There have been many reports but little action: the UK's university science departments have a serious diversity problem - experts explain what needs to change.

Researchers who receive federal help consistently fail to report their results to the public. The government should hold them accountable.

Analysis reveals three ways to boost green investment and achieve a resilient recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

A treaty might help countries to prepare for the next pandemic - but first they must study what went wrong during this one.

This author asks: Can scientists who are so meticulous in preparing their papers and so generous with their time in reviewing them for free not find better ways to advance science than relying on profiteering journals?

The pandemic is being used as a pretext to push unproven artificial-intelligence tools into workplaces and schools.

We hope that the scale and reach of the Covid-19 pandemic will realise sustained change in the research culture, with openness and collaboration firmly embedded.

Study of researchers indicates that a preprint or accepted manuscript can substitute for the version of record in some use cases but not all.

We fear and yearn for "the singularity." But it will probably never come.

Troubling narrative: the mere existence of perverse incentives is a valid and sufficient reason to knowingly behave in an antisocial way, just as long as one first acknowledges the existence of those perverse incentives. 

His claim that 'greed' was the driver behind the UK's vaccine success ignores the huge role of state funding, says economics professor Mariana Mazzucato.

Rankings are artificial zero-sum games. Artificial because they force a strict hierarchy upon universities. Artificial also because it is not realistic that a university can only improve its reputation for performance exclusively at the expense of other universities’ reputations.

Research software infrastructure is critical for accelerating science, and yet, these digital public goods are often unsustainably funded. Solving this problem requires an appreciation of the intrinsic value of research software outputs, and greater investment of time and effort into effectively funding maintenance of software at scale.

The advancement of science — an intrinsically iterative process — is contingent on reporting practices that enable data to be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable to permit independent scrutiny, replication, and follow-on investigations. The urgency associated with the pandemic has created an imperative to accelerate the adoption of open science.

ASAPbio has developed resources for preprint servers, institutions, scientists, and journalists to promote the responsible reporting of research in the media.

Wikidata is a language-independent factual database belonging to the Wikimedia family which includes the particularly well-known Wikipedia. In an interview, Timo Borst explains the dimensions and particular significance of this database, especially in the context of Open Science.

Ethicists are worried about the gamble Germany took to halt AstraZeneca doses over seven cases of blood clots. It will not be the last time hard decisions are made in this pandemic.

Major research projects will be cancelled, including those designed to head off future disease threats, warn scientists.

The government promised to increase funding for vital scientific R&D to 2.4% of GDP - but its target is already slipping.

Philip Ball: It was meant to bring rigour to the tricky question of who deserves a grant or a post, but is the h-index's numerical score simplistic?

A while ago I was invited to speak at the Westminster Forum in a panel session entitled “Research environments in the REF – stimulating positive cultures and wellbeing, academic independence and interdisciplinary research“...

COVID-19 has inflicted devastating losses. It has also delivered certain blessings.

Worldwide, the academic community is wondering how to compensate for a lost year of productivity and focus. This will require a suite of measures aimed at redressing the inequalities left in the wake of Covid-19. 

Excluding researchers based in the UK, Israel and Switzerland from major EU quantum and space research projects would see the bloc "shoot itself in the foot", according to German MEP Niklas Nienass, spokesman on space for the Parliament's green group.

Doctors are applying a torrent of COVID-19 research to patient care, from first symptoms to recovery

A few days ago, the head of UK Research and Investment, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said the Government's target of having 2.4% of GDP spent on research and development (R&D) by 2027 was 'very challenging'. Here, Adão Carvalho of the Department of Economics at the Universidade de Évora in Portugal considers the poor record of such past […]

It's human nature to spot patterns in data. But we should be careful about finding causal links where none may exist, says statistician David Spiegelhalter

Working together seems like a good idea - especially when working toward a noble goal. However, little has been reported to date about the success and efficiency (or lack thereof) of such partnerships as a practical matter.

In recent decades new innovations in peer review have been developed to address issues of bias and inefficiency. These innovations are multifarious, but many of them relate to openness of peer review, reviewer incentives, and technological enhancements, such as the use of artificial intelligence.

Systems for assessing scientists' work must properly account for a lost year of research - especially for female researchers.