Derek Ruths, McGill University

Research

Conflict Of Interest Crowd Sourcing Data Mining Financial Disclosure Machine Learning Textual Analysis

Latest papers

A large language model-based tool for identifying relationships to industry in research on the carcinogenicity of benzene, cobalt, and aspartame.
Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025
Is hate speech detection the solution the world wants?
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023 · senior author
The epidemiological impact of the Canadian COVID Alert app.
Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2022 · senior author

All 14 publications

Latest funding

Understanding Narrative Formation in Fragmented Information Ecosystems
SSHRC · 2026 · Principal investigator
$100,000
Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3): Developing Talent for Population Analytics in Aging Societies
SSHRC · 2020 · Co-investigator
$824,435
Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3): Developing Talent for Population Analytics in Aging Societies
SSHRC · 2019 · Co-investigator
$840,170

All 14 grants and awards

14 publications.

01

A large language model-based tool for identifying relationships to industry in research on the carcinogenicity of benzene, cobalt, and aspartame.

DeBono NL, Amar V, Hardy H, Schubauer-Berigan MK, Ruths D, King NB

Environmental health : a global access science source2025

DOI: 10.1186/s12940-025-01223-1 PMID: 40993649

02

Is hate speech detection the solution the world wants?

Parker S, Ruths D

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023Senior author

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209384120 PMID: 36848573

03

The epidemiological impact of the Canadian COVID Alert app.

Sun S, Shaw M, Moodie EEM, Ruths D

Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique2022Senior author

DOI: 10.17269/s41997-022-00632-w PMID: 35672574

04

Dilations and degeneracy in network controllability.

Chung L, Ruths D, Ruths J

Scientific reports2021

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-88529-5 PMID: 33953239

05

The misinformation machine.

Ruths D

Science (New York, N.Y.)2019First author

DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw1315 PMID: 30679361

06

Correlations in the degeneracy of structurally controllable topologies for networks.

Campbell C, Aucott S, Ruths J, Ruths D, Shea K, Albert R

Scientific reports2017

DOI: 10.1038/srep46251 PMID: 28401952

07

Estimating the minimum control count of random network models.

Ruths D, Ruths J

Scientific reports2016First author

DOI: 10.1038/srep19818 PMID: 26817434

08

Topological constraints on network control profiles.

Campbell C, Ruths J, Ruths D, Shea K, Albert R

Scientific reports2015

DOI: 10.1038/srep18693 PMID: 26691951

09

Social sciences. Social media for large studies of behavior.

Ruths D, Pfeffer J

Science (New York, N.Y.)2014First author

DOI: 10.1126/science.346.6213.1063 PMID: 25430759

10

Network models. Response to Comment on "Control profiles of complex networks".

Ruths J, Ruths D

Science (New York, N.Y.)2014Senior author

DOI: 10.1126/science.1256714 PMID: 25359961

Understanding Narrative Formation in Fragmented Information Ecosystems

Principal investigatorSSHRC2026Insight Development Grants

Principal investigators: Ruths, Derek

$100,000

Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3): Developing Talent for Population Analytics in Aging Societies

Co-investigatorSSHRC2020Partnerships Grants Training Initiatives

Keywords: applied population research; aging population; student training; evidence-based decision-making; population analytics; social data science; big data; knowledge mobilization; cross-sectoral training; multidisciplinary collaboration

$824,435

Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3): Developing Talent for Population Analytics in Aging Societies

Co-investigatorSSHRC2019Partnerships Grants Training Initiatives

Keywords: applied population research; aging population; student training; evidence-based decision-making; population analytics; social data science; big data; knowledge mobilization; cross-sectoral training; multidisciplinary collaboration

$840,170

Developing robust methods for the measurement of online social media populations

Principal investigatorNSERC2017Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Principal investigators: Ruths, Derek

$204,000

Cloud / Distributed Computing Infrastructure

Co-investigatorNSERC2017Research Tools and Instruments

Principal investigators: Kemme, Bettina

$146,901

Developing robust methods for the measurement of online social media populations

Principal investigatorNSERC2017Discovery Grants Program - Accelerator Supplements

Principal investigators: Ruths, Derek

$120,000

Developing robust methods for the measurement of online social media populations

Principal investigatorNSERC2016Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Principal investigators: Ruths, Derek

$26,000

Supporting social science presence at the international conference on web and social media

Principal investigatorSSHRC2016Connection Grants

Principal investigators: Ruths, Derek A.S.

Keywords: academic conference; interdisciplinary; computational social science

$17,000

Transparent Science: using computational tools to assess conflicts of interest and their consequences in biomedical publications

Nominated PICIHR2014Catalyst Grant: Ethics

Principal investigators: Ruths, Derek; King, Nicholas B

Keywords: Conflict Of Interest; Crowd Sourcing; Data Mining; Financial Disclosure; Machine Learning; Textual Analysis

$95,250

Global currents: cultures of literary networks

Co-investigatorSSHRC2013

Principal investigators: Piper, Andrew

Keywords: image processing; network science; literary cultures

$124,942

From CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998, including their latest published competition results.

Frequent collaborators

Thomas Shultz

Psychology

1 shared papers, latest 2014

Write to this professor

A short, specific email works best. This draft uses one of their recent papers; replace the parts in brackets with your own details before sending.

Applying for

Paper to mentionMention their SSHRC grant from 2026

Subject: Prospective PhD student: Conflict Of Interest Dear Professor Ruths, My name is [your name], and I am a [your current degree or role] at [your institution]. I am applying for a PhD position starting in [term and year]. I read your paper "A large language model-based tool for identifying relationships to industry in research on the carcinogenicity of benzene, cobalt, and aspartame." (2025), and it connects closely to my own work on [your research topic]. [One or two sentences on what you did and what you learned.] I also saw your SSHRC-funded project "Understanding Narrative Formation in Fragmented Information Ecosystems" (2026), and I would be glad to contribute to work in that direction. Are you accepting new PhD students for [term and year]? I have attached my CV and transcripts, and I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, [your name]