Interlude: What You're Carrying, Conflicts of Interest, and AI Standards
I recently heard a story that really resonated with me. I can't verify that it's true, but the story still sends a powerful message.
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A Buddhist monk asked his students a question: “If you're carrying a cup of coffee and someone bumps into you, why did you spill the coffee?”
Every student said that it was because someone bumped into them.
Then the monk said, “No. The reason why you spilled the coffee is because that's what you were carrying in your cup. If you were carrying water, you would have spilled water."
Then he said something profound.
“Whenever life shakes you, whatever you're carrying is going to spill out.”
So if you're carrying fear, jealousy, anger, or greed—that's what's going to spill out.
But if you're carrying love, compassion, kindness, or empathy—that's what's going to spill out.
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I think the lesson also applies to our writing.
If you start the writing process with fear, overwhelm, and dread, that is what will spill into your writing.
But if you start the writing process with clarity, confidence, and excitement, that is what will spill into your writing.
What are you carrying into your writing today?
Now onto this week's round-up...
💌 Round-up
💻 From My Desk
How to Write a Conflicts of Interest Statement for a Manuscript
Are you wondering how to write a conflicts of interest or competing interests statement for a manuscript? This video unpacks how to write a clear and effective conflicts of interest statement for your manuscript submission. Discover what counts as a conflict of interest, why disclosure matters, common mistakes to avoid, and practical examples of conflicts of interest statements.
📆 Upcoming
Adapt Your Writing for a Changing Scientific Climate – September 4, 2025 @ 11 am PT
Join me for a free live masterclass, where you’ll get insight on what to consider in the changing scientific climate, strategies for optimizing your communication in the current moment, and a roadmap to adapt your writing—no matter what happens next.
👓 Reading
Evaluating the Detection Accuracy of AI-Generated Content in Plastic Surgery: A Comparative Study of Medical Professionals and AI Tools
“Medical professionals and AI detection tools struggle to reliably identify AI-generated content. While AI tools demonstrated high discriminatory power, they often misclassified human-written passages. These findings highlight the need for improved methods to protect the integrity of scientific writing and prevent false plagiarism claims.”
AI’s hyperbole ‘making journal abstracts harder to read’
"Studying more than 820,000 abstracts of articles published on the arXiv preprint platform over the past decade, researchers…found a clear shift in the lexicon of scholarly papers since November 2022, when ChatGPT-3.5 was released – including a sharp increase in the use of certain nouns and adverbs preferred by large language models (LLMs). . .the ‘significant decrease in…readability indicates that abstracts have fewer connecting words and are becoming more difficult to read’”
We Need AI Standards for Scholarly Publishing: A NISO Workshop Report
“The report identified more than two dozen potential projects that could be undertaken to address various issues related to AI tools and systems in our community. The participants also prioritized these ideas, but wider feedback is also being sought. Among the ideas that were highlighted as efforts the community should advance included:
Usage tracking and auditing to assess impact…
Communicating to technology companies about structure of scientific information…
Attribution and provenance standards for AI outputs…
Standardized licensing models/Legal terminology for AI usage…
Transparency and disclosure frameworks…
Interoperable metadata and access infrastructure…
Versioning and updating of AI training data…
AI-enhanced accessibility deployment guidance…”
💬 Quote
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
