Chris Gorgolewski: Multiple Comparisons

Beginning from 1st of March all papers published in journals run by  +Public Library of Science (PLoS)  will have to publicly share data . This includes PLoS ONE -  currently the biggest (in terms of volume) academic journal in the world. But is it a big deal? Many leading journal such as Nature , Science , and PNAS for a long time have been requiring their authors to provide data to fellow scientists upon request. Is there a difference between depositing data in a public repository and making it available upon individual requests? Yes there is. There are dozens of excuses researchers can use to delay sharing of the data almost infinitely. Additionally without proper description (which public repositories will enforce) data is useless. I could go on and on how imperfect the "available upon request" solution is, but this video depicts it in a much better way:  Making data available upon request looks good only on paper, but it just does not work in practice. Pu...

On a very cold afternoon in Berlin I managed to ask a few questions to Andrew Preston (co-founder of Publons ) who was in town for the Academic Publishing Europe 2014 conference: - Could you tell us a bit more about the platform you are building - publons.com. Where the idea came from? What kind of problems are you trying to solve? - Absolutely! I did a PhD in physics as well as a postdoc in the US, so I have experience the enjoyment and the trial of publishing papers first hand and I also have been a reviewer. By going through that process as well as talking to colleagues I realized that there must be a better way of doing this. That is the genesis of Publons. - What actually is a Publon? Good question! It is a joke in physics where there is a concept of fundamental particles: the electron is the fundamental unit of charge, the photon is the quantum of light etc. The Publon is the facetious term we use to refer to the minimum publishable unit of academic research. We thought...

It all started with a good friend of mine +Chris Steele  recommending me a trilogy of dystopian sci-fi books - The Silo Series by +Hugh Howey . According to him the book was really really good. I was sceptical to begin with - I was reading a lot at that time, but I have not came across a book that would captivate me the same way as some of the stuff I read in high school. Nonetheless I gave it a try. How wrong I was! The story (spread across three books: Wool, Shift and Dust) takes place in a huge bunker where the remains of the human race are trying to wait until the outside world “gets better” after some kind of a cataclysms. This is literally all I can say about the plot without any spoilers. That is probably the best thing about the book - it keeps you on the edge and violates your previous assumptions almost constantly. I found it hard to put it down: reading till late hours or skipping social occasions just to be able to take in another chapter. I highly recommend the...

Interesting things are happening in science publishing. In the recent months we witnessed how multiple post publication peer review platforms were born and gained popularity. In this post I will try to clarify what is post publication peer review, what are the differences between existing platforms and what those changes mean for the future of publishing. But before I begin let me say a few words about how most publishing works right now. We were always joking that we should start a new journal that would accept everything and use post publication peer review. To give it enough gravitas to compete with Nature and Science we decided to call it Truth. In the  picture (on the right) - a long time supporter of Truth -  +Jonathan Smallwood  . Peer review before the intertubes Say you are a scientist (if you are reading this it is very likely that you are, but let me try to make this topic understandable for people outside of academia). You have just discovered ...

I was on holiday recently lying on a meadow somewhere near Furka pass in Switzerland. It was the middle of the night and the sky was cloudless. Far from any civilization I could see the night sky in all its glory - with all the tiny stars and the clear shape of the Milky Way. Truly stunning view! Coincidentally I was also reading Douglas Adams "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". It's brilliant! Funny and smart. It struck me what it really is about. Let me give you a hint by quoting a paragraph: "Han Wavel is a world which consists largely of fabulous ultra-luxury hotels and casinos, all of which have been formed by the natural erosion of wind and rain. The chances of this happening are more or less one to infinity against. Little is known of how this came about because none of the geophysicists, probability statisticians, meteoranalysts or bizzarrologists who are so keen to research it can afford to stay there." Yes! It is basically saying that bec...

I live in a culture of success. I'm being constantly told that if I put my mind to it I can achieve anything. "Yes we can!" It's great - it gives me motivation when I need it. When things get tough I am reminded that if I truly believe in my dream I can move mountains. I would not be where I am now without this push. It's awesome, but not for all dreams. I call those other dreams dreamitts. They are bad dreams, but unlike nightmares, they will not scare you away. Quite the opposite, they are like bright light that lures you in. It's a candle shining in the dark and you are the hopeless moth - when you get too close you will just burn. Dreamitts will make you suffer while trying to achieve them. You will fall. A lot. You will hear "You can do it!" stand up just to fall again. And since dreamitts are so unattainable they seem much more valuable than they really are . Our lives are short, our energy is limited. Some dreams are just not worth pursuin...

It is a puzzling mental exercise to reflect upon the processes behind your own thoughts. Philosophers have been struggling with the problem of consciousness for ages and recently entered into dialog with neuroscientists to look for its neural correlates. The road to understanding how the human brain works is very long and we have only just started this journey. Despite efforts of many great minds, our knowledge of mechanisms underlying human activities such as  love, compassion, problem solving, speech, or even vision is still far from complete. Undeniably we have made some progress: we have learned how to map different brain areas to minimize damage during brain surgeries, treat depression and Parkinson’s disease by directly stimulating a particular part of the brain and develop drugs that alter chemicals in the brain and allow to manage some mental disorders. Despite the limitations of our knowledge one thing is certain: whoever we are, whatever we do, and whatever we fe...