Tim Morris
@timpmorris.bsky.social
Biostatistician working on methodology at Novartis. Simulation studies, non-inferiority, missing data, estimands, covariate adjustment…
He/him
https://tpmorris.substack.com/
He/him
https://tpmorris.substack.com/
Does this enrage you too? Publishers adding a random page nobody wants at the beginning of a pdf, bigger than the rest of the pages – the ones people actually want to read – messing up the fit-to-width size of pages you do want to read! Just making readers’ lives pointlessly difficult.
November 11, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Does this enrage you too? Publishers adding a random page nobody wants at the beginning of a pdf, bigger than the rest of the pages – the ones people actually want to read – messing up the fit-to-width size of pages you do want to read! Just making readers’ lives pointlessly difficult.
Reposted by Tim Morris
Potential outcomes tabs in Outlook! DAGs in your Google query! Marginal structural models to help you plan your next vacation!
The advances we've made in statistics, experimental study design, and causal inference over the past century are remarkably useful for understanding our world. But there is never been a push to make people use them like we are seeing with generative AI. Perhaps take a moment to consider why.
November 7, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Potential outcomes tabs in Outlook! DAGs in your Google query! Marginal structural models to help you plan your next vacation!
A small joy I get as an associate editor is that reviewers all answer “Would you like to receive recognition for your review using [Publons / Web of Science™ / whatevs]?” with “No” 😆
Also that journals continue to check, as if this still might be a winner.
Hold the line folks.
Also that journals continue to check, as if this still might be a winner.
Hold the line folks.
November 7, 2025 at 6:44 AM
A small joy I get as an associate editor is that reviewers all answer “Would you like to receive recognition for your review using [Publons / Web of Science™ / whatevs]?” with “No” 😆
Also that journals continue to check, as if this still might be a winner.
Hold the line folks.
Also that journals continue to check, as if this still might be a winner.
Hold the line folks.
Reposted by Tim Morris
📊 Next week, we'll be exploring a new #statistics modelling framework called regression by composition, with examples from growth modelling & HIV trials #healthdata
🗓️ Tuesday 4 November, 12:50-13:50 GMT
📍 LSHTM | Online
Join us ⬇️
www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...
🗓️ Tuesday 4 November, 12:50-13:50 GMT
📍 LSHTM | Online
Join us ⬇️
www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...
October 31, 2025 at 4:26 PM
📊 Next week, we'll be exploring a new #statistics modelling framework called regression by composition, with examples from growth modelling & HIV trials #healthdata
🗓️ Tuesday 4 November, 12:50-13:50 GMT
📍 LSHTM | Online
Join us ⬇️
www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...
🗓️ Tuesday 4 November, 12:50-13:50 GMT
📍 LSHTM | Online
Join us ⬇️
www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...
One bit that made me laugh in Ros Atkins’ “The Art of Explanation” is when he’s discussing presentations and has a subsection titled something like “Have a hands plan”.
October 31, 2025 at 11:13 AM
One bit that made me laugh in Ros Atkins’ “The Art of Explanation” is when he’s discussing presentations and has a subsection titled something like “Have a hands plan”.
When referring to an unspecified, imaginary person, why do some writers need to refer to them specifically as “she” or “he”?
🧠: are you proudly showing that your imagination is this specific or are you just really against using “they”?
Either way, it’s a distraction.
🧠: are you proudly showing that your imagination is this specific or are you just really against using “they”?
Either way, it’s a distraction.
October 30, 2025 at 8:36 AM
When referring to an unspecified, imaginary person, why do some writers need to refer to them specifically as “she” or “he”?
🧠: are you proudly showing that your imagination is this specific or are you just really against using “they”?
Either way, it’s a distraction.
🧠: are you proudly showing that your imagination is this specific or are you just really against using “they”?
Either way, it’s a distraction.
Reposted by Tim Morris
Classic bit of pathetic fallacy here from my gluten-free bread
October 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Classic bit of pathetic fallacy here from my gluten-free bread
New (short) post on hearing criticism of your work.
No, I’m not telling you who it was – they will recognise themself!
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
No, I’m not telling you who it was – they will recognise themself!
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
October 8, 2025 at 4:17 PM
New (short) post on hearing criticism of your work.
No, I’m not telling you who it was – they will recognise themself!
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
No, I’m not telling you who it was – they will recognise themself!
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
Reposted by Tim Morris
My favorite genre of fiction is Thesis Acknowledgments.
May 2, 2025 at 10:39 AM
My favorite genre of fiction is Thesis Acknowledgments.
Straight onto my reading list
Arman Oganisian: Untangling Sample and Population Level Estimands in Bayesian Causal Inference https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15016 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.15016 https://arxiv.org/html/2508.15016
September 24, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Straight onto my reading list
The defenders of British Values, having completed their work assaulting police officers, have returned home, leaving London a Dystopian Hellscape once again
September 15, 2025 at 8:33 AM
The defenders of British Values, having completed their work assaulting police officers, have returned home, leaving London a Dystopian Hellscape once again
Why does everyone who picks up the mic at this conference feel they have to mention this talk, whether grudgingly or positively??
September 11, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Why does everyone who picks up the mic at this conference feel they have to mention this talk, whether grudgingly or positively??
Miguel Hernán is presenting at EFSPI and giving a frankly embarrassing rant about (addendum-style) estimands. While lots of people are constructively using it to complement causal inference, he is sticking to basic & straw-man gripes that are easily addressed by thinking or listening to others.
September 10, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Miguel Hernán is presenting at EFSPI and giving a frankly embarrassing rant about (addendum-style) estimands. While lots of people are constructively using it to complement causal inference, he is sticking to basic & straw-man gripes that are easily addressed by thinking or listening to others.
Interesting discussion with collaborators about whether it’s acceptable to say anything negative about PPI.
They showed a quote that seems like a huge “therefore” lurch!
1/
researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
They showed a quote that seems like a huge “therefore” lurch!
1/
researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
September 5, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Interesting discussion with collaborators about whether it’s acceptable to say anything negative about PPI.
They showed a quote that seems like a huge “therefore” lurch!
1/
researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
They showed a quote that seems like a huge “therefore” lurch!
1/
researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
I already think John Baker will be impressed. Can you help my friend out and improve on it?
September 1, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I already think John Baker will be impressed. Can you help my friend out and improve on it?
Reposted by Tim Morris
After a month I can’t remember what my own code does by reading the source (well at least it takes a while, and I don’t think I’m the worst coder). My help files are for me. If they help someone else too, great.
August 29, 2025 at 5:39 PM
After a month I can’t remember what my own code does by reading the source (well at least it takes a while, and I don’t think I’m the worst coder). My help files are for me. If they help someone else too, great.
Look, I’m just saying that “Users can find out what my package does by reading through the source code” is not a win-for-open-source. It’s just admitting you don’t care enough about your users to write decent help files.
August 29, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Look, I’m just saying that “Users can find out what my package does by reading through the source code” is not a win-for-open-source. It’s just admitting you don’t care enough about your users to write decent help files.
ISCB46 has been really fun. So much that I’ve barely been on here.
Admittedly “bRave little soldieRs” probably shouldn’t have made it into the slides but IN MY DEFENCE I MADE THEM WITH QUARTO 😇
Admittedly “bRave little soldieRs” probably shouldn’t have made it into the slides but IN MY DEFENCE I MADE THEM WITH QUARTO 😇
August 27, 2025 at 9:32 PM
ISCB46 has been really fun. So much that I’ve barely been on here.
Admittedly “bRave little soldieRs” probably shouldn’t have made it into the slides but IN MY DEFENCE I MADE THEM WITH QUARTO 😇
Admittedly “bRave little soldieRs” probably shouldn’t have made it into the slides but IN MY DEFENCE I MADE THEM WITH QUARTO 😇
Reposted by Tim Morris
It was logistic regression in scikit learn (scikit-learn.org/stable/modul...). Apparently, you could not fully turn off regularisation there for some time.
LogisticRegression
Gallery examples: Probability Calibration curves Plot classification probability Column Transformer with Mixed Types Pipelining: chaining a PCA and a logistic regression Feature transformations wit...
scikit-learn.org
August 7, 2025 at 10:46 AM
It was logistic regression in scikit learn (scikit-learn.org/stable/modul...). Apparently, you could not fully turn off regularisation there for some time.
A few years ago there was a hoo-ha when someone discovered a well-used implementation of logistic regression in python used some regularization by default. Can anyone recall more details (or point me to a link because I'm clearly a bad googler)?
August 7, 2025 at 10:39 AM
A few years ago there was a hoo-ha when someone discovered a well-used implementation of logistic regression in python used some regularization by default. Can anyone recall more details (or point me to a link because I'm clearly a bad googler)?
Reposted by Tim Morris
Simulation studies are widely used, but have historically lacked clear guidance around preregistration.
In response to this gap, a team of researchers have developed a new template for preregistering simulation studies, now available on OSF.
🚀 Read our Q&A: www.cos.io/blog/intr...
In response to this gap, a team of researchers have developed a new template for preregistering simulation studies, now available on OSF.
🚀 Read our Q&A: www.cos.io/blog/intr...
Introducing the Simulation Studies Preregistration Template: Q&A with Björn S. Siepe, František Bartoš, and Samuel Pawel
Initially submitted through COS’s open call for community-designed preregistration templates, the Simulation Studies Template is now part of the expanding collection of preregistration resources available on the OSF.
www.cos.io
July 29, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Simulation studies are widely used, but have historically lacked clear guidance around preregistration.
In response to this gap, a team of researchers have developed a new template for preregistering simulation studies, now available on OSF.
🚀 Read our Q&A: www.cos.io/blog/intr...
In response to this gap, a team of researchers have developed a new template for preregistering simulation studies, now available on OSF.
🚀 Read our Q&A: www.cos.io/blog/intr...
Doing slides for ISCB with quarto (since they accept it I thought why not) and don’t really see what the fuss is about – with two slides it takes ~10s to compile. Looks ok.
Genuine question: what is exciting about it? Is it code-related stuff?
Genuine question: what is exciting about it? Is it code-related stuff?
July 29, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Doing slides for ISCB with quarto (since they accept it I thought why not) and don’t really see what the fuss is about – with two slides it takes ~10s to compile. Looks ok.
Genuine question: what is exciting about it? Is it code-related stuff?
Genuine question: what is exciting about it? Is it code-related stuff?
Post just up: Is multiple imputation making up information?
tldr: no.
Includes a cheeky simulation study to demonstrate the point.
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
tldr: no.
Includes a cheeky simulation study to demonstrate the point.
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
July 23, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Post just up: Is multiple imputation making up information?
tldr: no.
Includes a cheeky simulation study to demonstrate the point.
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
tldr: no.
Includes a cheeky simulation study to demonstrate the point.
open.substack.com/pub/tpmorris...
Alright Americans, I know you’re having a hard time with stuff at the moment, so here’s an olive branch:
I’ll start spelling it randomization if you start pronouncing the letter Z as “zed” instead of “zee”.
LMK
I’ll start spelling it randomization if you start pronouncing the letter Z as “zed” instead of “zee”.
LMK
July 23, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Alright Americans, I know you’re having a hard time with stuff at the moment, so here’s an olive branch:
I’ll start spelling it randomization if you start pronouncing the letter Z as “zed” instead of “zee”.
LMK
I’ll start spelling it randomization if you start pronouncing the letter Z as “zed” instead of “zee”.
LMK