Why so much science research is flawed – and what to do about it
Dodgy results are fuelling flawed policy decisions and undermining medical advances. They could even make us lose faith in science. New Scientist investigates
Send us a link
Revolutionizing research communication through a new academic publishing platform
The way that researchers communicate their work has not changed significantly in the last few centuries; academic publishing still relies on journal articles an…
Science fairs are as flawed as my solar-powered hot dog cooker
As the White House prepares for its annual science fair, it's worth remembering that these events leave some children behind.
Tech expert and cancer survivor to lead U.S. 1-million-person health study
A technology guru and cancer survivor has been tapped to head President Obama’s ambitious 1-million-person personalized medicine study.
On Moose and Medians
If Thomson Reuters can calculate Impact Factors and Eigenfactors, why can’t they deliver a simple median score?
How can we keep science honest in a world of open data?
The advantages of making scientific data available for further analysis are clear, but it could also enable the trawling of data to find significant, or preferred, results.
Fundable, but not funded
How can research funders ensure ‘unlucky’ applications are handled more appropriately?
Biases in grant proposals
Biases in grant proposal success rates, funding rates and award sizes affect the geographical distribution of funding for biomedical research
The evolving relationship between business and science
The interface between science and business is where innovation is brought to life, but do the two fields always get along?
Opening the Black Box of Scholarly Communication Funding
Obtaining a more joined up picture of financial flows is vital as a means for researchers, institutions and others to understand and shape changes to the sociotechnical systems that underpin scholarly communication.
Brandon Stell Is the Vigilante of Scientific Publishing
The rationale is simple: More anonymity means more scrutiny for published papers, and more scrutiny means more errors are caught.
‘If America Wants to Kill Science, It’s on Its Way’
A. Hope Jahren on women, research, and life in the lab.
The correlation between editorial delay and the ratio of highly cited papers
The correlation between editorial delay and the ratio of highly cited papers
Ideally, in a reviewing process, it is generally easier for referees to make faster and more reliable decisions for high quality papers, which ideally and on average will later attract more citations. Therefore, it is possible that the editorial delay time—the time between dates of submission and acceptance or publication—is correlated to the number of received citations, as has been weakly confirmed by previous studies.
How one lab challenged a grant rejection and won €5 million
A British scientist successfully appealed against an unfavourable grant review — but the road to victory can be paved with challenges.
OpenTrials
Towards a collaborative open database of all available information on all clinical trials
A new network for science advice in Africa
There are plenty of reasons to be upbeat about the prospects for science and research across Africa. The next challenge is to bring more of that evidence and expertise into decision making.
Biologists start sharing unpublished work—oh, the horror!
Bemused physicists watch biologists start biorXiv, party likes it's 1991.
Creating a more inclusive academy
Although there has been a welcome increase in discussion about gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), broad participation of women from all backgrounds in academic STEM will not be achieved until institutions are transformed.
Do academic social networks share academics’ interests?
David Matthews examines the approach of ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Mendeley to profit, user data and open access publishing
Top Tips to Make Your Research Irreproducible
It is an unfortunate convention of science that research should pretend to be reproducible; our top tips will help you mitigate this fussy conventionality, enabling you to enthusiastically showcase your irreproducible work.
A faked, retracted study of changing people's minds on gay marriage turns out to have been right
A faked, retracted study of changing people's minds on gay marriage turns out to have been right
A famous faked study gets proved right—by the people who unmasked it in the first place.
×