Worrying new research surfaces in this week’s issue of Nature. According to the authors “increasing numbers of scientists are swapping party hats for mouse mats during the festive season”.

Between 1996 and 2006 there was a 600% increase in articles submitted to academic journals on Christmas Day, according to Richard Ladle and colleagues. Ladle and co suggest four possible reasons for the increase: the growth of a ‘publish or perish’ culture; research being pushed into the holiday by teaching and admin pressure; implementation of electronic submission; and changing religious beliefs among scientists.

“Although Christmas Day seems to be an ideal opportunity to get on with some blissfully uninterrupted research, we would urge our fellow scientists to keep their laptops turned off and enjoy a bit of Christmas spirit. You never know, Santa might then be more inclined to bring you that most popular of presents — a paper published in Nature!” they write.

Other people are also worried by the finding. The Ottawa Citizen urges researchers to “stop and smell the poinsettias” (though try not to inhale the whitefly). Meanwhile the Houston Chronicle’s SciGuy blog notes, “Whatever accounts for this trend, it seems a shame that scientists can’t enjoy a day of rest and relaxation when most of the rest of are certainly doing so.”

Another worrying point occurs – if you lot keep submitting papers up to Christmas Day sooner or later our editor is going to want us to be here to sort through them on Christmas Day. Please stop, for my colleagues’ sake!

[Some of the links on this post pointed in the wrong directions when it was first online. Apologies for that – Ed.]