Peer review, many boffins argue, channelling Churchill, is the worst way to ensure quality of research, except all the others. The system, which relies on papers being vetted by anonymous experts prior to publication, has underpinned scientific literature for decades.

Controversial model points to benefits of more opinionated reviews.

The do-it-yourself-biology movement has an image problem. More commonly called DIYbio, it tends to conjure up pictures of T-shirt-clad misfits marshalling limited scientific skill in their basements as they try to make cool-but-fringe things such as glow-in-the-dark plants.

Who are the outstanding mentors of young researchers? Since 2005, Nature has awarded an annual prize for scientific mentoring, rotating through a variety of countries.

Reporting suspicions of scientific fraud is rarely easy, but some paths are more effective than others.

Academics concerned universities are excluding interdisciplinary research from the Research Excellence Framework exercise.

Research from the University of Copenhagen, which has just been published in the journal Philosophy and Technology, shows how the mechanisms that set off the financial crisis might be replicating in the field of science.

Researchers can still operate by the rules and norms of science, but under Horizon 2020 they have - with the exception of the ERC - no autonomy to decide what science they do.

"We must put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade." These were the words spoken in 1961 to Congress by the late President John F.Kennedy, who fifty years ago this month was struck down by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

Improving U.S. education in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — has become a popular cause.

'Big money' grants foster 'bookkeeping' work at the expense of small-scale but potentially groundbreaking efforts, says Gary Thomas

Rather than simply demanding more open science, we should remember closure is a quite normal part of science, and instead look in detail at what's closing, when, why and to whom?

The push to replicate findings could shelve promising research and unfairly damage the reputations of careful, meticulous scientists, says Mina Bissell.

British and Australian scientists compile a list of tips to help policy makers better understand the 'imperfect nature of science'

Presidential address on why society is willing to support an endeavor as abstract and altruistic as basic scientific research and an enterprise as large and practical as the R&D enterprise as a whole.

Hours spent writing grant applications could be spent actually doing research with a grant-determining formula.

There's a little-known dirty secret in science funding; prior to World War II and the Manhattan Project, the overwhelming majority of basic research was done by corporations. Thus, the tanks, planes, materials advancements and everything else were created by the private sector.

A post highlighting some policy goals and showing how the incentive system for publishing could easily be made into an important tool for achieving them.

Crowdfunding has energised public and private sectors, says Didier Schmitt – could it reconnect science and society too?

Early career researchers need to learn how policy is made and assessed to encourage more joined-up thinking in science.

Business leaders have many reasons to complain about the budget high jinks consuming Washington, but here's one that gets too little attention: the damage automatic budget cuts are doing to basic research in America.

Universities and academics cannot live without the Research Excellence Framework, but we need to go back to a simpler form of measurement, argues Peter Scott

Researchers are rewarded for splashy findings, not for double-checking accuracy. So many scientists looking for cures to diseases have been building on ideas that aren't even true.

I am interested in copyright law, and especially interested in the inefficiencies and loopholes that have developed in a majority of creative industries as they have undergone the shift from analog to digital formats.

Relate your data to the world around them using the age-old custom of telling a story.

Science communication should be more than the dissemination of results to the public; it should also flow in the other direction, with members of the public able to communicate their priorities to scientists and those who fund them. But how?

Although approximately 50% of PhD students and postdoctoral scientists are female, males run the majority of research laboratories. Despite some reform over the past three decades, there is still an exodus of female scientists from academic research at the transitional stage between a postdoctoral researcher and laboratory head.

Rigorous analyses are needed to establish the benefits of the knowledge economy, says former Irish government science adviser Patrick Cunningham.

The next president of the European Research Council will face the dual challenge of preserving the agency’s reputation for excellence while trying to address funding inequalities.

The physicist Richard Feynman liked to gripe about what he called "Alfred Nobel's Other Mistake." The first mistake was the invention of dynamite. The second was creating the Nobel Prizes.