Agencies must show that basic research is worth the investment
The European Research Council has begun to evaluate the impact of its grants; others should do the same.
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Scientific literature: Information overload
How to manage the research-paper deluge? Blogs, colleagues and social media can all help.
Science under siege: how Venezuela’s economic crisis is affecting researchers
Chemist Claudio Bifano tells Nature about daily life in a country gripped by hunger, scarcity and violence.
Turkey purges universities after failed coup
Political turmoil spreads to education sector.
Stop the privatization of health data
Stop the privatization of health data
Tech giants moving into health may widen inequalities and harm research, unless people can access and share their data, warn John T. Wilbanks and Eric J.
Reward the forgotten foot soldiers of science
The story of CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing has tended to focus on a few key players.
Crowdsourcing biomedical research: leveraging communities as innovation engines
Crowdsourcing biomedical research: leveraging communities as innovation engines
Crowdsourcing the analysis of complex and massive data has emerged as a framework to find robust methodologies. When the crowdsourcing is done in the form of collaborative scientific competitions, known as Challenges, the validation of the methods is inherently addressed.
Watch out for cheats in citation game
The focus on impact of published research has created new opportunities for misconduct and fraudsters, says Mario Biagioli.
Keep it moving
A postdoc job is good for your career, but don't get stuck in an academic cul-de-sac, says Søren-Peter Olesen.
Beat it, impact factor! Publishing elite turns against controversial metric
Senior staff at Nature, Science and other journals want to end inappropriate use of the measure.
Back to the thesis
Late nights, typos, self-doubt and despair. Francis Collins, Sara Seager and Uta Frith dust off their theses, and reflect on what the PhD was like for them.
Obama’s top scientist talks shrinking budgets, Donald Trump, and his biggest regret
What’s the point of the PhD thesis?
Doctoral courses are slowly being modernized. Now the thesis and viva need to catch up.
Let’s make peer review scientific
Let’s make peer review scientific
Thirty years on from the first congress on peer review, Drummond Rennie reflects on the improvements brought about by research into the process — and calls for more.
ArXiv preprint server plans multimillion-dollar overhaul
Users urge caution in revamp of service at the heart of physics.
Global Research Council: Commit to equity for women researchers
Heads of research agencies from nearly 50 countries — large and small, with developed and emerging economies — adopted a Statement of Principles and Actions Promoting the Equality and Status of Women in Research at the Global Research Council's fifth annual meeting last month in New Delhi.
Interdisciplinary research has consistently lower funding success
An analysis of Australian Research Council data reveals grant proposals that integrate a broad array of academic fields are less likely to be funded.
Publisher under fire for fake article webpages
'Trap’ URLs can help publishers to catch automated downloading, but critics say that the approach is clumsy.
Meet the challenge of interdisciplinary science
Problems of modern society demand collaborative research.
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