended up causing quite a stir..

We're flagging a case of cross-paper image reuse, submitted to pubpeer. The 2014 paper caption says the image shows "EGFP expression in pAcISUBC transfected BuMECs" pAcISUBC is a human insulin expression vector constructed in the 2014 paper that does not appear in 2013 paper.