Matt Field

How To Review Efficiently and Fairly Instead of Dry January, I’m going review free for January after having nearly 80 review requests last year. My New Year’s resolution was to have a healthier relationships with reviewing…

💯 Loads of excellent advice in this post #AcademicWriting #AcademicChatter

How should public health respond to rise of alcohol-free and low alcohol drinks? John Holmes and colleagues argue for a precautionary approach that is guided by public health interests and considers both risks and benefits Sales of alcohol-free and low alcohol (nolo) drinks have ...

How should public health respond to the rise of alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks? New publication in the @bmj.com from @jholmessheff.bsky.social @niamhfitzgerald.bsky.social Inge Kersbergen and Nathan Critchlow. Really insightful, great work guys 🌟

www.bmj.com/content/392/...

I would say I’m looking for skills / methods that are aligned with the project, including evidence that they can write these up to publication standard. No specific number of publications needed - quality more important than quantity. Grantwriting experience useful but not essential

Rethinking drug use and addiction A philosopher advocates for a more humane and context-informed approach

Rethinking drug use and addiction 😍

A philosopher advocates for a more humane and context-informed approach

Superb review by Cassandra Boness of Hanna Pickard's important book, provocatively titled: "What would you do alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine?"

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Competitively priced for loo roll, but not soft or absorbent enough.

The perfect punctuation mark to my choice for who had the worst year on @quietriotpod.bsky.social.

As gambling addiction spreads, one scientist’s work reveals timely insights Psychiatrist Robert Custer spent his life convincing doctors that compulsive gambling was not an impulse control problem. Today, his research is foundational for diagnosis and treatment.

Excellent article, reminding all of us of pioneering early work in gambling research - and reminding us how much there is still to do. www.sciencenews.org/article/bob-.... Roll on 2026….

@uofgussp.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social

The sun rising over the London skyline this morning, only it’s a very cloudy sky and the sun is visible only as an orange streak of fire that coincidentally seems to be emanating from the spire on the top of St Paul’s dome

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

Your festive edition and TV guide is here 🎄
Feast your eyes on a tumultuous schedule, not unlike the year itself. Plus brilliant writing from all of your favourite columnists at The New World. Enjoy!

🗞️ Grab a copy at your local newsstand or subscribe
🔗 buff.ly/NWZsnYW

An image of Predator (1987)

🎶he sees you when you're sleeping
he knows when you're awake
his vision's based on movement
and the heat signature you make🎶

Quantitative Research Intern (P/T) at University of Sheffield An opportunity for an academic position as a Quantitative Research Intern (P/T) is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

✨ SARG Internship opportunity ✨ We're currently looking for a part-time Quantitative Research Intern to undertake a three-month research project mapping the type of advice that alcohol treatment and recovery services give to clients on the use of alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks. Find out more 👇

It’s Strava Year in Sport time! Quite a big decline since last year, mainly attributable to a busy summer. But not bad for a geriatric.

strava.app.link/QL4vEzY9YYb

Eyes Wide Shut is the ultimate Christmas film Kubrick’s final film isn’t just set at Christmas. It’s a subversive critique of class, desire and the fantasies we buy into during the festive season.

Kubrick’s final film isn’t just set at Christmas. It’s a subversive critique of class, desire and the fantasies we buy into during the festive season.

Gambling addicts risk losing ‘life-saving’ help due to funding overhaul, say UK charities Specialist clinics and support groups call for government emergency support due to delays caused by new levy system

🧵1/ Many, but far from all health professionals working with gambling harm called for an industry funded levy to support their work. Now the legislation is in place, the money isn’t, and their services are in crisis

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This plot shows the number of users in the Study 1 sample that self-described as 'addicted' to Instagram versus those who were 'at risk' of clinical addiction. The ratios for the addiction symptom scale are 9:371 and for the perceived addiction 69: 311, suggesting a much greater proportion of users self-perceive as addicted than are actually addicted to Instagram

Excited to see these studies (finally) published in Scientific Reports! 🚨

S1: More social media users perceived themselves as addicted than met clinical addiction criteria.

S2: Increasing perceived addiction hurt perceived control over use and increased self-blame for overuse.

Thread below... 🧵

Oliver Burkeman on the value of pursuing what interests you, cultivating a sensitivity to your own personal response to topics, and using it as a filter on what to attend to

https://ckarchive.com/b/92uzhnh695dods3roomrdfzod7d33hwh9nk2g

"to follow the lead of interestingness is to accept that […]

Survey administration schedule across the 12-week study period. Participants completed biweekly surveys (orange) every two weeks, with US participants additionally completing daily surveys (blue) for the first 30 days. Cognitive tests (green) were administered during biweekly surveys at weeks 1, 5, and 9. Gray circles indicate days with no scheduled surveys. Retention percentages show the proportion of baseline participants (N=1978) who were still active at each measurement week (defined as having completed either a daily or biweekly survey at any time after that week)

Diurnal play across Xbox, Nintendo, Steam.

Sample of daily gaming patterns and mental wellbeing for three representative participants. Stacked bars represent total daily playtime across platforms. Orange line shows biweekly mental wellbeing scores (short WEMWBS) measured at six study waves. Participants were selected from those closest to the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of total playtime, prioritizing those with the most varied multi-platform gaming behavior. Participant IDs: p9009984081 (25th percentile), p8809196928 (50th percentile), p7162729307 (75th percentile)

We released a pretty cool dataset/preprint today looking at video game play, cognition, time-use and a ton of self-reported psych measures at osf.io/preprints/ps... with @nballou.bsky.social @matti.vuorre.com @thomashakman.bsky.social @rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social RRs coming soon

A morbidly inclined sheep, who likes to hang around in graveyards, detests parties and owns original pressings of the entire classic run of Leonard Cohen LPs from 1967-1974.

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.

You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

Utility of Substance-Free Alternatives in Treating and Preventing Harmful Substance Use: A Narrative Review of the Translational Research Spectrum Interventions primarily focused on constraining access to substances have largely failed to reduce substance use and associated problems. Alternative …

Utility of Substance-Free Alternatives in Treating and Preventing Harmful Substance Use: A Narrative Review of the Translational Research Spectrum

This is an important literature review on a crucial topic in the prevention and treatment of addictions.

1/2

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Professor John Holmes contributes to major new report outlining actions to tackle alcohol harm - Sheffield Addictions Research Group SARG Director Professor John Holmes was part of an expert panel that supported the development of 'A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK', a significant new report pu...

SARG Director @jholmessheff.bsky.social was part of an expert panel that supported the development of 'A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK', a significant new report published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies @ias.org.uk this week. @fohsheffield.bsky.social

🌍 Alcohol causes 2.6 million premature deaths each year, yet remains the world’s favourite drug. 🍺

A major Lancet Public Health study shows most countries are far off WHO’s 2030 target to cut drinking by 20%.

🧵 THREAD

#PublicHealth #Addiction #AlcoholPolicy #GlobalHealth

And what’s your take on the viewpoint in that article?

@victimofmaths.bsky.social Seen this? I didn’t know economics could be interesting (but now I do)

Voters in Hamburg have rejected universal basic income. Many economists would agree with them Voters in the German city of Hamburg recently rejected the idea of a free payment for all residents.

Voters in the German city of Hamburg recently rejected the idea of a free payment for all residents.

Listening to Tommy Robinson What did I learn by giving the right-wing activist my ears for 90 minutes?

Listening to Tommy Robinson

What did I learn by giving the right-wing activist my ears for 90 minutes?

https://tomstafford.substack.com/p/listening-to-tommy-robinson

Train hero who saved passengers during attack confuses racists by being a Muslim Samir Zoutini, a heroic GNER staff member whose incredible bravery saved lives during the mass stabbing on Saturday, has confounded racists by being a Muslim.

🚨NEW - Train hero who saved passengers during attack confuses racists by being a Muslim

Click for more:

open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

How Online Sports Betting Is Fueling a New Wave of Addiction Here’s what clinicians—and everyone else—need to know about treating gambling disorder and protecting those most vulnerable.

Great article on the spread and impact of gambling in the USA in @psychologytoday.com. Thanks for inviting me to contribute.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/...

@uofgsps.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social
@psychologytoday.com

THREAD
A week ago, we published this statement by the Greater Manchester Asylum Hotels Group. The response has been overwhelming. The group has had many messages of support from our local area and beyond, and people have been inspired to share the message far and wide in their own communities.

📣 Introducing new funding schemes from the SSA and Office for Life Sciences tinyurl.com/mrxwrh8k | Applications for PhD studentships and fellowships open on 3 November

Our experimental alcohol administration study on the tension reduction hypothesis has been published in Addiction! 🎉 See preprint thread below for a summary :)

Https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70213