Archive for Maynooth University

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Failures of Scopus

Posted in Maynooth, Open Access with tags , , , , , on October 14, 2024 by telescoper

I think it’s time to provide an update on the continuing (lack of) progress getting The Open Journal of Astrophysics properly indexed in Scopus (which markets itself as a purveyor of “metrics you can trust”). You might recall back in June that I reported that OJAp had been included in the index, but unfortunately the Scopus team messed up very badly by omitting about one-third of our papers and most of our citations. I reported a month ago that Scopus had committed to fixing the issue within two weeks. Now almost FIVE WEEKS later they haven’t done a thing.

Here’s the problem:

In the column marked Documents 2020-23  you will see the number 67. In fact we published 99 articles between 2020 and 2023, not 67. This is easily established here. The number 67 relates to the period 2022-23 only. Accidentally or deliberately, Scopus has omitted a third of our papers from its database. But the error doesn’t end there. Papers published in OJAp between 2020 and 2023 have actually been cited 959 times, not 137. If you restrict the count to papers published in 2022-23 there are 526 citations. It’s no wonder that OJAp has such a low CiteScore, and consequently appears so far down the rankings, when the citation information is so woefully inaccurate.

“Metrics you can trust?” My arse!

If you want accurate bibliometric information about the papers published in the two years that Scopus has chosen to ignore you can look here.

This all merely demonstrates the folly that so many institutions place so much trust in Scopus. Unfortunately the powers that be have decided that Scopus listing is such a reliable indicator of quality that any article not published in a Scopus journal is worthless. Knowing that it has a monopoly, Scopus has no incentive to put any effort into its own quality assurance. It can peddle any error-ridden tripe to its subscribers, most of them paying for the product with taxpayers’ money. Unfortunately the bean-counters at Maynooth University are as credulous as any, mindlessly parroting spurious announcements based on the Scopus database.

Maynooth University is proud to offer undergraduates a course in Critical Skills. I suggest it that the gullible members of its management team would do well to take it.

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O(G)HAM

Posted in History, Irish Language with tags , , on October 3, 2024 by telescoper

Here’s a fascinating video about a project looking into Ogham, an early-mediaeval way of writing that dates back to about the 4th Century AD.

As the video reflects, there’s some controversy about whether the ‘g’ is pronounced but most Irish people I know would say “Oham” rather than “Ogam”. Anyway, this video reports on a research collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Maynooth University that aims to harness Digital Technologies to Transform Understanding of Ogham Writing, from the 4th Century to the 21st.

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The Return of the Hume Doctoral Scholarships?

Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on October 2, 2024 by telescoper

This morning it was drawn to my attention that the TSI Building on Maynooth University campus was surrounded by fences and barricades. A colleague then explained that they were there because the President was delivering her latest Presidential Address in one of the lecture theatres there. I was sadly prevented from attending this inspirational event by having better things to do, but naturally assumed the obstacles were in place to prevent people from leaving before the end. It seems however that campus security were worried there might be “protests”. I’m told that there was a kind of protest, with people displaying placards but it was quite a low-key affair.

So what was the subject of the protest?

You may recall that a few weeks ago, while this blog was still banned from campus, I posted an item bemoaning the sudden decision by University Management to scrap the John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarships for PhD students at Maynooth University. Well, this decision created an angry response at Faculty and Departmental meetings across campus, as did the President’s obvious intention to keep any discussion off the agenda as much as possible.

It seems that today the President announced a retreat and the Hume Fellowships will continue this year after all. After exhausting all the alternatives, they have at least decided to do the right thing. At least that’s what I’m told. I wasn’t at the speech and there has been no official communication about it to all staff.

There are many reasons to be glad if this programme continues. On the other hand, reversing the decision does not mean that we should pretend it was never made. Every time the Management does something dumb, and is forced to retreat, more of its credibility is eroded. In due course I plan to post the results of a Staff Culture and Climate Survey that was carried out in 2022. I mentioned this here. These results were obtained recently via a Freedom of Information request as they are so bad – especially concerning the performance of the University Executive – that they were buried for two years. The sad thing is that, two years on, the Culture and Climate at Maynooth have deteriorated still further thanks to episodes like the Hume Scholarship fiasco.

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Maynooth Space Week Update!

Posted in Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , on October 1, 2024 by telescoper
Euclid View of the Perseus Cluster

A couple of week ago I posted about the event we are putting on at Maynooth University to mark Space Week in Ireland, which is is from October 4th – 10th this year. The event at Maynooth is on Wednesday October 9th, i.e. a week tomorrow. I’ll be doing a talk, the description of which reads:

Two of the greatest mysteries in modern science concern the nature of the dark matter and dark energy we think dominate the Universe. In this talk I will explain how the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission, launched last year, is designed to shed light on the “dark side” of the cosmos, present some of the early results, and show how you can get involved in analyzing Euclid data.

Anyway, I did think today would provide a good excuse to boost the bookings, but I’m afraid the venue is already full so I needn’t have bothered.

Register on Eventbrite

If you didn’t manage to book you can at least read the programme here to see what you’re going to miss!

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Random Gallery

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags on September 21, 2024 by telescoper
A cloudy day on campus
A sunny day on campus
It seems I’ve been demoted as well as elevated…
They’ve changed the signs already!
remains of a dead pigeon
Not to mention the entropy!
I found this in my office. I don’t know what it is but apparently it belongs to someone called Jack Splitter

In the absence of anything better to post, I thought I’d share a few random pictures I’ve taken around Maynooth University campus since I moved into my new office.

Oh, I’ll just add this little anecdote. I was away from campus on Thursday and after I had done the necessary I was required to take a taxi home. The taxi driver asked me what I did for a living and when I told him he said he was fascinated interested in nuclear physics and proceeded to ask me a series of questions including what heavy water is, whether plutonium occurs naturally, and what is measured in röntgen. It’s always nice when a member of the public shows an interest in physics.

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A Maynooth University Campus Question

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , , , on September 19, 2024 by telescoper
The TSI Building

Ironically, the day after access to this blog on Maynooth Campus was restored, I have to spend the whole day located elsewhere and without internet access. I will therefore leave those on and off campus to ponder a question related to Maynooth University campus.

In LHBS units*, how much did it cost Maynooth University for a palatial new office in the TSI Building for its President, Professor Eeva Leinonen?

(*1 LHBS = the cost of one Leinster House Bike Shed = €336,000).

Please place your guesses in the Comment Box below. FOI requests may be used.

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Beating the Ban

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , , on September 18, 2024 by telescoper

Access to this blog is still blocked on Maynooth University campus. I was told that this was because of phishing activity, but IT Services are not replying to my requests for information about this alleged misconduct. If it were true I would have been subject to disciplinary action, and I haven’t because it is not true. I can only assume that it is a half-witted attempt at censorship.

I did originally think that the entire WordPress.com domain was blocked but I found that I could access the excellent blog by mathematician Terry Tao so it does appear I have been singled out for banning.

You can still read this blog off campus, but if you want to read it on Maynooth University campus, my posts are available in full federated form on Mastodon by following In the Dark on mastodon.social here.

That means you can read whole posts there rather than having to follow a link as on other social media (Threads, BlueSky, LinkedIn and Facebook).

Alternatively, you can receive posts via email here:

In the past I have used this blog, along with my other social media, to promote activities, courses, and job opportunities at Maynooth University. I will not be doing that until the ban is lifted. I have of course also posted items critical of the University management and will continue doing that.

UPDATE: By sheer coincidence (?), just a couple of hours after posting this item (from home), IT services contacted me and told me that this page has now been “reclassified as a blog” and is now accessible from campus (which is where I am writing this update). What it was classified as before is anyone’s guess, but access from campus has now been restored.

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More Thoughts of Retirement…

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , , on September 16, 2024 by telescoper

Now that I’m back home from campus after work, and have access to this blog once again, I thought I’d share a little ethical question with you.

Less than a year ago, while I was in Barcelona, I posted an item about looking forward to retirement. Here are two paragraphs from that piece:

The fact of the matter is, though, that I can’t afford to retire yet. I have a mortgage to pay and I’ve only had five full years of pensionable service in the Irish system, so won’t get much of a pension. I have the frozen residue of my UK pension, of course, but that is subject to an actuarial reduction if I take the benefit before I’m 65, which is also the standard retirement age for academic staff in Ireland. I can’t be made to retire here until I’m 70, in fact, but I think I’ll be well beyond my best-before date by then and am not keen to overstay my welcome.

So it looks like I’ll have to stay until I’m 65 at the earliest. In fact I won’t be able to collect the State Pension (SPC) until I’m 66, so I’ll probably have to stay another year. That means that when I get back from sabbatical I will have four or five years left until I can retire. I don’t know what I’ll be teaching when I return but I hope I get a chance to teach a few new modules before the end. In particular some cosmology or astrophysics would be particularly nice. All this is predicated on: (a) me living long enough; and (b) Physics at Maynooth not being closed down; neither of these is certain.

Since I posted this I have made a firm decision that I will retire as soon as I’m able, which should be in June 2028. This is partly because I recently had a health scare which, though it is now seemingly resolved, has persuaded me not to take (a) for granted. There are things I’d like to do before I pop my clogs and I won’t be able to do them while still in full-time employment. I’ve done some calculations and should be able to pay off my mortgage early, perhaps even by the end of this year.

Anyway, this led me to the following ethical question, to which different colleagues have had different responses.

A PhD in Ireland typically takes a minimum of 4 years. That means that if I were to take on a new PhD student next academic year (starting in September 2025) then less than three years would pass before I would retire. If a member of staff is less than 4 years from retirement should they decline all PhD supervision requests?

Opinions through the Comments Box please!

PS. My two current students will both have completed well before 2028.

PPS. Another question is who would take over the Open Journal of Astrophysics…

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Farewell to the Hume Doctoral Scholarships

Posted in Maynooth with tags , , , on September 13, 2024 by telescoper

If you are a final year student and were thinking of applying for one of the John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarships in order to fund a PhD at Maynooth University, then don’t bother. University Management – as usual in the case of anything without consultation or discussion – has decided to scrap the scheme. How this squares with the ambition to increase PhD numbers stated clearly in the Strategic Plan is anyone’s guess. Why it has been decided to aim a wrecking ball at Maynooth’s research activity is another question. Clearly it’s not shortage of funds: the University accounts reveal huge surpluses and just this week yet another administrative position with a six-digit salary (enough to fund at least 5 PhD students) was advertised. We can’t expect to have research students and a legion of overpaid bureaucrats, can we?

John Hume (a Maynooth alumnus and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) died in 2020 and Pat Hume (John’s wife), who died in 2021; the John and Pat Hume Scholarships were created in their honour. The decision to extinguish that honour just a few year after their deaths is just crass. Let’s hope the inevitable backlash will bring about a change of mind. This blog may be banned on campus, but word will spread.

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Space Week in Maynooth!

Posted in Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , on September 12, 2024 by telescoper
Euclid View of the Perseus Cluster

The annual Space Week in Ireland is from October 4th – 10th this year. As we have done for the previous couple of years, we will be putting on an event at Maynooth University. When I say “we”, I mean the Department of Physics collectively – I was away in Barcelona at the time of last year’s event so couldn’t give a talk, but I did one the year before. I’ll be doing a talk this year too. The description of my talk reads:

Two of the greatest mysteries in modern science concern the nature of the dark matter and dark energy we think dominate the Universe. In this talk I will explain how the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission, launched last year, is designed to shed light on the “dark side” of the cosmos, present some of the early results, and show how you can get involved in analyzing Euclid data.

Anyway, this year’s event will be on Wednesday 9th October. The event is open is open to all and will be held in the picturesque surroundings of the TSI building. Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. You can do that here. The event has sold out for both the last two years – with over 400 attendees – so it’s best to book early!

Register on Eventbrite

You can find more details about the programme here. It may change so I’ll post the final programme nearer the event.

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