David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Bath, UK. Interests = people + technology. ‘Failed upwards’, according to Paul Foot (one of the world's comedians). Part of the 65% who don’t own an air fryer. http://www.davidaellis.co.uk .. more
Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Bath, UK. Interests = people + technology. ‘Failed upwards’, according to Paul Foot (one of the world's comedians). Part of the 65% who don’t own an air fryer. http://www.davidaellis.co.uk
Psychology
25%
Sociology
14%
Reposted by Andrew K Przybylski, David A. Ellis, Nate Breznau
Check Research Outputs for Best Practices
A modular, extendable system for automatically checking research outputs for best practices using text search, R code, and/or (optional) LLM queries.
scienceverse.github.io
The package formerly known as papercheck has changed its name to metacheck! We're checking more than just papers, with functions to assess OSF projects, github repos, and AsPredicted pre-registrations, with more being developed all the time.
scienceverse.github.io/metacheck/
scienceverse.github.io/metacheck/
I've been fortunate enough to once again drink coffee while chatting to colleagues about their research! You can catch them all on Spotify open.spotify.com/show/6aSeSkE...
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:
New library catalogue website.
New library catalogue website.
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand
I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:
Archives banned making copies.
Archives banned making copies.
Eiko Fried
@eikofried.bsky.social
· Oct 1
Development of an Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ): Are most people really social addicts? - Behavior Research Methods
A growing number of self-report measures aim to define interactions with social media in a pathological behavior framework, often using terminology focused on identifying those who are ‘addicted’ to engaging with others online. Specifically, measures of ‘social media addiction’ focus on motivations for online social information seeking, which could relate to motivations for offline social information seeking. However, it could be the case that these same measures could reveal a pattern of friend addiction in general. This study develops the Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ) by re-wording items from highly cited pathological social media use scales to reflect “spending time with friends”. Our methodology for validation follows the current literature precedent in the development of social media ‘addiction’ scales. The O-FAQ had a three-factor solution in an exploratory sample of N = 807 and these factors were stable in a 4-week retest (r = .72 to .86) and was validated against personality traits, and risk-taking behavior, in conceptually plausible directions. Using the same polythetic classification techniques as pathological social media use studies, we were able to classify 69% of our sample as addicted to spending time with their friends. The discussion of our satirical research is a critical reflection on the role of measurement and human sociality in social media research. We question the extent to which connecting with others can be considered an ‘addiction’ and discuss issues concerning the validation of new ‘addiction’ measures without relevant medical constructs. Readers should approach our measure with a level of skepticism that should be afforded to current social media addiction measures.
link.springer.com
Had missed this absolutely brilliant paper. They take a widely used social media addiction scale & replace 'social media' with 'friends'. The resulting scale has great psychometric properties & 69% of people have friend addictions.
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 29
La « digital detox », nouveau symbole hypocrite de la réussite
La détox numérique promet de vous rendre votre liberté et d’améliorer votre santé mentale en vous forçant à stopper le scroll infini. Est-ce trop beau pour être vrai ?
www.huffingtonpost.fr
Quoted in this @HuffPost piece on why disconnection discourse misses the point. www.huffingtonpost.fr/tech-futurs/...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 22
GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... Supervisory Team: Dr Katherine Button, Professor David Ellis, University of Bath, Dr Becky Mars, University of Bristol.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 22
GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... Supervisory Team: Dr Katherine Button, Professor David Ellis, University of Bath, Dr Becky Mars, University of Bristol.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 20
There will also be opportunities to work across our current suite of grants and research centres, including the Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement and the Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour. @idsbbath.bsky.social
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 20
We are keen to recruit a researcher with expertise in digital health (i.e., health, psychology, human-computer interaction, human factors, computer science, or a cognate discipline) to primarily support Bath’s contribution to LEAP’s Skills and Knowledge Programme.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 20
KD12987 Research Associate/Research Fellow in Digital Health - Jobs at Bath
Research Associate/Research Fellow in Digital Health - Fixed Term Contract
www.bath.ac.uk
Shape the Future of Digital Health Education - join the groundbreaking EPSRC-funded LEAP Hub at the @uniofbath.bsky.social www.bath.ac.uk/jobs/Vacancy...
.
.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 18
Optimeet: A computational tool to enhance participant attendance in group research - Behavior Research Methods
Across disciplines, research often relies on groups of people to participate in experiments or attend events at the same time. Typically, researchers try to maximize attendance by manually identifying...
link.springer.com
Born out of the challenges we faced when trying to collect data for an empirical study on groups, it was expertly lead by Lukas Mayer and @dessibocheva.bsky.social with Joanne Hinds, Liv Brown and @lukaszpiwek.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.3...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 18
'Optimeet: A computational tool to enhance participant attendance in group research' In this paper we discuss the challenges of conducting group based research and provide a practical, web-based tool that can enhance the scheduling and recruitment of groups for experimental research.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 18
Development of an Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ): Are most people really social addicts? - Behavior Research Methods
A growing number of self-report measures aim to define interactions with social media in a pathological behavior framework, often using terminology focused on identifying those who are ‘addicted’ to e...
link.springer.com
See also, the Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ) link.springer.com/article/10.3...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 18
Pseudo Effects: How Method Biases Can Produce Spurious Findings About Close Relationships - Samantha Joel, John K. Sakaluk, James J. Kim, Devinder Khera, Helena Yuchen Qin, Sarah C. E. Stanton, 2025
Research on interpersonal relationships frequently relies on accurate self-reporting across various relationship facets (e.g., conflict, trust, appreciation). Y...
journals.sagepub.com
An interesting paper that reminds us that psychometric standards in psychology are often not up to the task. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 15
BPS publishes new guidance on the accurate use of professional titles | BPS
The guidance seeks to support members to present their qualifications and expertise correctly and with confidence.
www.bps.org.uk
I proudly held my C.Psychol status for exactly one year after my PhD—during which time nobody asked about it, cared about it, or even knew what those letters meant. A friend once described it as a VIP pass to a club that doesn’t exist. www.bps.org.uk/news/bps-pub...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 15
BPS publishes new guidance on the accurate use of professional titles | BPS
The guidance seeks to support members to present their qualifications and expertise correctly and with confidence.
www.bps.org.uk
The term 'Chartered Psychologist' is now legally protected, which will finally put a stop to the rampant epidemic of people pretending to be chartered psychologists at dinner parties.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 12
We are at the British Science Festival @britsciassoc.bsky.social today in Liverpool (Kazimier Garden - Kaz Garden). Come and say hello if you are about - mega busy tho! britishsciencefestival.org/event/tech-v... with @lukaszpiwek.bsky.social
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Sep 11
Another day, another 'Data available on request' request meets the same fate as my childhood letters to the Tooth Fairy. Honestly, it should just read 'Data available on request (terms and conditions apply: must sacrifice first-born child, solve world hunger, and correctly guess my favorite colour).
Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, David A. Ellis
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Aug 20
Apple Rumored to Be Developing First Foldable Flip Phone, Set for 2026 Release - SSBCrack News
Back in 2005, the clamshell flip phone epitomized high-tech sophistication, allowing users to end calls with a swift snap. Fast forward to today, two decades
news.ssbcrack.com
Apple Rumored to Be Developing First Foldable Flip Phone, Set for 2026 Release news.ssbcrack.com/apple-rumore... My thoughts = flip phones provide a bit of nostalgia, but that doesn't guarantee success.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Aug 19
@hshawberry.bsky.social, Brown O, Hinds J, Nightingale SJ, @jntowse.bsky.social, Ellis DA. The DECIDE Framework: Describing Ethical Choices in Digital-Behavioral-Data Explorations. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. 2025;8(3).
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Aug 19
Hopefully this also serves to remind people that ethics is a conversation. Not a tick-box exercise. As digital technologies become increasingly central to how participants and citizens interact with researchers and governments, the stakes for getting this right have never been higher.
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Aug 19
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
Now published, the #DECIDEFramework in #AMPPS. Here we provide a suite of resources to support researchers with ethical considerations in digital behavioural research. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Linda Kaye, David A. Ellis
When should we have discussions about ethics during the research process ? Looking forward to presenting the DECIDE framework today at #Cyber25 @bpscyberpsychology.bsky.social
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Jul 24
Better late than never I suppose.
Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, David A. Ellis
Richard Sever
@richardsever.bsky.social
· Jul 24
Fifteen years later, Science retracts ‘arsenic life’ paper despite study authors’ protests
Belated decision on widely disputed 2010 study pleases some critics but puzzles and dismays others
www.science.org
Science finally retracts the Arsenic life paper www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by David A. Ellis
Paolo Crosetto
@paolocrosetto.bsky.social
· Jul 14
Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing
Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro
the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io
True, we are probably expecting too much of publishers.
Also true: publishers went actively in the opposite direction, *mass commissioning* articles with the special-issue model.
MDPI was first, but recently *everyone* is doing it, e.g.
the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...
Also true: publishers went actively in the opposite direction, *mass commissioning* articles with the special-issue model.
MDPI was first, but recently *everyone* is doing it, e.g.
the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Jun 17
NEW: Statement from the PCI RR Managing Board on the withdrawal of Infant and Child Development as a PCI RR-friendly journal, and the decision by Wiley to refuse preprints that have been peer-reviewed by @peercommunityin.bsky.social / @pci-regreports.bsky.social
Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh
Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh
This appears to be a form of de-evolution, or backward evolution.
NEW: Statement from the PCI RR Managing Board on the withdrawal of Infant and Child Development as a PCI RR-friendly journal, and the decision by Wiley to refuse preprints that have been peer-reviewed by @peercommunityin.bsky.social / @pci-regreports.bsky.social
Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh
Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh
David A. Ellis
@davidaellis.bsky.social
· Jun 14
These changes don't diminish the contributions of individual researchers. However, it will stop institutions from claiming they had a role in research when, in reality, they had zero involvement.