Thread by @chrisdc77

Whenever I criticize professors I get email from fellow profs admonishing me. Today it was the charge that I was "...attacking the people who have power, rather than diplomatically trying to change their minds".

Dear Profs: This thread is my autoreply & my only reply. /1

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I find that senior profs fall into 3 categories.

Category A is those who care about reproducibility, agree there is a problem & want to make science more rewarding for the public & the next generation of scientists. @deevybee @MarcusMunafo @siminevazire, to name just a few. /2

Category B is those professors who write blogposts like the one I quoted, who think that concerns about reproducibility and transparency in science are overblown. Some have COIs, others are just recalcitrant or conservative for unknown reasons. /3

Cat B professors might occasionally accept that some things aren't quite right, but they will ask for impossible standards of evidence to make even the slightest reforms to the status quo of science & publishing, despite providing no evidence that the status quo works best. /4

To many Category B profs, the best evidence that science is doing fine thanks is that they have tenure at Big University & get paid a big fucking salary, so get the fuck back to work & stop complaining.

We talk more about that here @hertzpodcast soundcloud.com/everything-her… /5

Then there is Category C: a broad church of those who don’t give a crap or who might care *a bit* but who watch these discussions w/ the detached curiosity of someone who is safe either way. They do little or nothing to reform science b/c they have more important things to do. /6

To the Category A professors (alas still the minority): I say thank you – I consider you my friends and allies, and collectively I believe we are on the right side of history. You can call me anytime and I will always support your efforts. /7

To Category B+C: I’m tempted to say: fuck you & the horse you rode in on.

Your gen created this mess & not only do you sit on your arses (& editorial boards) doing NOTHING to make things better for the next gen –& often obstructing- but you have the gall to complain to me? /8

But actually I don’t say that to Category B+C profs. I spend 5 days/week engaging with you & your fellow lottery winners, finding ways to convince you to adopt initiatives like Registered Reports, Badges for Open Practices & TOP guidelines, and helping you implement them. /9

I go out of my way to make things easy for the Category B+C profs, to explain why improving reproducibility is in your interests and those of the communities you lead.
Because you are right about one thing: you are important. /10

But dear hallowed professoriate of Categories B+C, here’s the thing. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I and others in Category A need you. We're not doing this *for* you and though we try to be collegiate, we don’t actually need to change your mind. /11

The reason those of us in Category A are doing this is so that we can clean up the mess you created and continue to create (as a group) for the next generation. If you don’t change, we can and we will change the world around you. /12

So to the professors who email me I say this: Let’s work together to fix science.

Before emailing me, ask yourself: “What am I personally doing to improve transparency and reproducibility in science for the next generation?” /13

If the answer is “A lot or not much but I’d like to do more” then by all means click send & I’d love to chat & help.

If the answer is “Nothing but I have important opinions that you should listen to” then do us all a favour and STFU. Better yet, consider retirement.

/end