Mary Beth Neff ("Mary-Beth")

We’re at the end of #MSMR2026 which has been superb. It’s a ‘first’ such symposium and my main criticism is the talks have been too engaging, making it difficult to plan a mental switch off. See what you missed out on here crsuzh.pages.uzh.ch/msmr/program/

In many fields, pilot studies are critical for methods & tool development & refinement, yet are often overlooked & rarely reported Any ecologists & evolutionary biologists with a special interest and experience in piloting in ecology & evolution: suggested reading, previous research, etc...?

Just participated in @mbneff.bsky.social and @agataboch.bsky.social's hackathon on reporting strategies for piloting studies. Really cool & important project! Here's their website: pilotreportingtf.github.io #SIPS2026 @improvingpsych.org

Level B/C (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer) continuing position, open area, available at our School of Psychology at the University of Sydney 🐨 usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/USYD_E...

“there is absolutely no reason to deny people the social and political advantages of collective identity based on a narrow interpretation of what constitutes scientific validity” From my recent blog - relevant to invited panel on “many autisms” at #INSAR2026 medium.com/@suefletcher...

Join us for a discussion during #SIPS2026 Online! Among the topics of #SIPS2026 unconferences and a roundtable, there is something of interest for everyone. Don't take our word for it! Check out the full schedule (buff.ly/QzZenNN ) or the abbreviated list below 👇 #PsychSciSky

Being disabled is not a moral failing. It’s not something you can try harder your way out of. Healthy lifestyle and “wellness” won’t stop it from happening. It’s a minority group you can join at any time. We aren’t less than. We aren’t expendable. We aren’t to blame.

What Pilot Studies Can (and Cannot) Do for Validity in Psychological Research: https://osf.io/t968e

Check out our preprint: "What Pilot Studies Can (and Cannot) Do for Validity in Psychological Research" Great job @yashvin.bsky.social and @mbneff.bsky.social for leading! doi.org/10.31234/osf...

When I worked at Brown, it was an open secret: many more women applied than men, so to keep a rough gender parity in the student body, men got a big boost in admissions. Trump's attacks on DEI may hurt men in college admissions. hechingerreport.org/an-unexpecte...

Twas frymblal and the autism, Did remech & runction in the wabe. All mimsy where the fexcectorn, And the bicylce outgrabe.

In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps: /1

periodic reminder of the existence of Atkinson Hyperlegible, a free font available from the Braille Institute designed to improve readability for people with low vision I use it in talks because it's pretty and also because, as an audience member, I am perpetually squinting at people's slides

A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o... @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is unmatched. Read her latest piece—and everything else she writes.

In an hour and a half (12:30 UTC / 14:30 CET) I'll give a lightning talk at the online BTS conference about the tool we are putting together for standardizing hypotheses. Free registration: https://bigteamscienceconference.github.io/ Tool: https://tinyurl.com/hypothesizer Slides […]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I think we should be blasting these data from the rooftops. Because of the environment of information, people think huge swaths of the populace are anti-vax and that’s simply not true. Pointing out how much they are in the minority is KEY!

As part of the Pilot Reporting Task Force, founded at @improvingpsych.org conference 2023, I would like to share a preprint with you: osf.io/preprints/ps.... We are looking for feedback on our perspective piece, promoting more transparency in the reporting of piloting in psychological science. 1/4

For those interested, here's our full preprint on the call for more transparent pilot study reporting: osf.io/preprints/ps... @ihandleyminer.bsky.social #OpenScience #PilotStudies

"Don't seat the baby near the door" 👶 Thanks to @infantstudies.bsky.social for the chance to discuss our task force work on making pilot study insights more transparent to improve psyc science! @agataboch.bsky.social #OpenScience #DevPsySky #PilotStudies #PsychScience #Transparency

REMINDER: abstracts for the 2025 Big Team Science Conference are due in one week (July 31)! Any and all work related to large collaborative science is welcome! bigteamscienceconference.github.io/submissions/

Come and join us at the University of Sydney School of Psychology! 🦘 Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor position usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/USYD_E...

PCI Psychology is open for submissions! Did you know that you can easily submit your recommended preprint to 20+ PCI Psych friendly journals? See all friendly journals here: psych.peercommunityin.org/about/pci_fr... #PsychSciSky #SciPub

Also, this badly threatens neurodivergent liberation. Doubtless not the intent of these specific authors but this whole line of enquiry amounts to divide & conquer Make autistic activists separate from those with co-occuring learning disability so that they cannot advocate for them.

1. Kevin Gross and I just posted a new science-of-science preprint. This one explores the looming peer review crisis. As many of you know, it's becoming significantly more difficult for journal editors to find scholars willing to serve as peer reviewers for submitted manuscripts.

the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago is hiring SIX faculty. open area Otago is the second-largest research university in New Zealand, and, among other nice things, is located near some of the best wineries on the planet www.seek.co.nz/job/85709111

📣 Call for Proposals: SIPS-PCI Registered Report Funding Partnership! The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science and Peer Community In Registered Reports @pci-regreports.bsky.social invite researchers from all areas of psychology to submit empirical research projects for consideration.

#DevPsy #PhdSky #PsychSciSky

Very glad this paper is published, especially in an open science forward journal! This one means a lot as it triggered so.much.beef. Was often told that I didn't know what I was doing/wasn't going to work - turns out I was right 😜 TL;DR: trust your instincts + rethink using literal competitors

Science minister Patrick Vallance has warned that “curiosity-driven” research is one of the “easiest” areas for governments to cut, but stressed it must be “protected and grown” alongside improving the UK’s applied research base #Metascience2025 www.timeshighereducation.com/news/basic-r...

every successful conference needs a feast with conference friends #SIPS2025 @agataboch.bsky.social @leesplez.bsky.social @flavioazevedo.bsky.social @leticiarmicheli.bsky.social

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

Thank you so much for an incredible closing panel discussion. It was an honor to moderate it. @lspitzer.bsky.social @leesplez.bsky.social @martonkovacs.bsky.social @agataboch.bsky.social A. Sarafoglou One Q. we discussed: How can ECRs contribute to protecting academic freedom? Thoughts? #SIPS2025

Always down for more analog conference sessions. Thanks to all our hackathon attendees for a super productive session - - looking forward to more testing of our pilot reporting templates! #SIPS2025

#SIPS2025 is officially opened by @priyasilverstein.com in a truly impressive location. ✨ @improvingpsych.org #OpenScience

Random subset of Construal Level Theory studies show a 5% replication rate. From @donandrewmoore.bsky.social Presented AT #SIPS2025

"Part of our task in the face of generative AI is to make an argument for the value of thinking – laboured, painful, frustrating thinking." activehistory.ca/blog/2025/06...

Planning to apply for #research #funding from the ERC? From the next application rounds, expect changes to the: • proposal structure • evaluation process • extra funding you can request • eligibility for Starting & Consolidator #Grants (from 2027) More 👇 europa.eu/!RPHWvv

Cognitive psych is often traced back to the 1950s. Psychology is often traced to Wundt's lab in 1879. Textbooks speak of "proto-psychologists" like Fechner & Helmholtz in the 1800s... Westerners all. Have you heard about Ibn al-Haytham, whose work predated them by 100s of years? 1/4

Bluetorial-A dream and a bit of a nightmare Serving as Editor-in-Chief at Science was fascinating. I greatly enjoyed working with talented and committed editorial, news, graphics, and production staff. But the inside look into scientific publishing and AAAS was also deeply disillusioning.

Very excited to share this 2year postdoc job, working on a co-produced model for autistic adults' social care Project led by & draws on work of the National Autistic Taskforce (especially Yo Dunn) with supporting cast of David Orr, @kathyleadbitter.bsky.social + me www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLI718/r...

If universities want to retain female faculty they need to deal with the people who create hostile workplaces. That means actually dealing with sexual harassers, assholes, bullies, and every else who scores high on the dark triad. If not, you will lose your best people over and over again.