Saurabh Lall
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lallsaurabh.bsky.social
Saurabh Lall
@lallsaurabh.bsky.social
690 followers 390 following 35 posts
I study entrepreneurs trying to do good things. I frequently misspell 'entrepreneur'.

Disciplinary nomad.

Associate Prof at U of Glasgow. He/Him.

Profile photo credit: My 3yo
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
davidho.bsky.social
The destruction of US science will be felt worldwide for decades. Take it from @msier.bsky.social, who was the lead program director for the Biological Oceanography program at the US National Science Foundation.
 Mike Sieracki @msier.bsky.social · 6h
I don’t think people understand how wrecked it is or how hard it will be to rebuild.
November 19, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
ukandeu.bsky.social
"Migrants are also likely to be net fiscal contributors. Far from draining our welfare system, migrants are supporting the British state’s solvency."

While @lgilbert.co also argues that a collapse in immigration will harm the UK’s economic prospects

ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...
Lower migration is bad news for the UK economy - UK in a changing Europe
Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out, and that the recent collapse in immigration will harm the UK's economic p...
ukandeu.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
jaeyeonkim.bsky.social
New from me.

What I Tell Policy Students About Doing Research with Practitioners

1. Meet practitioners where they are.
2. Do not start by asking for what you need.
3. Make your partners' lives easier.

substack.com/@jaeyeonkim/...
What I Tell Policy Students About Doing Research with Practitioners
During the last APPAM, many students approached me to ask how to conduct applied policy work or how to undertake projects that advance scholarship and still benefit practitioners.
substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
andrew.heiss.phd
I recently discovered Conventional Comments (conventionalcomments.org) for providing a pseudo-standard set of labels for feedback and just tried it for an article review and it was really helpful to specify issues vs. thoughts vs. suggestions, etc. Hopefully it's helpful for the authors too!
We strongly suggest using the following labels: praise: Praises highlight something positive. Try to leave at least one of these comments per review. Do not leave false praise (which can actually be damaging). Do look for something to sincerely praise. nitpick: Nitpicks are trivial preference-based requests. These should be non-blocking by nature. suggestion: Suggestions propose improvements to the current subject. It’s important to be explicit and clear on what is being suggested and why it is an improvement. Consider using patches and the blocking or non-blocking decorations to further communicate your intent. issue: Issues highlight specific problems with the subject under review. These problems can be user-facing or behind the scenes. It is strongly recommended to pair this comment with a suggestion. If you are not sure if a problem exists or not, consider leaving a question. todo: TODO’s are small, trivial, but necessary changes. Distinguishing todo comments from issues: or suggestions: helps direct the reader’s attention to comments requiring more involvement. question: Questions are appropriate if you have a potential concern but are not quite sure if it’s relevant or not. Asking the author for clarification or investigation can lead to a quick resolution. thought: Thoughts represent an idea that popped up from reviewing. These comments are non-blocking by nature, but they are extremely valuable and can lead to more focused initiatives and mentoring opportunities. chore: Chores are simple tasks that must be done before the subject can be “officially” accepted. Usually, these comments reference some common process. Try to leave a link to the process description so that the reader knows how to resolve the chore. note: Notes are always non-blocking and simply highlight something the reader should take note of.
November 17, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
scientificdiscovery.dev
Too cloudy? Too sleepy? Too lazy to go outside?

I have a solution for you. Aurora webcams.
Aurora seen on Shetland webcams
November 13, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
hansonmark.bsky.social
Fundamentally, what we need is leadership. But we break with the chorus of most #OpenScience initiatives here and emphasize very strongly that this leadership must come from funders and institutions.

We researchers can support the battle, but we cannot lead the charge. Funders hold the cards.

6/n
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 Saurabh Lall
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 Saurabh Lall
economeager.bsky.social
this is a depressingly good point (about how the EU / Aus / China / Asia-Pac etc did not step up nearly enough to fill the gap left by USAID)
theophite.bsky.social rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · Sep 25
if literally any country on earth had responded to the imminent death of millions by saying "i think that shouldn't happen," then -- fine. the era of american hegemony is over.

but no one did that. that's still a need unserved. and if we abdicate in 2029 (or whenever), it will continue to be.
September 25, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
justinwolfers.bsky.social
Good news for China, India and Canada:

"firms respond to restrictions on H-1B immigration by increasing foreign affiliate employment... particularly in China, India, and Canada. The most impacted jobs were R&D- intensive."
September 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
jdportes.bsky.social
Very important work by @lgilbert.co comprehensively dissecting and demolishing the myth spread by politicians and "thinktanks" that recent migrants are likely to be a drain on public finances.

www.laurenpolicy.com/p/are-recent...
Are recent immigrants a "ticking time bomb" for British public finances?
At a few recent policy events, I keep hearing that dependents on visas are a Problem.
www.laurenpolicy.com
August 26, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
donmoyn.bsky.social
A lot of the studies on media influence on political behavior focus on Fox's position in the channel line-up to generate an exogenous effect. This one looks at the effect of a city boycotting a particular newspaper because of its coverage of a sports tragedy.
theconversation.com/did-the-sun-...
Did the Sun boycott make Liverpool more leftwing? My study indicates it may have shifted views
The boycott caused the percentage of people who said they supported the Labour party to increase by about 16 percentage points.
theconversation.com
August 31, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
brentbellamy.bsky.social
Nice to see a refreshed corner store in Winnipeg’s Elmwood neighbourhood. The world needs more corner stores. Cities need more neighbourhoods built to accept and support them.
August 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
pcgvr.org
"We need a statewide and a federal ban on assault weapons."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, others call for gun control after Annunciation shooting
The mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis is again sparking a push for something to change.
www.cbsnews.com
August 29, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
mariannedahl.bsky.social
📊 New dataset and paper alert!
We’re proud to launch the Opposition Movements and Groups (OMG) Dataset, 1789–2019: a global dataset covering 1,452 mass mobilization movements. It was just published in Comparative Political Studies. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Below follows a 🧵
August 29, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
bhakthi.bsky.social
I think if Britain colonised your country of origin you should get free BBC iplayer.
August 29, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
scotrefugeecouncil.bsky.social
Thanks to @scotnational.bsky.social for bucking the trend and sharing positive stories about the people behind the statistics
scotnational.bsky.social The National @scotnational.bsky.social · Aug 26
10 years since the first Syrian refugees arrived in Bute, it has become a home for people who fled war

🗣️'My best time I spent here, with very good people'

Read the full story: www.thenational.scot/politics/254...
August 26, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
annetteyreed.bsky.social
University of Oregon is planning to close dept and lay off faculty—incl many *tenured* faculty—& among those impacted are Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, and Holocaust Studies. Here is a link to a petition asking the president to reconsider actionnetwork.org/petitions/fi...
Fight Cuts, Defend Higher Education at the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is planning to lay off an undisclosed number of faculty—including many tenured faculty—and to close units based on a projected budget deficit that was discovered late spring t...
actionnetwork.org
August 21, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
uofgsocsci.bsky.social
New research from Dr Bernhard Reinsberg shows France’s supply chain law has not hurt company profits or revenues. Firms can succeed while meeting human rights and environmental standards.

Read more on the #SocSciHub: tinyurl.com/8rbdhjrv
Shipping containers stacked on top of each other with a clear blue sky above.
August 21, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
juliarosekraut.bsky.social
"Some students have given up on enrolling in U.S. schools entirely out of anxiety over the political environment in the United States. Others are staying away because they worry that even if they were to gain entry, they would effectively be trapped..." 🗃️

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/u...
Trump’s Tactics Mean Many International Students Won’t Make It to Campus
www.nytimes.com
August 20, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
justinwolfers.bsky.social
What happens when governments meddle with official statistics?

Here's a terrific piece from the former head of Greece's statistical system, outlining just how badly it can distort economic and political life.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/o... (gift link)
Opinion | I’ve Seen What Happens When a Country Messes With Data. America, Beware. (Gift Article)
Tampering with official statistics leads to bad situations.
www.nytimes.com
August 20, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
jakobburnham.bsky.social
Me, repeatedly whispering to myself while reading reviewer comments on an article:

“It’s okay. No one thinks you’re stupid. They are helping.”
August 14, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
economeager.bsky.social
but also when you zoom in on a project in stats world everything feels so manageable right up until the end of the project when you realise you've been like, raking the zen garden while the house is on fire
August 13, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
economeager.bsky.social
statistics is so soothing relative to writing about art, insanity, sex and death, jesus.

unfortunately journal publication is not soothing or easy, while hitting "send" on substack is.

probably some kind of general lesson here ie that's why we're paid to publish in journals not release preprints
August 13, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Saurabh Lall
khoavuumn.bsky.social
August 13, 2025 at 9:21 AM