Raphael Merz's Avatar

Raphael Merz

@raphaelmerz

PhD candidate @tue.nl | working on theory-based predictions of plausible effect sizes | board member at the Platform for Young Meta-Scientists (PYMS)

218
Followers
205
Following
47
Posts
25.09.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Raphael Merz @raphaelmerz

Paul Meehl Graduate School Dissertation Award | Paul Meehl Graduate School # About Since its establishment in 2024, the Paul Meehl Graduate School has aimed to foster a strong community for...

We are pleased to announce that the Paul Meehl Graduate School is launching theΒ PMGS Dissertation Award, recognizing outstanding PhD dissertations that advance meta-research.

See the eligibility criteria and apply before June 1st, 2026 at:
paulmeehlschool.github.io/award/

04.03.2026 19:26 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Plot with X (Line Length in Inches) and Y (Psychological Scale Values in Arbitrary Units)

Plot with X (Line Length in Inches) and Y (Psychological Scale Values in Arbitrary Units)

Found this gem the other day, and honestly, this is how most Y-axes should be labeled…

25.02.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Taken from: Chapter 2 of Woodworth & Schlosbergβ€˜s Experimental Psychology (3rd Edition, 1971)

25.02.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Plot with X (Line Length in Inches) and Y (Psychological Scale Values in Arbitrary Units)

Plot with X (Line Length in Inches) and Y (Psychological Scale Values in Arbitrary Units)

Found this gem the other day, and honestly, this is how most Y-axes should be labeled…

25.02.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
UniversitΓ€t Graz

Are you passionate about teaching #statistics? Would like to have a permant #job in #academia? Are you fluent in #English and #German? Do you want to become a senior lecturer @uni-graz.at?
Apply!: jobs.uni-graz.at/de/jobs/3cb1...

18.02.2026 07:37 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
pdf view of a paper on the journal website: first page is an ad ("Publishing research supporting global sustainability and innovation"). Above is says "Advertisement Start"...

pdf view of a paper on the journal website: first page is an ad ("Publishing research supporting global sustainability and innovation"). Above is says "Advertisement Start"...

Oh that's new!? First page of the pdf view of a paper on the journal's website is an ad to publish in the journal??

What comes next? 50% off your APC if you agree to have ads in the paper? Sure hope my university got a discount for this Netflix-style service+ads subscription...

29.01.2026 14:46 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Introducing Causion: A web app for playing with DAGs | Peder M. Isager Personal website of Dr. Peder M. Isager

New blog post introducing Causion - a web app for causal inference teaching and learning: pedermisager.org/blog/causion....

28.01.2026 09:23 πŸ‘ 144 πŸ” 66 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 6
Video thumbnail

πŸŽ‰ PYMS just passed 100 members on Discord!

Huge thanks to everyone who joined our growing community of young meta‑scientists 🧑

Want to be part of the server too? Send us a DM!

21.01.2026 13:04 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This gif took way to long to create - I hope you like it!

19.01.2026 13:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
When psychologists mislead us From Piltdown Man to the Stanford prison experiment, many famous scientific discoveries have been exposed as hoaxes or distortions

"The rewards to 'discovering' a spectacular scientific finding [in psychology] are large; the rewards to debunking frauds or deflating exaggerated claims are small if not non-existent. If these are the rules of the game, we should not be surprised at the way the game is played."

15.01.2026 15:51 πŸ‘ 41 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Picture of a snowman with snow-hat, stick hands and pine cone nose

Picture of a snowman with snow-hat, stick hands and pine cone nose

Very excited to share results of the first finished project this year (shared first-authorship)! β˜ƒοΈ

04.01.2026 13:23 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

In meinem Neurowissenschaften-Master haben wir sehr viele halb-gare β€žweil Hirnβ€œ-ErklΓ€rungen bekommen. RΓΌckfragen haben mir nicht so oft geholfen aber bestimmt lag das an mir (weil zu wenig Hirn) :/

30.12.2025 12:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Richard McElreath: It must not be overlooked that junior researchers DO NOT TRUST US. We, the directors, are a big part of the problem. We made this system, we remake it every year, and we benefit from it. What can we do to credibly signal our commitment to reform a corrupt research culture? My conversations with junior scientists in the society has taught me that directors are too often either indifferent or hostile to science reform. We cannot hope to convince our prize winning colleagues. Their egos are immune. But we can replace retirements with researchers who care more about integrity than their own prestige. This is important both for earning the trust of the junior researchers who really do the research in the MPG and for attracting excellent future directors and starting to earn the trust of the public. So I suggest two strong signals to our junior researchers (and the public): (1) we will reform recruitment and promotion at all levels to eliminate proxies like citation counts and journal brands in favor of reliability and sustainability; (2) we will make open science skills a core part of scientific training, through the graduate schools at a minimum, as conditions for the central funding. The most ambitious thing we could do, as hinted at in item 5 above, is to meaningfully invest in metascientific research. As the largest basic research organization in the world, the MPG is uniquely suited to studying research and its products from a broad perspective that includes the humanities, the sciences, and policy. Governments are already involved in science reform. Someone should study it in an organized and sustained way.

Richard McElreath: It must not be overlooked that junior researchers DO NOT TRUST US. We, the directors, are a big part of the problem. We made this system, we remake it every year, and we benefit from it. What can we do to credibly signal our commitment to reform a corrupt research culture? My conversations with junior scientists in the society has taught me that directors are too often either indifferent or hostile to science reform. We cannot hope to convince our prize winning colleagues. Their egos are immune. But we can replace retirements with researchers who care more about integrity than their own prestige. This is important both for earning the trust of the junior researchers who really do the research in the MPG and for attracting excellent future directors and starting to earn the trust of the public. So I suggest two strong signals to our junior researchers (and the public): (1) we will reform recruitment and promotion at all levels to eliminate proxies like citation counts and journal brands in favor of reliability and sustainability; (2) we will make open science skills a core part of scientific training, through the graduate schools at a minimum, as conditions for the central funding. The most ambitious thing we could do, as hinted at in item 5 above, is to meaningfully invest in metascientific research. As the largest basic research organization in the world, the MPG is uniquely suited to studying research and its products from a broad perspective that includes the humanities, the sciences, and policy. Governments are already involved in science reform. Someone should study it in an organized and sustained way.

The Max Planck Society has begun an exploratory round table for open science. We are drafting some recommendations to leadership. Still a long way to go! But here are my notes on the most recent draft, just so you all know how I am trying to steer things.

17.12.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 218 πŸ” 48 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 6

Perfect time to join the PYMS Discord if you haven’t already! We have a Meme Channel now!

02.12.2025 09:58 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Now this is a new one: My university's license of SAGE journals allows me to view but not to download the research articles. According to ChatGPT read-access costs 100K€ p.a. If you want to make 100% sure that interested readers can access your article, publish it in a #diamondopenaccess journal.

25.11.2025 14:00 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Post image

Getting journal rejections like

21.11.2025 17:50 πŸ‘ 320 πŸ” 56 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Looking for ways to contribute to open and reproducible research? Want to collaborate on projects (or start your own), develop skills, and connect with fellow enthusiasts from different countries and disciplines?
Then join our Steering Committee and become part of a global community!πŸš€

20.11.2025 14:10 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Which variables to control for, and why | Peder M. Isager Personal website of Dr. Peder M. Isager

New blog post! ”Which variables to control for, and why”: pedermisager.org/blog/which-v...
In this post I give a beginner-friendly introduction to causal inference and statistical control, explaining why adjusting for the right variables clarifies relationships >

17.11.2025 15:00 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Thanks! Yeah, I guess it’s a bit unclear. To me it seemed like they were talking about settings with many (arbitrary) decisions (where metaverse makes sense), so not sure what theyβ€˜re general stance on preregistration is. Maybe @dsquintana.bsky.social can help us?

15.11.2025 09:20 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I think this is missing some context: they are talking about multiverse settings where β€ž[preregistration] risks favoring a single arbitrary perspective over a more comprehensive examination of the data.β€œ - literally the end of your quote.

15.11.2025 08:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Very useful table of insufficient examples vs. best-practices for statistical reporting!

Will definitely point some of my colleagues to it! πŸ“ˆ

15.11.2025 08:49 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Very cool! Have you thought about possible effects of word limits when writing articles? Your best-practices in Table 1 are usually (way) longer that the insufficient examples. But maybe reporting everything following best-practices literally doesn’t fit. How should we deal with this iyo?

15.11.2025 08:42 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Join the next PMGS workshop where @ambra-prg.bsky.social will explain how to use Quarto for your reproducible research! πŸ”“πŸ§‘β€πŸ”¬

13.11.2025 12:14 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I heard sheβ€˜s not even a real doctor?! 🀯

12.11.2025 12:27 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
PCI Webinar Series - Peer Community In The PCI webinar series is a series of seminars on research practices, publication practices, evaluation, scientific integrity, meta-research, organised by Peer Community In

πŸ“£ Save the date for the 13th PCI webinar on December 1st, 2025, at 4 PM CET!! Simine Vazire (University of Melbourne, Australia) will present "Recognizing and responding to a replication crisis: Lessons from Psychology". For more details and registration, visit: buff.ly/wZNoD2v

05.11.2025 10:49 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 3

@isager.bsky.social You were looking for causal inference examples to try with your students, no? 🚿

28.10.2025 22:38 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Highly recommend this opportunity! I was on the steering committee about 5-6 years ago and it was incredibly rewarding!

(P.S. where did the years go?? πŸ˜΅β€πŸ’«)

28.10.2025 19:59 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Iβ€˜m starting a new 'migration log' here:

I work in the Netherlands, of course I commute by bike 🚴🏻

14.10.2025 15:32 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Check Scientific Papers for Best Practices A modular, extendable system for automatically checking scientific papers for best practices using text search, R code, and/or (optional) LLM queries.

Please help us, #MetaScience community!

It's time to decide on a forever name for papercheck (scienceverse.github.io/papercheck/). We don't want it to be confused with papercheck.ai, and we plan to check other research artifacts like repo contents, data, code, and prereg. Any suggestions?

14.10.2025 13:06 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 0

Hallo zusammen, mein Name ist Raphael und ich habe kΓΌrzlich meinen Master in Psychologie abgeschlossen und im Oktober den PhD im Bereich MetaScience in den Niederlanden angefangen. Bevor ich euch mehr ΓΌber meinen PhD erzΓ€hle, wollte ich aber ein bisschen was zu MetaScience allgemein erzΓ€hlen:

13.10.2025 06:54 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0