Brian Boyle
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bpboyle.bsky.social
Brian Boyle
@bpboyle.bsky.social
980 followers 1.4K following 20 posts
Political Scientist at Newcastle University. Interested in political behaviour, comparative politics, political communication, & computational social science.

brianboyle.phd
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bpboyle.bsky.social
Brian Boyle @bpboyle.bsky.social · Dec 17
Happy to share that our article (@heinzbrandenburg.bsky.social and Yulia Lemesheva) which looks at representation on BBC Question Time has now been published at IJPP journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
@nclpolitics.bsky.social
@strathpolir.bsky.social
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
Reposted by Brian Boyle
ingorohlfing.bsky.social
Readable, Reliable, Reusable: A Guide to Clean #rstats Code
jacciz.github.io/portfolio/pr... Lots of good advice in this post. Too bad one (better, I) keeps forgetting about some practices in the process and follow bad practices
December 2, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
lukasbirkenmai1.bsky.social
⏰ I’m happy to share that a major paper from my dissertation was published today (🔗 doi.org/10.1017/pan....) in Political Analysis. In the paper, Clemens Lechner and I conduct an extensive validation study on how to measure politicians’ public personality traits using computational text analysis!
December 2, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
lottehargrave.bsky.social
🚨New article🚨 What do people want from political leaders in times of crisis, and are those preferences gendered?

Interested? Then check out our new Electoral Studies paper @jess-smith.bsky.social @viktorv.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social @hannahbunting.bsky.social @carolineleicht.bsky.social
Bluesky
e.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
jbgruber.bsky.social
After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN!

Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered

jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
sundersays.bsky.social
These are HEPI estimates of the 20 institutions affected: I think this illustrates the impact if the tariff is absorbed in full by institutions.

What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
erinkaylockwood.bsky.social
If all they're doing is "fact-checking" AI output + using AI for all reading and writing (which most are), they will never have the opportunity to acquire those fundamental cognitive skills which can only be obtained through the challenging and uncomfortable work of actually reading and writing.
November 24, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
erinkaylockwood.bsky.social
I don't think this is right. These kind of metacognitive tasks require that students *already* have the cognitive skills to critically evaluate a piece of text both for empirical accuracy and strength of argument. In an AI-saturated world, I'm not convinced first-year students do.
dougsaunders.bsky.social Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 8d
Two years ago I had lunch with the dean of a department at one of Toronto’s major universities and she told me she had instructed all her profs teaching first-year classes to do exactly this. It sounded sensible and I wonder if it’s now more widely applied
November 24, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
dariia.bsky.social
An upd report on our workshops for Ukraine series on #RStats, #Python & more. So far, we have raised >113k euro & the workshops have been attended by > 5000 ppl!
👇you can find more info on how you can help & a detailed report.
All info on workshops: bit.ly/3wBeY4S 1/n
November 23, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
mduque.bsky.social
Ever wondered why some countries get recognition while others struggle to be seen?

My book 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴 is finally out in the world!

📘 academic.oup.com/book/61560
The Making of International Status
Abstract. With great power rivalry on the rise again, many worry that struggles for status among states could lead to war. As a growing consensus indicates
academic.oup.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
bschlipphak.bsky.social
Beside listening to the podcast, you should really read the full paper - the environmental costs are only one of the paper's punchlines. Plus: it is written in a very accessible way. Kudos to the authors, @seanhp.bsky.social, @isaacbravo.bsky.social & @clint0475.bsky.social!

osf.io/download/vwb5h
November 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'The Student Working Lives report, published by HEPI with the University of Lancashire and three partner institutions, provides something that previous polling (including our own Belong survey work with Cibyl) couldn’t – linked institutional data on actual academic performance and attendance.' 1/3
Long hours and poor working conditions hit students' outcomes hard
Conference, [students] time at college or university should be spent learning or training. Not working every hour God sends.
wonkhe.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
mascakir.bsky.social
Do policy preferences of voters and non-voters differ in European democracies?

My new article in @ejprjournal.bsky.social finds: Yes, sometimes, but this is not the norm.

Let's break it down. 🧵 1/10
November 19, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
chrisbutlerpol.bsky.social
Several recent studies have found that politicians aren't very good at estimating public support for policies. But we have little idea about whether politicians are good at knowing which issues are more important to voters. Our new publication has a first go at answering this question rdcu.be/eQGm4
How Politicians (mis)Perceive Policy Salience
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
vincentab.bsky.social
we're done
November 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
grimalkina.bsky.social
I'm committed to fully enjoying my weekend but lord I am excited to read this when I have time

arxiv.org/abs/2511.044...
Does AI-Assisted Coding Deliver? A Difference-in-Differences Study of Cursor's Impact on Software Projects
Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated the promise to revolutionize the field of software engineering. Among other things, LLM agents are rapidly gaining momentum in their application to softw...
arxiv.org
November 16, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
comptext.bsky.social
SAVE THE DATE! We are pleased to announce that the 8th COMPTEXT Conference will take place at the Institute of Data and AI (lnkd.in/ebN7za_Q) of the University of Birmingham, 23-25 April 2026, with @chrisguarnold.bsky.social serving as the lead local organiser. Call for Papers coming soon!
University of Birmingham photo
November 14, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
lauraserra.bsky.social
🚨 New paper with Maria Grasso on generational shifts in political values. Despite talk of rising age polarisation, we show that gaps in attitudes are stable or even narrowing. Economic attitudes move in cycles, while social values have become more liberal – mainly due to generational replacement.
Political Socialisation in the UK: Describing Generational Changes of Values - International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society
A growing bulk of research examines intergenerational shifts in attitudes and the extent to which they are attributable to new cohorts of voters being socialised under different socioeconomic and cult...
link.springer.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
karengregory.bsky.social
The senior leadership team at @edinburghuniversity plan to cut staff expenditure by £90m, which is more than 10%.

This would mean about 1 in 8 members of staff losing their jobs. With hundreds of jobs already lost, a further 1,000+ jobs are on the line.

www.instagram.com/p/DQuFjwBjHB5/
November 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
dariusribbe.bsky.social
With the deadline extension you still have a few days left to send us your abstracts for the #ECPG26 Methods Section!

We are looking forward to reading your work :)

@ecpr.bsky.social @ecprgender.bsky.social
@nclpolitics.bsky.social

#polsci, #PoliticalScience, #Methodology, #Researchmethods
dariusribbe.bsky.social Darius Ribbe @dariusribbe.bsky.social · Sep 19
Gender bias in algorithms, LLMs, & NLP? We’re putting it under the microscope in our Methods Section at #ECPG26.
Have you seen these biases in your own research?
Come join the debate—submit your work by Nov 7!

@ecpr.bsky.social @ecprgender.bsky.social @nclpolitics.bsky.social
dariusribbe.bsky.social Darius Ribbe @dariusribbe.bsky.social · Sep 12
Interested in gender & politics and working with exciting empirical methods?
Want to critically discuss “quant” and “quali” research on gender, intersectionality & inequality?

Join us at #ECPG26 for the section:

ecpr.eu/Events/Event...

1/3
November 11, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
bjpols.bsky.social
NEW -

Political Scandals and Vertical Contagion in Multilevel Systems - cup.org/47wHeJB

- @jaclarner.bsky.social, Robert Johns, @ailsahenderson.bsky.social, @frasmcm.bsky.social & @cjcarman.bsky.social

#OpenAccess
BJPolS abstract discussing the impact of political scandals on perceptions of leaders, focusing on the UK and Scotland. The study explores themes like containment and contrast in institutional reactions to such scandals.
November 9, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
jaclarner.bsky.social
🚨 NEW in @bjpols.bsky.social : When Partygate hit Westminster, trust in Scottish politicians increased. Our experiments reveal a "contrast effect" - scandals at one level can make the other look better by comparison. Who lost most trust in Westminster? Scottish unionists. Read now #OpenAccess 👇
Boris Johnson toasting one of the gatherings in Downing Street which breached Covid lockdown rules
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
jacobnyrup.bsky.social
One week left to apply for the postdoc position -- the deadline is on the 17th of November: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

(and two weeks left to apply for the PhD positions, the deadline is on the 24th of November: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...)
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
chriswratil.bsky.social
🚨 Job Alert! Postdoc in POLITICAL TEXT ANALYSIS in the MULTIREP project

You do quant text analysis? You are interested in political representation? Enjoy working in teams? Would like to live in a great city? Consider joining us in Vienna!

⏱️ Apply by 15/12/2025

wratil.eu/files/MULTIR...

1/4 🧵
November 10, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Brian Boyle
benpatrickwill.bsky.social
We wrote this paper a while ago and since then OpenAI has claimed plans to be "core infrastructure" of education, Google has rammed Gemini into schools via its education platforms, and AWS showed it underpins most edtech platforms... 1/
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 PM