Funding for blue skies research is falling in favour of work aligned with the government's strategic priorities.

Earlier this fall Dr. Scott Solomon presented the results of a huge heart drug study to an audience of fellow cardiologists in Paris. The presented number 0.059 caused gasps as the audience was looking for something under 0.05.

A study of 104 children from ages 3 to 10 found similar patterns of brain activity in boys and girls as they engaged in basic math tasks, researchers reported.

In order to align incentives with good science, we need to move to a system in which work that is well thought-out, well carried-out, and well communicated – regardless of the ‘story’ it tells – is given the highest reward. Changing what is rewarded will change what is done.

A century and a half has seen momentous changes in science. But evidence and transparency are more important than ever before.

With better questions, many reproducibility problems will fall away, says Paul Smaldino.

In practice the way in which research impacts and influences policy and society is often thought to be a rational, ordered and linear process. Whilst this might represent a ‘common sense’ understanding of research impact, this post reflects on how upending the primacy of data and embracing complexity can lead to a more nuanced and effective understanding of research impact. 

One of the foundational aims of the open access movement, set out in the Budapest Open Access Initiative, was to provide access to research not only to scholars, but to “teachers, students and other curious minds” and in so doing “enrich education”. However almost two decades on from the declaration access to the research literature for educational purposes remains limited. 

Container platforms let researchers run each other's software - and check the results.

Can science continue to fulfil its social contract and to reach new horizons by advancing on the same footing into the future? Or does something need to shift?

A UK election has been called for the 12 December. That means the scramble is on for the political parties to pull together a manifesto that will capture the imagination and lead to votes.

A graduate student's suicide at UW Madison is a devastating cautionary tale about abusive lab environments.

The Harvard professor on science and scepticism - and why climate deniers have run out of excuses.

From all too scarce, to professionalized, the ethics of research is now everybody's business, argues Sarah Franklin.

There's been an extensive campaign to create distrust on everything from vaccines to climate change. Here's why you should trust science.

In the overlay publishing model, a journal performs refereeing services, but it doesn’t publish articles on its website. Rather, the journal’s website links to final article versions hosted on an online repository. Some editors share why they chose to publish their journals via the arXiv overlay model and how they believe overlay journals will contribute to greater equity in OA.

Current research trends resemble the early 21st century’s financial bubble. Let’s imagine what might happen if the rules of professional science evolved such that scientists were incentivized to publish as many papers as they could and if those who published many papers of poor scientific rigor were rewarded over those who published fewer papers of higher rigor? 

Universities worry about protecting privacy as they confront the growing problem of harrassment.

In nature, the gene-editing tool Crispr protects bacteria against viruses. Now it's being harnessed in the fight against superbugs and the flu.

How many articles from predatory journals are being cited in the legitimate (especially medical) literature? Some disturbing findings.

EMBO and EMBO Press are making their journals' finances public to provide transparency and clarity about what it costs to publish articles in high quality, selective journals.

Predict, a government research program, sought to identify animal viruses that might infect humans and to head off new pandemics. Now the program has been cancelled.

by Birgit Fingerle The study "Blockchain in Higher Education - Fundamentals - Potentials - Boundaries" (Study in German language "Blockchain in der Hochschulbildung - Grundlagen - Poten

In the spirit of acknowledging and normalizing failure in the process, a doctoral student defended her dissertation in a skirt made of rejection letters from the course of her PhD.

Image manipulation is nothing new, but its application for scientific and medical fraud is leaving lives and livelihoods at stake.

Students must learn that a doctoral degree isn't for everyone - and that not doing one might be a better option.

Recent allegations of copyright violations against a professor who shared his own work on his website spark debate about ownership and whether peer reviewers should be paid.

Predictions a few years ago that AI would soon replace radiologists haven't come to pass. AI has a long way to go before it can become autonomous.

Open Access Week 2019 - a collection of blog posts