Dr Madeleine Pownall
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maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall
@maddipow.bsky.social
2.3K followers 530 following 390 posts

Associate Professor. Keen bean. Writer. Pedagogy, psychology, reflexivity, open science, iced lattes. ABSENT MINDS coming May 2026📘. She/her 🌻

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Education 24%
Psychology 20%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Caroline Krafft, Madeleine Pownall

femquant.bsky.social
FemQuant @femquant.bsky.social · 17h
Updated term card for FemQuant events this spring! And there is still time to sign up to join us for the first event tomorrow!

Full details and links to sign up here: femquant.wordpress.com/seminar-seri...
Term card for FemQuant events spring 2026 with grey and black swirly abstract background. Monthly events listed: Wednesday 14 Jan Dr Hyojin Seo, King's College London, "Outsider orbit"; Thursday 12 Feb Dr. Honorata Bogusz, University of Warsaw, Deroutinization of Labour and Second Births; Tuesday 3 March A conversation with the Feminist Demography Collective; Tuesday 12 May Chae Kim, Cornell University, Abortion Access in the Post-Dobbs Era; Tuesday 23 June Panel: Navigating the peer review process with queer/ feminist quant research. All events online. For time, more information and to sign up see link in main post

Reposted by Madeleine Pownall

improvingpsych.org
Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · 6d
Looking for a New Year's Resolution? How about contributing to improving Psychological Science?
You can start by contributing to #SIPS2026!

We encourage you to submit a proposal to lead a session at the conference!

Deadlines:
🔹In-Person: Jan 23
🔹Online: Feb 27
buff.ly/Uhu0rvm
SIPS 2026 – June 8-10, 2026
The submission portal for the conference is now open! We invite researchers to submit their contributions for both online and in-person SIPS 2026. We look forward to your participation!
buff.ly

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 8d
Good luck with the project!

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 8d
Interesting, thank you! I think it's also really interesting how "recycling" (to me) has connotations of sustainability, efficacy, pro-social behaviour etc. which gives it a different nice edge too

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 8d
Congratulations! I'm really interested in the use of "data recycling" language (instead of, say, data re-use/secondary analysis etc). What was the thinking behind this?

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 8d
First day back inbox stats: 14 requests to handle manuscripts as Associate Editor, 5 peer review requests, 20 reminders to submit my proofs for a paper accepted before the break. We're back, baby

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 26d
I'm so excited to see what this turns into. We put out a call for people interested in joining a community a few months ago, and we've now got 400+ researchers.

Qualitopia will be a space to build community, speak to policy, do metascience, and advocate for qualitative methods in their own right.

Reposted by Sebastian Karcher, Michael Larkin

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 26d
This year, @annayahprosser.bsky.social, Tamarinde Haven, Nicki Lisa Cole, and I have tried to envision the ideal, utopian future for open qualitative research.

We've had community workshops, talks, a charter, grant apps, a special issue, all to build "Qualitopia" for 2026✨ qualitopia.my.canva.site

Reposted by Madeleine Pownall

dsquintana.bsky.social
Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · 26d
New paper!

We describe how grassroots networks can help implement and harmonize open research efforts via our experience establishing the Norwegian Reproducibility Network [email protected].

doi.org/10.7557/11.8...
Grassroots networks can help implement and harmonize open research efforts Agata Bochynska, Tamara Kalandadze, Max Korbmacher, Lewend Mayiwar, Julien Mayor, Daniel Quintana Abstract Grassroots networks are peer-led, bottom-up initiatives that can drive meaningful change in research reform. Norwegian Reproducibility Network (NORRN), a nation-wide initiative after the model from similar networks around the world, is an example of a grassroots network where a community of researchers works together towards more transparent, rigorous and robust research. By connecting with other researchers, librarians and research support staff across Norwegian universities and colleges as well as various stakeholders, including higher-education institutions and research funders, NORRN aims to help implement and harmonize open and reproducible research efforts across the country. In this paper, we describe the origins, mission,and structure of NORRN and similar networks, as well as successes, challenges and future directions of NORRN’s efforts that show a critical role of grassroots initiatives in supporting research improvement. The map of NORRN’s local and institutional nodes at Norwegian universities and colleges (per 15.10.2025).

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 28d
My precious holiday time is the only thing non-negotiable, so I think this is very good advice!

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 28d
Huge fan of Editors clearing their desk before Christmas but now I have five papers all with revisions due in January ho ho ho help me

Reposted by Robert Böhm, Brady T. West, Brendan Nyhan , and 43 more

sabrinanorwood.bsky.social
Sabrina Norwood @sabrinanorwood.bsky.social · 28d
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?

Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Text reads: About synthetic panels Recruiting the right participants for a study can be difficult. You may not get the exact demographics you need, and the shorter the deadline, the less sure you can be that everyone will answer on time. One possible solution can be to use synthetic panels. Synthetic panels are powered by a first party proprietary AI model developed here at Qualtrics. Our synthetic panel is trained on thousands of responses from a variety of demographic backgrounds in order to more accurately predict how certain populations would respond to a survey. Our synthetic panel is based on the United States General Population, and is only available in English. This panel comes with ready-made quotas and target breakouts in order to represent your chosen population and make it easy to launch your survey right away. Text reads: Question-writing best practices To get the most reliable and actionable results from synthetic audiences, consider these question-writing best practices: Ask forward-looking and attitudinal questions. Synthetic panels perform best with perceptions, preferences, and intent-based questions. For example, “How likely are you to try…?” Synthetic panels are less applicable for studies on past behaviors, detailed recall, brand recall, or awareness questions. For example, “When did you last visit…?” Text reads: Discussion The current study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of the TPB when applied to health behaviours which addressed the limitations of previous reviews by including only prospective tests of behaviour, applying RE meta-analytic procedures, correcting correlations for sampling and measurement error, and hierarchically analysing the effect of behaviour type and sample and methodological moderators. Some 237 tests were identified which examined relations amongst model components. Overall the analysis indicated that the TPB could explain 19.3% of the variance in behaviour and 44.3% of the variance in intention across studies. This level of prediction of behaviour is slightly lower than that of previous meta-analytic reviews which have found between 27% (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Hagger et al., 2002) and 36% (Trafimow et al., 2002) of the variance in behaviour to be explained by intention and PBC.

Reposted by Efrén O. Pérez, Luke Moffett, Brian Keegan , and 3 more

abeba.bsky.social
Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 28d
I wrote this brief talk on why “augmenting diversity” with LLMs is empirically unsubstantiable, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful and a nice surprise to see the organisers have made it public

synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
title: Cheap science, real harm: the cost of replacing human participation with synthetic data author: Abeba Birhane abstract: Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the use of synthetic data as a replacement for human participants is gaining traction in AI research and product development. This talk critically examines the claim that synthetic data can “augment diversity,” arguing that this notion is empirically unsubstantiated, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful. While speed and cost-efficiency may be achievable, they often come at the expense of rigour, insight, and robust science. Drawing on research from dataset audits, model evaluations, Black feminist scholarship, and complexity science, I argue that replacing human participants with synthetic data risks producing both real-world and epistemic harms at worst and superficial knowledge and cheap science at best

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · 28d
8 months later, my soul-consuming solo paper that has accompanied me round the world was just accepted! 💘
maddipow.bsky.social Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Apr 24
I had an idea for a paper at the start of this trip 3 weeks ago and I’ve been obsessively writing it in every spare moment since. Today it was submitted! This little paper has seen the world with me 🇮🇩🇲🇾✈️❤️
Sat in Malaysia in a floral dress in front of my laptop smiling Sat on a plane smiling by the window, with my laptop again Once again, I’m sat with my laptop this time with an iced latte Sat by some water with a fancy iced coffee with a cherry in it, again with my laptop open

Reposted by Mark D. White, Adrian Vickers, Michael H. Whitworth , and 2 more

epicciuto.bsky.social
Elizabeth Picciuto @epicciuto.bsky.social · 29d
Another way to restart the world’s idea machine is to restore funding and grants to universities, researchers, and artists.
vox.com Vox @vox.com · 29d
America, you have spoken loud and clear: You do not like AI. But what if AI is the way to restart the world’s idea machine?
We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.
What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?
www.vox.com

Reposted by Mark Rubin, Flávio Azevedo, Madeleine Pownall

forrt.bsky.social
Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training @forrt.bsky.social · 29d
📣We are excited to announce that FORRT is one of the few initiatives worldwide to be formally endorsed as a Programme of the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD, 2024–2033)! 🎉

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 10
Hahaha (or should I say, H_a H_a H_a)

Reposted by Madeleine Pownall

t-fun.bsky.social
T-FΨN (Teaching-Focused University Network) @t-fun.bsky.social · Dec 9
The elves at T-FUN HQ have been working hard and have 2 presents for you 🎁🎁! That's right, two exciting online seminars are coming to help you kick off 2026 in scholarly style!

See this thread for brief details & check out our website Events page for full bios and abstracts: t-fun.co.uk?page_id=104
Events – Teaching-Focused University Network
Teaching-Focused University Network
t-fun.co.uk

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 8
Happy final lecture day from your friendly neighbourhood statistics lecturers 🧑‍🎄🎄✨ @tessaflack.bsky.social

Reposted by Brett Smith, Madeleine Pownall

markrubin.bsky.social
Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · Dec 5
“Positivism Creep”

“The subtle, often unacknowledged infiltration of positivist or post-positivist assumptions into methodologies where they do not naturally, philosophically, practically, or epistemologically belong.”

By @thomasgraves.bsky.social @maddipow.bsky.social @annayahprosser.bsky.social
Many developments to reform the research landscape have occurred over the past decade. These changes have been made with broad goals to improve the ‘openness’ of research and often assumed to be ‘methodologically -agnostic’; that is, they ostensibly have benefits for all researchers occupying all epistemological and methodological positions. ‘Open science’ initiatives such as study pre-registration (i.e., specifying research aims and analytical plan ahead of data access), open data sharing, open-access publication, and open materials sharing are becoming increasingly mainstream across many fields within social research and the natural sciences. While there has been much criticism of these interventions, largely from the qualitative research community, we want to draw attention to a troubling trend in the promotion of open science: the leaking of standards relevant only to quantitative research to all paradigms. Or, as others refer to it, “positivism creep”. Here, we situate positivism creep (i.e., the creeping of positivist conventions to all research) within research policy, we highlight its increasing prevalence within open science reforms, and we warn against a future which could alienate many non-positivist scholars. We argue that the primary framing of open science as the pursuit of reproducibility and objectivity risks promoting positivism creep in the social sciences and humanities. In particular, we suggest that overly strict open research requirements placed by funders may reduce the range and variety of epistemological positions that can be taken by researchers, with particularly deleterious effects for qualitative researchers.

Reposted by Brett Smith, Flávio Azevedo

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 5
New preprint with Thomas Graves and @annayahprosser.bsky.social: "Getting Creeped Out? Open Science, Qualitative Methods, and the Dangers of Positivism Creep".

osf.io/preprints/so...
OSF
osf.io

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Flávio Azevedo, Madeleine Pownall

helenahartmann.com
Dr. Helena Hartmann (she/her) @helenahartmann.com · Dec 3
It has been a while since @flavioazevedo.bsky.social asked me to take over the Reversals project at @forrt.bsky.social...

It has since evolved beyond my wildest dreams, mostly thanks to @aufdroeseler.bsky.social & @lukaswallrich.bsky.social.

We are very proud of the Replication Hub & Database ♥️

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 2
"We publish imagined research abstracts as works of fiction firstly because writing for enjoyment is a good thing to encourage...writing imaginatively is a good way to reshape our relationship with writing into something creative and enjoyable"

Reposted by Madeleine Pownall

olivia.science
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Dec 2
Finally, we end on:

"The future [under the sway of AI risks being] a constant rehashing of the past, wherein human creativity and communication are not only mediated by but controlled by companies. In the midst of this nonsense, we must nourish
hope in shared values"

doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

8/
7 Epilogue We have given our perspective on AI through five possible angles as depicted in Figure 1: concep- tual clarity, critical thinking, decoloniality, respecting expertise, and slow science. If our warnings go unheeded, we foresee the harms to academia will continue. If we do not enact scientific and pedagogical shifts — by inter alia teaching and reckoning with our own collective human past and present — we, in cognitive science specifically, will continue to deny our students knowledge of the history of computational prehistories from other cultures and time periods, an abdication of the duty of any so-called experts in AI; mutatis mutandis for other fields and their histories. AI not only ends the past, and makes the present frantic, it also forecloses any future. Under AI’s sway, the future is neither bright as the technopositivists promise, nor a descent into rule by robotic overloads, but a constant rehashing of the past, wherein human creativity and communication are not only mediated by controlled by companies. In the midst of this nonsense, we must nourish hope in shared values, skills, and humanity.

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 1
The head of open research at Taylor & Francis was supportive when we had a chat and agreed to create some guidelines for living SRs in the first instance, so happy to connect you up if that's useful

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 1
I’d love to hear about how you get on with piloting this!

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Dec 1
I am so happy to see this. After the metascience conference in July I spoke with a few publishers to try and propose something similar to this (registered reports meets “living” systematic review) but the idea never really got off the ground. This paper is so important and I LOVE it
dsquintana.bsky.social Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · Dec 1
New preprint 🎉 Living systematic reviews ensure evidence stays current osf.io/preprints/ps...

In this brief comment (all four pages are here ⬇️), @iaiversen.bsky.social and I cover the benefits and challenges of living systematic reviews, along with two ways to increase their uptake

🧵 1/8

Reposted by Madeleine Pownall

dsquintana.bsky.social
Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · Dec 1
Systematic reviews often guide policy and theory, but they can become quickly outdated. Almost 10% of systematic reviews are out of date even *before they are published*.

Living systematic reviews (LSRs) continuously integrate new evidence, therefore they offer a solution to this problem.

2/8

Reposted by Mark Rubin, Madeleine Pownall, Johannes Breuer

dsquintana.bsky.social
Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · Dec 1
New preprint 🎉 Living systematic reviews ensure evidence stays current osf.io/preprints/ps...

In this brief comment (all four pages are here ⬇️), @iaiversen.bsky.social and I cover the benefits and challenges of living systematic reviews, along with two ways to increase their uptake

🧵 1/8

maddipow.bsky.social
Dr Madeleine Pownall @maddipow.bsky.social · Nov 26
P.S you can preorder it here www.waterstones.com/book/absent-...
Absent Minds by Dr Madeleine Pownall | Waterstones
Buy Absent Minds by Dr Madeleine Pownall from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com