Veronique Kiermer

Latest research with @plos.org colleagues to understand how we can help focus on intrinsic qualities in research assessment.

A survey of how biology researchers assess credibility when serving on grant and hiring committees

peerj.com/articles/205...

@peerj.bsky.social @iainhz.bsky.social

New on the blog! In an interview with Veronique Kiermer @verokiermer.bsky.social, Chief Scientific Officer for @plos.org, she provides insight into their approach to data sharing, visibility and evaluation.

👉 Read the post: makedatacount.org/read-our-blo...

#dataevaluation #datasharing

A ten-year drive to credit authors for their work — and why there’s still more to do Information about the roles of each author of a paper can help to build trust, integrity and responsible research assessment. Coordinated efforts are needed to consolidate progress.

10 years since CRediT was introduced, >20% adoption (of full text in Dimensions). Now, we need to build on this to comprehensively integrate CRediT in metadata and make sure the taxonomy evolves to remain fit for purpose. doi.org/10.1038/d415...
W/ @sjcporter.bsky.social Liz Allen Ruth Whitman

My new PLOS Bio piece about when one's work is misrepresented: "[T]here is a normative expectation within scholarly research that all parties are well-intentioned and truth-seeking...when invitations to engage genuinely are not accepted..scholarly discourse is ill-equipped to resolve the conflict."

In a thought-provoking @plosbiology.org Perspective article,
@briannosek.bsky.social asks whether science’s openness can be used against it, looking at how transparency and self-skepticism might be reframed in today’s discourse around golden standards

plos.io/4l8rNuE

#OpenScience 🧪

Exclusive: Harvard University lays off fly database team The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

🚨Still time to register. "Unconferences" are fun. And this one is about Responsible Research in Action, even better! A great opportunity to dig deep into important issues with people from different horizons.

Really excited to see this new partnership between MetaROR and PLOS Biology 👏 @metaror.bsky.social @plosbiology.org

PLOS ONE metadata forms the basis of our study's Figure 1. We could only study PLOS ONE because PLOS made this metadata freely available (and in bulk XML, no less)!

Information is only useful if it is accessible!

plos.org/text-and-dat...

Thanks, Reese. We're glad the data can be used for important studies like yours. "Open" at work. While we had already addressed some issues, you help us uncover more and give us more tools. It takes a village!

Restoring Gold Standard Science By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United

tl;dr — this EO co-opts the language of open science to implement a system of political control wherein presidential appointees are given broad latitude to designate any number of reasonable scientific activities and inferences as scientific misconduct, and to penalize those involved accordingly.

When Do Scholarly Retractions Become a Form of Censorship? Focusing on the handful of papers that are retracted for political reasons can obscure the more important problems afflicting the field of academic publishing.

When Do Scholarly Retractions Become a Form of Censorship?

A talk by our Ivan Oransky, adapted by @quillette.bsky.social

Rethinking How We Publish to Support Open Science Click on the article title to read more.

Newly published Perspective on why we should rethink publishing to support #openscience with @niamhoconnor73.bsky.social @amudditt.bsky.social itt.bsky.social It gives the context that led us @plos.org to embark on a research & design project with support from GBMF and RWJF
bit.ly/44of6af

🚨Submission deadline is approaching for the #EinsteinFoundationAward for Promoting Quality in Research. A prestigious and unique award recognizing efforts to improve research rigor, reliability and transparency. Three categories: three opportunities to nominate research heroes!

C.D.C. Cuts Threaten to Set Back the Nation’s Health, Critics Say

What remains of the CDC after Tuesday’s cuts is a hobbled agency, with a smaller global footprint, devoting fewer resources to environmental health, occupational health and disease prevention.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/h...

Couldn’t agree more. Thanks for this thoughtful commentary.

Very insightful piece by @ludowaltman.bsky.social on why publishing reform requires assessment reform AND vice versa. Coordination is crucial.

Tara Schwetz, who oversaw creation of ARPA-H, placed on leave by NIH The NIH has placed deputy director Tara Schwetz on administrative leave, marking the third senior leader to depart the agency since the Trump administration took power roughly nine weeks ago.

I was lucky to work with Tara when she co-led the ACD Working Group Re-Envisioning NIH-supported postdocs. If true, this is a real loss but there’s zero chance her leadership won’t be appreciated elsewhere.

www.statnews.com/2025/03/26/t...

Vaccine skeptic hired to head federal study of immunizations and autism A long-discredited researcher and vaccine skeptic will conduct a government study on whether vaccines cause autism.

Seismic scoop from @lenasun.bsky.social: A long-time anti-vaxer who was disciplined for practising medicine without a license has been selected by #HHS to conduct the study RFK Jr. wants looking yet again at whether vaccines cause autism. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Why we need to go ‘beyond the article’ to transform research - The Official PLOS Blog Over the course of 18 months, we are working on an ambitious new project to Redefine Publishing. Working with stakeholders from across…

We've started a consultation with academic leaders to understand how publishing a more complete record of research can support better recognition and rewards for researchers. Great to see a lot of alignment in our first workshop. theplosblog.plos.org/2025/03/why-...

RFK Jr.’s Prescription for Bird Flu on Farms: Let It Spread (Gift Article) The health secretary has suggested allowing the virus to spread, so as to identify birds that may be immune. Such an experiment would be disastrous, scientists say.

RFK Jr. has suggested allowing the H5N1 virus to spread on poultry farms, so as to identify birds that may be immune. Such an experiment would be disastrous, scientists say.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/h...

Texas public health official predicts the measles outbreak could take a year to contain The director of public health for the city of Lubbock said Tuesday that uptake of the measles vaccine “has definitely been a struggle,” and that the outbreak will be "large."

The Texas-New Mexico-Oklahoma #measles outbreak could be a long one, local public health official warns. www.statnews.com/2025/03/18/m...

Once again a splendid line up of winners for this important award. The focus of the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research is unique yet so important. If you can, join the live stream to honor the winners!

Congratulations! Fantastic to see bioRxiv and medRxiv going from strength to strength.

openRxiv has arrived!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of openRxiv as an independent, researcher-led nonprofit to oversee bioRxiv and medRxiv, the world’s leading preprint servers for life and health sciences.
openrxiv.org/introducing-...

#openRxiv #OpenScience #Preprints #bioRxiv #medRxiv

Rethinking How Research is Reviewed, Curated, and Communicated MetaROR uses the publish-review-curate model to share work in the field of metaresearch. In this Q and A, Moumita Koley and André Brasil discuss the platform in the context of a scholarly publishing s...

We (AIMOS and RORI) launched a metascience platform, MetaROR.org, several months ago 😀. Submit your metascience-related preprints and get peer reviews! André Brasil articulates the vision here, reflecting the hard work he's done to get the platform working for us. katinamagazine.org/content/arti...

More on the NIH termination of vaccine hesitancy studies.

The Words Federal Agencies Are Discouraged From Using Under Trump (Gift Article) Federal agencies have issued guidance to employees on hundreds of terms to limit or avoid using. An analysis of government websites shows many of the same words being removed.

As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Thank you for all the input so far on the Metascience Alliance! A wide range of perspectives is crucial for informing future development.

🗣️ Please continue to share this call. The feedback form is open through 3/16/25. (See further info in the thread below.)

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

📢 New Report: Implementing Narrative CVs - 5 recommendations for Funders

These CVs can diversify the scientific workforce, broaden academic values, and drive societal impact 🌱 The report offers actionable strategies for funders.

Read the full report here: rori.figshare.com/articles/rep...