Professor Tom Scotto
Head Of Department
Government and Public Policy
Personal statement
Thomas J. Scotto is Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy, and he teaches courses on the topics of American Politics, Public Opinion and Quantitative Methods. Prior to arriving at Strathclyde in 2016, he served as a Professor of Government and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Essex, where he also taught courses in the Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis. Dr. Scotto is a recipient of funding from the British Academy and the ESRC which allows him to conduct national and cross-national surveys of citizen public opinion on matters of foreign policy. This funding yielded recent publications in outlets such as International Studies Quarterly, Political Behavior, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, International Relations of the Asia Pacific, and Canadian Foreign Policy. Professor Scotto consults with a number of Westminster units on the topic of British public attitudes towards foreign policy. These include The Prime Minister’s Office, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, and the Department for International Development. He is regularly quoted by or appears on media outlets such as the BBC, LBC Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Independent, the Huffington Post and the Financial Times.
Prize And Awards
- Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS)
- Recipient
- 2024
Publications
- Ethnic differences in healthcare trust and patient satisfaction in England : a cross-sectional survey
- Pickering Steven David, Hansen Martin Ejnar, Dorussen Han, Reifler Jason, Scotto Thomas, Sunahara Yosuke, Yen Dorothy, Iezadi Shabnam
- PLoS ONE Vol 21 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349884
- The motherhood penalties : insights from women in UK academia
- Di Leo Riccardo, Epifanio Mariaelisa, Scotto Thomas J, Troeger Vera E
- Community, Work & Family, pp. 1-23 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2026.2618679
- Who gets in? A conjoint analysis of labour market demand and immigration preferences in England and Japan
- Kawakami Riku, Scotto Thomas J, Dorussen Han, Pickering Steve, Reifler Jason, Sunahara Yosuke, Tago Atsushi, Yen Dorothy
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol 52, pp. 65-84 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2545432
- Trust in scientists and doctors : the roles of faith, politics, education and gender
- Pickering Steven David, Hansen Martin Ejnar, Dorussen Han, Reifler Jason, Scotto Thomas J, Sunahara Yosuke, Yen Dorothy
- Public Understanding of Science Vol 35, pp. 352-366 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625251386562
- Motherhood in academia : a novel dataset of UK academic women with an application to maternity leave uptake
- Di Leo Riccardo, Epifanio Mariaelisa, Scotto Thomas J, Troeger Vera E
- Social Policy and Administration Vol 59, pp. 454-469 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.13057
- Public attitudes towards disclosing personal and anonymous health-related data and information
- Yen Dorothy Ai-wan, Dorussen Han, Pickering Steve, Hansen Martin, Scotto Thomas, Reifler Jason
- British Journal of Healthcare Management Vol 31, pp. 1-12 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2024.0056
Professional Activities
- East China University of Science and Technology
- Visiting researcher
- 12/11/2026
- Lanzhou University
- Visiting researcher
- 11/11/2026
- Workshop: Misperceptions and Policy Implications
- Organiser
- 4/3/2026
- Centre for Energy Policy Energy Conversations: Do we have the necessary skilled labour to enable a net zero economy?
- Speaker
- 27/2/2020
- Energy Security Challenges: NATO's approach
- Participant
- 24/1/2019
Projects
- Bias and Inclusion in Survey Data: Modelling Respondent Effort Across International and Youth-Focused Surveys
- Scotto, Thomas (Principal Investigator) Mattes, Robert (Co-investigator) Greenwood-Hau, Joe (Co-investigator)
- This PhD project investigates a critical, yet often overlooked, assumption underpinning survey research: that respondents are uniformly attentive, engaged, and willing to provide meaningful responses. Across the world, surveys inform public policy, democratic debate, academic research, and organisational decision making. However, variation in respondent effort — including inattentiveness or differential engagement across social groups — can introduce bias and affect the validity of inferences about public attitudes and behaviour. This studentship will develop advanced quantitative methods to model and account for respondent effort, improve measurement quality, and assess how engagement varies across international and youth-focused survey contexts. Drawing on surveys from diverse settings, the research will enhance understanding of inclusion and representativeness in survey data, with implications for analysing inequality and informing better survey design and interpretation. The project is based in the Department of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, aligned with the ESRC Advanced Quantitative Methods steer and supervised by Professors Thomas Scotto, Robert Mattes, and Dr Joe Greenwood-Hau.
- 01-Jan-2026 - 31-Jan-2030
- Measuring Trust and its Variance during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Serial Surveys and Quantitative Text Analysis
- Scotto, Thomas (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- Free Speech and Civil Liberties on the British Campus: The Public Opines
- Scotto, Thomas (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2018 - 01-Jan-2019
Contact
Professor
Tom
Scotto
Head Of Department
Government and Public Policy
Email: tom.scotto@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4004