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A study identifies papers that stand the test of time. Fewer than two out of every 10,000 scientific papers remain influential in their field decades after publication, finds an analysis of five million articles published between 1980 and 1990.
Scientists are more efficient at producing high-quality research when they have more academic freedom, according to a recent study of 18 economically advanced countries. Researchers in the Netherlands are the most efficient of all. The existence of a national evaluation system that is not tied to funding was also associated with efficiency.
Most papers fail to report many aspects of the experiment and analysis that we may not with advantage omit - things that are crucial to understanding the result and its limitations and to repeating the work. Instead of arguing about whether results hold up, we should strive to provide enough information for others to repeat the experiments.
As a commendable European law on personal data comes into force, the research community must not let excessive caution about data sharing, however understandable, become the default position.
Objections to the Creative Commons attribution licence are straw men raised by parties who want open access to be as closed as possible, warns John Wilbanks.
UK’s newly minted unified funding agency has released the first outline of its strategy. The long-awaited document gives the nation’s researchers an insight into how the mega-funding agency - which will command a budget of GBP6 billion (USD8 billion) - will work.
Sweden is the latest country to hold out on journal subscriptions, while negotiators share tactics to broker new deals with publishers. Inspired by the results of a stand-off in Germany, negotiators from libraries and university consortia across Europe increasingly declare that if they don’t like what publishers offer, they will refuse to pay for journal access at all.
Scientists pride themselves on being keen observers, but many seem to have trouble spotting the problems right under their noses. Those who run labs have a much rosier picture of the dynamics in their research groups than do many staff members working in the trenches.
Male scientists in the United Kingdom received an extra 40 pence for every pound awarded to women, reveals an analysis of cancer research funding over more than a decade.
Catherine Winchester was hired to ferret out errors and establish routines that promote rigorous research.
Until recently, many university and society journals operated at a loss. To return to their earlier significant role in scientific dissemination, scientific societies and universities will have to return to their earlier acceptance of knowledge sharing as part of their broader public service, rather than their more recent exploitation of publications as revenue generators.
An analysis of drug studies shows that most participants are white, even though trials are being done in more countries.
Research facilities and medicine were among the winners for science in Australia's 2018/19 national budget. The government will push to invest almost Aus$1.9 billion (US$1.4 billion) over the next 12 years in shared research infrastructure. Scientists welcome relative windfall after years of stagnating funds.
Scientific integrity needs to apply to how researchers treat people, not just to how they handle data.
International research collaborations could end in wake of US President Donald Trump’s decision.
Twenty years on, Dave Reay speaks out about the depression that almost sunk his Ph.D., and the lifelines that saved him.
Funders should assign research grants via a lottery system to reduce human bias, says Dorothy Bishop.
The Wellcome Trust vows to pull grants if researchers or institutions do not abide by its new misconduct policy.
Virtual- and augmented-reality tools allow researchers to view and share data as never before. But so far, they remain largely the tools of early adopters.
The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
Magdalena Skipper, who is currently editor-in-chief of the open-access journal Nature Communications, will become the eighth editor of Nature. She will take over from Philip Campbell, who will move to the newly created post of editor in chief at publisher Springer Nature on 1 July.
Making data available to the larger scientific community has many benefits.
Five researchers share their stories and advice on how to maintain good mental health in the hyper-competitive environment of science.
The isolated nation publishes fewer than 100 scholarly articles a year - but as political tensions thaw, researchers hope for greater collaboration.
Images from Landsat satellites and agricultural-survey programme are freely available to scientists - but for how long?
Artificial intelligence could speed up metagenomic studies that look for species unknown to science.
