Eri Bertsou

Measuring the temperature of science Horizons - Issue 146

#Science is not doing well, true or false?🔬Between 15 years of decline in #AcademicFreedom and strong but dented #confidence: introspection from within the world of research with @eribertsou.bsky.social @colognaviktoria.bsky.social @angelovpanaro.bsky.social.👇

Multiple journalists killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital A hospital strike in southern Gaza has killed at least eight people, including four journalists. The attack happened on Monday.

Four journalists were killed by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital today, including Mariam Dagga, a freelancer with the @apnews.com. She has a 12-year-old son, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war.

She was a true hero, like all of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza.
tinyurl.com/3cn5c9vb

🔥 Call for papers for EPSS 2026 in Belfast: migration, forced displacement, mobility, borders, asylum, diaspora, and other migration-related topics.

Excited to co-chair the Migration Politics section with @kristinabsimonsen.bsky.social. Submit proposals by Nov 7!

#EPSS2026

Synthetic sampling is gaining momentum in a lot of the social sciences and, while I have been ambiguous about it myself, this white paper provides more information to ground the debate

Synthetic Sampling Report | Verasight A report on the challenges of "synthetic sampling" for public opinion polling.

In polling world, “synthetic sampling” (using LLMs to replace human respondents) has been getting a lot of attention recently. Last wk, Ipsos announced a synthetic panel!

But does it actually work? Here’s a white paper I wrote: “Your Polls on ChatGPT”

report.verasight.io/synthetic-sa...

📢 EPSS 2026 Call for Papers! @hannaeback.bsky.social and I are excited to invite submissions for the Political Representation section at EPSS 2026 in Belfast. EPSS has some exciting new panel formats this year - read on! 🧵

Scientists’ role in defending democracy The United States’ democratic leadership, commitment to freedom of expression, and investment in the pursuit of knowledge have long enabled its preeminence in science and technology. Yet today we are ...

Science for democracy. Much needed. Powerful @science.org editorial by @gretchentg.bsky.social & @chenoweth.bsky.social

“The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society”

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

What--and I say this with my chest--the hell are we doing here people

Many congratulations @jzmarlier.bsky.social! I look forward to seeing where your journey takes you next.

This week we had to say goodbye to our dearest Lana, very suddenly and way too soon. A dedicated polisci dog, she conducted elections fieldwork for LSE's EPOB, became an honorary member of IPZ Zurich and visited the EUI. My loudest cheerleader, patient proofreader & the bestest girl that ever was ❤️‍🩹

🚨 Big News for European Political Science 🚨

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the European Political Science Society (EPSS): a new, member-led, not-for-profit association built to support our scholarly community.

🔗 epssnet.org

Here’s a thread with everything you need to know.

🧵

Proportion of Papers by Year and Team Type

Excited to kick off #EPSA2025 on Day 1, Panel 1! 🎉

I’ll present my co-authored research with @michaelimre.bsky.social on 50 years of gender representation in political science publications. We analyze nearly 100,000 articles across 72 journals to uncover long-term trends. 🔍

@epsanet.bsky.social

Five things to remember about war:

Great thread and breadth of resources to learn more on this topic 👇🏼. Thank you @profsaunders.bsky.social

Third vote for Dynata. They can provide samples in many European countries, including Poland.

This is a view from the surface of Comet 67P.

The busy particles in the foreground are cosmic rays or bits of dust and ice.

The dots moving in the background are stars.

Enjoy Prague and the Joint Sessions Luca! And pass the message on to Lea, I don’t see her on bsky

Shout out to Lea Heyne and Luca Manucci @populismblog.bsky.social whose work on populist radical right electorate in Portugal was mentioned on my fav politics podcast @therestpolitics.bsky.social this morning!

Congrats Charlotte!

Trump Administration Cancels Scores of Grants to Study Online Misinformation

Canceling research on misinformation is not only an attack on science and academic freedom.

It is also a democracy, safety, and security threat.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/b...

In short, Starmer has taken a massive hit among Labour voters, for no gain elsewhere, while boosting Farage's popularity, including doubling his ceiling among Labour voters.

I.e., the political scientists were right, Morgan McSweeney was horrendously wrong.

partisans, not scientists, decide if science is partisan Last month, Audra Wolfe wrote a fantastic post about how science is and always has been political. In the post, she analyzes statements from Nature and Scientific American, both of which endorsed J…

if you teach, you are engaged in an inherently political--but not necessarily partisan--act

the political vs partisan distinction stays kicking people's ass

this old @asociologist.bsky.social is very helpful on this
scatter.wordpress.com/2020/11/10/p...

Responsive nor responsible? Politicians’ climate change policy preferences and public opinion perceptions This study addresses the lack of sufficient climate action by examining politicians’ opinions and their perceptions of public opinion about climate change mitigation policies. After all, scholarly ...

Politicians share similar climate policy views with citizens, but are slightly less supportive. Crucially, they underestimate public support for climate policies, potentially limiting climate action www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🧵 THREAD: Can a short online intervention help defend democracy against partisan polarization?

In our new study - just published in the @bjpols.bsky.social - my colleagues and I tested this question across 33 countries 🌍 with over 41,000 participants 🧑‍🤝‍🧑.

Here’s what we found 👇

She’s got guts. Chilling to watch, but necessary

Big thank you 🙏 to colleagues who provided helpful comments to this project. I hope this study will be of interest to @pablofernandezv.bsky.social @lavezzolo.bsky.social @luisramiro.bsky.social @jbpilet.bsky.social @matmota.bsky.social @joanfontfab.bsky.social @profkatedommett.bsky.social

How do technocratic voters evaluate their Government’s handling of the #pandemic? 🤔 Mostly positive (sign. + in Greece and Italy, with Draghi gov. at the time). But more negatively in the US and the UK, two countries in the sample where governments departed from #scientific consensus.

❓Who are the experts according to citizens? No big variations groups of citizens are seen here (though the list does not include Businessmen, an omission on my part..). Given the timing of the survey most citizens select Scientists, followed by Academics and Economists.

💡 Again and again we find that #populist citizens show very hight support for #experts in politics. We never find populism without preference for expertise. This finding is consistent! It can help explain why #Musk and #DOGE type efficiency campaigns are popular in the US and abroad 🪚