Alan McElligott

New 🫏 🔽 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We're hiring a 3-year postdoc at the University of Bristol to improve our ability to predict vegetation responses to fire in a changing world 🌍🔥🌱. Details: mdekauwe.github.io/join_us Please share, thank you.

2026. Efficacy of statistical and design interventions for improving reproducibility in biomedical research. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Stronger animal welfare rules would “hurt farmers”, we’re told. Yet a new investigation exposes who holds the power in Europe’s chicken industry: bit.ly/4ACyNsE The story doesn’t hold up. The EU must act. #ForwardforAnimals @ec.europa.eu @christophehansen.bsky.social

🚨 Breaking news: EU decision-makers have backed a restriction that could prevent 558,000 tonnes of toxic lead emissions over the next 20 years, helping protect up to 135 million wild birds & millions of other animals from lead poisoning. 👏 Read more ⤵️ bit.ly/4hCeHr5

Hens, like Henrietta, are sometimes compared to dogs. 🐓 But unlike dogs, these birds are not typically treated like beloved household pets. Far from it. It's impossible for a hen to live a good life behind bars. The EU needs a cage ban - as soon as possible. #EndTheCageAge

Legal doesn’t mean acceptable. Cruel farming practices continue across the EU while promised reforms are delayed. Tell @ec.europa.eu &@vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu: animals need action NOW. No delays. No loopholes. No animal left behind. Time to move #ForwardforAnimals Take action: bit.ly/4jWcWqc

🐟 A welcome step: The EU’s Vision 2040 commits to further developing the welfare framework for farmed aquatic animals. As aquaculture expands, strong welfare + sustainability safeguards are essential - including avoiding further dependence on intensive carnivorous systems. bit.ly/3Uemy58

Animal suffering. Public health risks. A declining industry. Today’s #FurFreeEurope Intergroup session made the case for an EU ban on fur farming and farmed fur imports. The Commission must listen to 1.5 million citizens and act. ▶️ Watch: youtu.be/JTaQieCDyZI

🇩🇰 Great news: Denmark’s remaining seven mink farms must close by August 2027. Another step towards a #FurFreeEurope! The @ec.europa.eu must now deliver an EU-wide ban on fur farming. How much longer must animals wait? ⤵️ bit.ly/3UIADbp

2026. Research Ethics and Integrity. Transitioning from Being Led to Leading Others. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-...

More than 8,000 papers published by PLOS journals violate the publisher’s policy on author-editor relationships, as well as around 2,500 papers published by MDPI titles, the researchers found.

je sais plus qui disait "oui ça a marché en Italie enfin si on veut: explosion des publis MDPI"

Por ser editorial “vieja” se piensa menos probable que tenga journals predadoras, pero tristemente estamos plagados de ellas 😭. MDPI es de la que más se habla, pero ciertamente el medio de las editoriales es campo minado 😖.

#MDPI - "Submission received: 31 July 2026 / Revised: 14 August 2026 / Accepted: 18 August 2026 /" -------- must be an outstanding paper! 😱

"Ethics statement......... The study was conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements." 🙄🙄🙄 (which are??? - how are readers supposed to know!!)

what Claude says, “Venue is a proxy for peer review rigour, and MDPI and Frontiers carry the most scepticism among large open-access publishers. Committees ask whether the CV shows quality that does not depend on the journal: citations, first authorship, open data, and papers in selective outlets.”

what Deepseek says, "academic CV dominated by MDPI or Frontiers papers sends a mixed signal. It suggests high productivity and familiarity with open-access publishing, but it also raises a flag about venue quality and institutional risk tolerance, especially in the current Chinese academic climate."

😃🥰

wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/news/poultr...

Is a cage more than just confinement? 🐓 We may be underestimating the pain of farmed animals: Intensive environments can actually amplify how injuries are felt. New valuable insights for animal advocates from Cynthia Schuck via Rethink Priorities: ow.ly/bHtV50YvCTl #Voices4Animals

2026. The Welfare Footprint of the Egg. The first comprehensive quantification of animal welfare across the full lifecycle of an animal-sourced food product — from hatchery to slaughter — grounded in time-based, biologically meaningful units. welfarefootprint.org/books/eggs

Researchers discovered thousands of dead penguins in Antarctica. While they expected to find the deadly bird flu, testing proved that was not what killed them.

2026. It’s time to teach peer review as a core research skill www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Hong Kong bakes in record October heat as latest-ever Very Hot Weather Warning raised hongkongfp.com/2026/10/21/h...

"The study received ethics approval (Ref. 7221.3-2-005/23). However, the absence of key welfare data in the publication means that the authors' assertion that the animals experienced no distress cannot be independently verified." pubpeer.com/publications...

2025. How do you know if research ethics and integrity training is effective? – Overview of prior literature. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

2026. Cell publisher investigates editor accused of soliciting bribes from China sc.mp/5h8jf?utm_so... via @scmpnews

Happening today at 2 p.m ET! We’re partnering with @retractionwatch.com and The Center for Scientific Integrity for a free training on how journalists can find, research, and report on accountability stories. Sign up here: www.theopennotebook.com/2026/09/28/a...

An investigation by Retraction Watch raises questions about the way Rod Rohrich, who is now editor emeritus at a journal he founded, has promoted preliminary and sometimes misleading research about products to which he has financial ties.

REVIEW: Early parental care rewires #behaviour for life without changing the #genes - Insights from African striped mice - #OpenAccess zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #Rhabdomys #Epigenetics #Non-genetic @nevpil.bsky.social @elissazcameron.bsky.social @amcell.bsky.social

The fallout continues from the death of Ohope Wins in the Caulfield Cup, with animal rights groups saying the number of equine fatalities in Australia are "not acceptable".

Love this new paper by Georgia Mason and Dan Weary, describing what the ideal future of rodent use in research could look like (high welfare, voluntary participation, benefits animals as well as humans) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🗞️ From elephant funerals to chimps carrying dead young: The Brussels Times explores grief in animals. 🐄 Dairy calves are taken from their mothers after birth, causing huge suffering. ❗It’s why factory farming lobbies oppose recognizing animal sentience in the law. 🔗https://tinyurl.com/239n7u7j

Fast-fashion giant Shein outperforms several Australian retailers on ethics, report says

My impression of precision livestock farming research, e.g. passive acoustic monitoring and related work, is that it is being flooded with low-quality papers. I am curious about whether others are noticing similar?

2025. How do you know if research ethics and integrity training is effective? – Overview of prior literature. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"The study received ethics approval (Ref. 7221.3-2-005/23). However, the absence of key welfare data in the publication means that the authors' assertion that the animals experienced no distress cannot be independently verified." pubpeer.com/publications...

US bans use of China's DeepSeek by gov't agencies In full: hongkongfp.com/2026/10/20/u... Photo: Matheus Bertelli/Pexels.

Hong Kong bakes in record October heat as latest-ever Very Hot Weather Warning raised In full: hongkongfp.com/2026/10/21/h... Photo: weatherhongkong.com via HKO.

My impression of precision livestock farming research, e.g. passive acoustic monitoring and related work, is that it is being flooded with low-quality papers. I am curious about whether others are noticing similar?

No matter the way it’s raised, beef comes with a steep climate cost. buff.ly/XOWiNJ2

Some pig and poultry farmers incorporate tiny fish into feed because of the nutritional benefits, but critics warn that overextraction of these fish could disrupt the marine food web. buff.ly/NNj9fGH

Retired scientist Chris Jones did not want to enter politics. But as Iowa’s water quality continues to decline, he feels it’s his duty. John McCracken reports: buff.ly/rY5biyQ

Additives can give plant-based foods the taste, texture and mouthfeel of hamburgers, ice cream or other meat and dairy products. buff.ly/gYEopuo

In Iowa, there are more concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) than grocery stores. Yet for most of the public, the location of nearby CAFOs and the amount of manure they may be producing is inaccessible. Until now.

Welcome to the world! #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/aww/s/hSut...

2026. A simple touch can bring dying corals back to life in just 7 weeks www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

The more I talk to early career researchers, the more I realize that few—or almost none—get formal research ethics training. How are they supposed to know if we don't train them?