Even if you’re not on Twitter, you might have heard or read something about a hashtag that last month yielded a steady stream of tweets that exposed, and indeed rejoiced in, the sausage-making that science can be sometimes.

It all started with a researcher doing what lot of people do on social media: blowing off steam. That one tweet, by a postdoc who goes by the handle @dr_leigh, has been edited below because, well, you’ll know why when you read it. The others are a sampling of the thousands of tweets from scientists in all fields that followed @dr_leigh’s relatable public sigh.

@dr_leigh: we did experiment 2 because we didn't know what the (redacted) to make of experiment 1 #overlyhonestmethods

@ProteinWrangler: Plasmids were a gracious gift from the Miser lab after many emails, phone calls, & drunken reminders at conferences. #overlyhonestmethods ‏ @Bashir_Course9: We actually did Exp 2 before Exp 1. The elegant reasoning written here is completely posthoc. @SciTriGrrl @dr_leigh #overlyhonestmethods

@cellularscale: We used software X because it is free. #overlyhonestmethods

@atomselectrons: This dye was selected because the bottle was within reach #overlyhonestmethods

@paulcoxon: Scientific collaborators are carefully chosen by the quality of their research, and if their labs are near a beach #overlyhonestmethods

@sonicgu: Crystals were obtained by the "I forgot the flask in the fume hood" technique. #overlyhonestmethods

@SciTriGrrl: This project was started to prove someone wrong. They were not. Dammit. #overlyhonestmethods

‏@doc_becca: By “representative,” we mean “best.” #overlyhonestmethods

‏@short2thepoint: The experiment only worked when my hair was shorter than shoulder length #overlyhonestmethods #superstitions

@ProfLikeSubst: Most of samples died when they overheated on the deck of a modified tuna boat being driven by a drunk captain #overlyhonestmethods #tooreal

@JDFrenchie: We use intro level psych students as research subjects because we have no obligation to pay them. #OverlyHonestMethods

@nikkismalls28: Any samples run will likely be contaminated, because we still haven't fixed what the intern messed up this summer #OverlyHonestMethods

@dr_leigh: incubation lasted three days because this is how long the undergrad forgot the experiment in the fridge #overlyhonestmethods

@SciTriGrrl: We study this signaling pathway because it has the best antibodies #overlyhonestmethods

@drugmonkeyblog: Two days to isolate the protein, five weeks to generate the hilarious double-entendre name for the gene. #overlyhonestmethods #flynerds

@NellyPlants: Plants were placed in darkness for 18 h rather than the usual 20 to avoid risk of getting snowed in and trapped in lab #overlyhonestmethods

@chemverse0409: A 30 minute reaction time was chosen because that's how long it takes to get pizza and beer. #overlyhonestmethods

@BadPhysics: Older centrifuge used as three PhDs were utterly baffled trying to program the new one. #overlyhonestmethods

Read Raj Mukhopadhyay’s Wild Types blog entry from Jan. 7 about #overlyhonestmethods.
It includes a Storify she created: