opinion articles

Send us a link

Subscribe to our newsletter

Publish or perish? Metrics and research diversity

Publish or perish? Metrics and research diversity

If we want to embed equality and diversity in research culture, any future use of metrics to assess research must not adversely affect specific groups or researchers.

Don't let transparency damage science

Don't let transparency damage science

Stephan Lewandowsky and Dorothy Bishop explain how the research community should protect its members from harassment, while encouraging the openness that has become essential to science.

Coupling pre-prints and post-publication peer review for fast, cheap, fair, and effective science publishing

Coupling pre-prints and post-publication peer review for fast, cheap, fair, and effective science publishing

A white paper written by Leslie Vosshall and Michael Eisen aimed at promoting pre-print use in biomedicine.

Do "top" journals attract "too good to be true" results?

Do "top" journals attract "too good to be true" results?

The most prestigious journals publish the least reliable science (at least when looking at the available evidence from experimental fields).

Why science's universal language is a problem for research

Why science's universal language is a problem for research

The vast majority of scientific papers today are published in English. What gets lost when other languages get left out?

Why Preventing Cancer Is Not the Priority in Drug Development

Why Preventing Cancer Is Not the Priority in Drug Development

There’s more money to be made investing in drugs that will extend cancer patients’ lives by a few months than in drugs that would prevent cancer in the first place.

A basic scientist's reflections on research funding

A basic scientist's reflections on research funding

Research can only exist with good and secure funding, but when obtaining funding becomes a dominant part of investigators’ activity, the system has a problem.