A soil scientist who resigned from several journals in 2017 after being linked to manipulated citations has been appointed to the editorial board of a journal copublished by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media.

Soil scientist previously named in citation scandal appointed to editor role at Elsevier journal

Artemi Cerdà A soil scientist who resigned from several journals in 2017 after being linked to manipulated citations has been appointed to the editorial board of a journal copublished by Elsevier a…

retractionwatch.com

🌍 New semester, new talks! The M²ESH Soil Erosion Colloquium (Winter 25/26) features David Lobb, Karl Auerswald & Jantiene Baartman. Thursdays 15:00 CET | Online 🔗 www.uni-augsburg.de/en/fakultaet... #SoilErosion #Geomorphology #SoilScience #M2ESH

🌍 We’re hiring 2 PhD students in #Soil Science & #Erosion Research! 🌱 Join the DFG Emmy Noether project “Trajectories of erosion-induced soil change on tropical arable land (TASC)” at the University of Augsburg 🇩🇪🇧🇷 👉 Job offer: tinyurl.com/yuut64m5 👉 Project info: tinyurl.com/repjumje

📢 Remember to sign up for the M2ESH soil erosion online seminars 📢 📍 The first talk will be on 22/05/2025 15:00 CET. 🔬 Tony Parsons will talk about the reliability (or lack thereof?) of our methods for estimating soil erosion by water! Don't miss it!! Subscribe here: lnkd.in/gKGNa7X9

Is it just CO2? we suggest Land use is a significant driver of increasing floods & droughts. These changes lead to rapid water loss from runoff, causing both floods and water scarcity. HESS paper@ doi.org/10.5194/hess... #LandUse #Floods #Droughts #ClimateAdaptation @pfiener.bsky.social 🧪

HESS Opinions: Floods and droughts – are land use, soil management, and landscape hydrology more significant drivers than increasing CO2?

Abstract. Floods, droughts, and heatwaves are increasing globally. This is typically attributed to CO2-driven climate change. However, at the global scale, CO2-driven climate change neither reduces pr...

doi.org

Great (3D!) posters at our #EGU25 session “All soil erosion models are wrong, but what are they useful for, and how do we know it?” yesterday. Don’t miss the oral presentations on Friday 16:15 CET.

🌍Join us for session HS9.4 at #EGU25: Human-Environment Interactions shaping sediment transfers in the #Anthropocene –Soil #erosion, sediment dynamics & #catchment management in a changing climate.📅 Orals: Tue, 29 Apr | 8:30–12:30| Room 3.29/30; Posters: Tue, 29 Apr | 14:00–18:00 | Hall A 🌿🌊

📢 NEW SERIES OF ONLINE SOIL EROSION TALKS📢 M²ESH is an international platform created to connect researchers and tackle pressing issues in erosion science. We organise a monthly online seminar freely accessible to anyone interested in soil erosion research. www.uni-augsburg.de/en/fakultaet...

If scientific assessment shifted from counting publications to expert evaluation of their quality, the tactic of citing junk papers to support bad arguments would lose its power. More open evaluation by the community, more retractions, and fewer metrics would make science harder to hijack.

Retraction Watch@retractionwatch.com · 2y ago

"The scientific literature is an essential ocean of knowledge, in which floats an alarming amount of junk." Reflecting on RFK Jr.'s use of scholarly papers in his confirmation hearings.

Finding reviewers is hard and Copernicus journals thank all who dedicate their time to secure quality and rigor www.egu.eu/news/1252/eg... Note also that Copernicus is non-profit, and thus your reviewing time solely contributes to the advancement of science, and not for the profit of stockholders.

EGU Publications says “Thank you!” to all our 2024 journal and EGUsphere volunteers!

EGU says “Thank you!” to all our 1174 journal editors, 6188 referees and 48 EGUsphere moderators who volunteered during 2024!

egu.eu

To all new {wbw} users, please note that the package is still under active development, with only about 7% of the planned features currently implemented 🐢💨

Jakub Nowosad@jakubnowosad.com · 2y ago

Introducing {wbw}, a new geospatial powerhouse in the R ecosystem by Anatolii Tsyplenkov! 🌍⚡ {wbw} provides a fast & powerful library for hydrology, geomorphometry, remote sensing, and more (raster, vector, LiDAR). Check it out: https://buff.ly/4gaWbCe #rspatial #rstats #geocompx #GIS

Only two more days to submit an abstract to #EGU25. Send an abstract and let's talk about the future of #soil #erosion science!

Pedro Batista@pedro-batista.bsky.social · 2y ago

There is still time to submit an abstract and join us at #EGU25 to rethink the current challenges in soil erosion science!

"A landscape-scale view of soil organic matter dynamics" by Doetterl et al. (2025) outlines how understanding soil formation processes and complexity at the landscape scale can inform predictions of SOM cycling and SOC sequestration 🧪🌍👇 www.nature.com/articles/s43... #soilscience #soilmapping

A landscape-scale view of soil organic matter dynamics - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

Soil carbon cycling is closely linked with landscape complexities in soil properties, climate and land use. This Perspective outlines how soil formation theory could provide insight on landscape-scale...

nature.com

There is still time to submit an abstract and join us at #EGU25 to rethink the current challenges in soil erosion science!

Let us start 2025 in a positive mood: here are 10 methods things researchers can worry *less* about in 2025

a countdown clock with the number 10 in the center

ALT: a countdown clock with the number 10 in the center

media.tenor.com

Are @zbmed.bsky.social aware of the negative reaction on social media to their just-announced contract with MDPI. There's a great many red flags they seem to have missed, e.g. deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/08/gues... deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-... + @hansonmark@bsky.social's account below

My experience as a reviewer for MDPI

Guest post by  René Aquarius, PhD Department of Neurosurgery Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Ne...

deevybee.blogspot.com

Mark A. Hanson@hansonmark.bsky.social · 2y ago

I was approached re: the Finnish decision to downgrade MDPI & Frontiers journals in 🇫🇮 rankings (THE article). This decision was based on broad patterns, including in our recent study "The strain on scientific publishing" (link: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...) A quick 🧵 1/n #SciPub #AcademicChatter

This is a catastrophe. While Finland has downgraded the MDPI and Frontiers journals to level 0 (meaning these publications are not recognized for research evaluation purposes), Germany has signed an agreement to promote publications in MDPI journals.

Graham Kendall@grahamkendall.bsky.social · 2y ago

Over 100 German Universities Partner with #MDPI in New National Agreement

Tramlines in fields can cause a lot of runoff, carrying soil and pollutants to water. 🚜🌧️ Our paper, dedicated to the late Martyn Silgram, found using very flexible tyres and a rotary harrow to break up compaction can reduce this problem 🌱💧 #farming #environment #soilhealth shorturl.at/lEPB8

Coercive citations, citation stacking, and REVIEW MILLS (!) are alive and well. Hopefully, in soil science, we have learned to keep an eye out for these things, but not sure this is the case. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The review mills, not just (self-)plagiarism in review reports, but a step further - Scientometrics

Review mills sum up a new category of reviewer misconduct that flies in the face of reviewer ethics and integrity. A pattern of generic, vague, and repeated affirmations (identical or very similar boi...

link.springer.com

Jan Willem van Groenigen@jwvangroenigen.bsky.social · 2y ago

[...] This may be totally innocent, but it is also in line with the modus operandi of citation stacking, as many supervisors may not check the pdf & many PhD students are not experienced enough to recognize this. Supervisors should always check out ALL reviewer comments and be alert to this!

Great initiative, great name for a session: BUGS: Blunders, Unexpected Glitches, and Surprises meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio... Looking forward to next year’s EGU!

Great chance for a PhD in soil erosion modelling by tillage and water with a focus on model testing and uncertainty analysis at the University of Augsburg. More info here: www.researchgate.net/job/1017779_...

I am a little late for #worldsoilday but here is my all time favourite: Latossolo Vermelho perférrico (Hyperferritic Ferralsol?), developed from itabirite - a hematite-quartz metamorphic rock that gives name to my hometown. These soils have up to 95% of Fe oxides and oxyhydroxides!! (1/3)

It’s funny because it’s true!

Pedro Batista@pedro-batista.bsky.social · 2y ago

I'll join -- here are the 12 types of #soil #erosion modelling papers 🤭

Only Advent calendar you need

Anna Abalkina@abalkina.bsky.social · 2y ago

Happy Advent! I created a special Advent calendar designed to highlight problems and inconsistencies in academic papers and scientific journals. Each day, a new case will be published, and your task is to spot the problem. Day 1. Enjoy! papermills.tilda.ws/advent

Deadline for financial support applications is 02 Dec 2024, 13:00 CET #EGU25

Pedro Batista@pedro-batista.bsky.social · 2y ago

📢 EGU 2025 Call for abstracts is now open! 📢 Are you tired of the same old, same old in soil-erosion modelling? We have a session for you:

"Should you stop drinking prosecco for ethical reasons?" The answer is NO! Here is why: a thread on the dangers of misusing soil erosion models and miscommunicating model-based results to the public (1/n)...🧵 www.theguardian.com/food/shortcu...

Should you stop drinking prosecco for ethical reasons?

Demand for the Italian white wine has surged in recent years, and increased production has led to soil erosion. So should prosecco join beef and others on the naughty list?

theguardian.com

Hahaha what is this?

Thorn-Seshold Lab@thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 2y ago

Wishing the Elsevier editors who desk-accepted this all the best for their next career moves. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

The Sex Pistols' "EMI" turns out to be a trenchant critique of academic publishing. I recommend singing along to it, but with the three-letter chorus replaced with "GFY", which is the default response by authors, journals, or institutions to any critical inquiry. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb1c...

Just published - soil sensor and conditioner study by Maria Marin as part of the @ukri.org NERC/ NSF Signals in the Soil projects. Calibrate your sensors before using them! bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Influence of soil conditioners for enhanced water retention on the accuracy and longer‐term deployment of widely used soil moisture sensors

In precision agriculture, water content sensors are fundamental to monitor soil moisture and hence optimize irrigation scheduling. Climate-smart agriculture has also focused on improving soil moistur...

bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I'll join -- here are the 12 types of #soil #erosion modelling papers 🤭

Richard Waite@waiterich.bsky.social · 2y ago

To accompany all those Bluesky science/academia #starterpacks, let's share introductions to the literature of our different fields. Below, I humbly submit 12 main types of scientific papers on food, agriculture, land, & natural climate solutions (inspired by the amazing @xkcd.com). #FoodStudies 🧪