Thom Scott-Phillips
LightNews LightNews
banner
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Thom Scott-Phillips
@thomscottphillips.bsky.social
3.1K followers 340 following 800 posts
Language, Psychology, Culture, Philosophy, Society, Evolution • When not doing science I dance the lindy hop

https://www.thomscottphillips.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · May 23
New Substack post

It's very personal: my story of a 20-year academic career, and the many challenges of theoretical and cross-disciplinary work

As I put it in the subtitle: There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending

thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/happy-in-t...
Happy In Theory
This is the short story of my long, 20 year search for a stable academic home. There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending.
thomscottphillips.substack.com
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
katjathieme.bsky.social
It puzzles me that reference letters are still being demanded for all kinds of applications within university systems. It is extremely inequitable to ask applicants to solicit them. Their production is costly and there are doubts about the quality of their contribution to decision-making processes.
thomscottphillips.bsky.social Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · 10d
The required number of letters should be zero

1. Institutions should not be imposing costs (faculty time) on other institutions. Keeping these costs down is good, as you say, but really they should be zero
November 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
2. The norm of reference letters creates massive power asymmetry btw faculty and PhDs/postdocs. We want people to speak out about toxic PIs, but we tie their hands by supporting the norm of reference letters

Every other sector does without such letters. We should too
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
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 Thom Scott-Phillips
drsamaki.bsky.social
A tour-de-force on the history of the lindy hop, written with an infectious joy that appeals even to someone like me who can barely manage the Hokey Cokey.
November 11, 2025 at 2:59 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
New post:

How migration and technology enabled a special form of togetherness: A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop

thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/modernity-...
Modernity In Rhythm
How migration and technology enabled a special form of togetherness: A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop.
thomscottphillips.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:07 AM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Just watched Traitors finale. Shocked at the lack of embarrassment expressed by David and especially Nick at the end. Like, do people not feel shame when they are incompetent??
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
New post: Modernity In Rhythm

A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop. Migration, technology and a special form of togetherness.

thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/modernity-...
Title of the essay, "Modernity in Rhythm", against a background of a painting by Charles Alston, "Lindy hop at the Savoy".
November 7, 2025 at 8:56 AM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Why does Sally’s apartment have so many penguins?
October 14, 2025 at 10:27 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Adding @plosone.org to my personal blacklist of journals
Dear PLoS One, I have responded to this review request with the links provided. I am sending this email for a different reason, to complain about your processes. I received the first request to review on Saturday night / Sunday morning, at 02:28. Your systems have sent me a "reminder" on Monday morning at 07:44 i.e. just over 24 hours later, and before the working week has begun. This is far too short a period of time for a reminder even during the working week. To have your systems set to send a reminder so swiftly and over the weekend is insulting. You are not my employer. In light of this, I would like you to remove me from your databases. I am no longer willing to do any review or editorial work for PLoS One. Please reply to confirm that you have deleted my contact details. Best wishes, Thom
October 13, 2025 at 11:38 AM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
For any of my followers who are interested in football: Libero is the best football podcast out there, imo. Intelligent and analytical in ways others are not
October 11, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
daweibai.bsky.social
Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇
October 9, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
duhe.bsky.social
Very few Nobelists are eligible, I’m afraid. go.bsky.app/H61xswq
October 6, 2025 at 3:12 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Does anyone know of articles, or collections of articles, worrying about what the advent of the electronic calculator (especially the pocket calculator) might mean for citizens’ arithmetic and mathematical abilities?

Were such articles written? I assume so but I want to see what they said
October 2, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
dingdingpeng.the100.ci
A lot of psych is already conducted with online convenience samples & ppl are probably excited about silicon samples bc it would allow them to crank out more studies for even less 💸

How about we reconsider the idea that sciencey science involves collecting own data.
www.science.org/content/arti...
AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds
Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings
www.science.org
October 1, 2025 at 4:17 AM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Went to see One Battle After Another yesterday at Corvin Mozi in Budapest. So we saw it with Hungarian subtitles

Funny detail: “Christmas Adventurer’s Club” translates into Hungarian as “Karácsonyi Kalandorok Klubja”, which has the initials KKK. So even more apt than the English name
September 27, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
The older I get and the more I listen to jazz, the closer my philosophy of science gets to Feyerabend. Anything goes

The only thing that ever holds it all together is scientists’ individual commitment to uncovering truths
September 25, 2025 at 8:53 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
The older I get and the more I listen to jazz, the closer my philosophy of science gets to Feyerabend. Anything goes

The only thing that ever holds it all together is scientists’ individual commitment to uncovering truths
September 25, 2025 at 8:53 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
I am not a golf fan at all, but once every two years it gives us a team representing Europe, which is cool

And this year it highlights a stark difference between European and US cultural attitudes to wealth. I think this contrast goes much deeper than golf

www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/s...
USA need Ryder Cup glory if they are to escape pay-free Europe’s money talk
Luke Donald can trumpet his side playing for love and glory while the hosts duck questions over their $500,000 each
www.theguardian.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
devezer.bsky.social
Theoretical precision isn't everything and there's a lot of room for mistaking it for rigor in general. Regardless, a modicum of appreciation for precision is necessary to avoid the trap of abusing ambiguity to claim unearned epistemic status for methodological claims
September 24, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
symbolicstorage.bsky.social
The Poznań #Linguistics Meeting 2025 Grand Debate: "Human #Language: is it unique?" feat. Wolfgang Dressler, Magdalena Wrembel, Raymond Hickey, Nikki Ritt, @thematzing.bsky.social and @neilcohn.bsky.social
The panel sitting together, Nikki online
September 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
williamcarruthers.bsky.social
The thing with universities is that you cannot have professional staff trained to do one thing and then try and have institutions do something else entirely
September 21, 2025 at 12:53 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Saw The Conversation last night. The 'small' film that Coppola made in between The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II

And its brilliant. I'm amazed it's not better known

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFgi...
THE CONVERSATION - Official Trailer - Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gene Hackman
YouTube video by StudiocanalUK
www.youtube.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:56 AM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
Mel speaks for me. And many others too, no doubt
bayesianboy.bsky.social Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · Sep 15
In place of the lofty pursuit of producing knowledge we were promised we’re trapped playing 3-dimensional chess against some of the most regressive institutions in existence.
September 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM
thomscottphillips.bsky.social
A perfect example. We all live in bespoke realities now

The end of mass media is a transformational moment
September 15, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Thom Scott-Phillips
joxley.jmoxley.co.uk
The FT has, among the media, the best incentives to be sensitive to reality.
spinninghugo.bsky.social SpinningHugo @spinninghugo.bsky.social · Sep 14
It is a bit odd that the FT is so far to the left of the UK government, the BBC and most other political outlets (eg the Graun)

The FT writers moved, en masse, to bluesky, which is where you'll see them engage with people.

See also the writers for the Economist.

/1
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 14
Musk told a large crowd + a larger offline audience that they would risk death & erasure if they did not support pre-emptive political violence.

"You will have no choice. Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.”
September 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM