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"Ich habe meine Vorbehalte gegen diese ewige Forderung nach Transparenz"

"Ich habe meine Vorbehalte gegen diese ewige Forderung nach Transparenz"

Antonio Loprieno, Rektor der Uni Basel, im Interview

NIH plans to enhance reproducibility

NIH plans to enhance reproducibility

Francis S. Collins and Lawrence A. Tabak discuss initiatives that the US National Institutes of Health is exploring to restore the self-correcting nature of preclinical research.

Data sharing will pay dividends

Data sharing will pay dividends

As public pressure builds for drug companies to make more results available from clinical trials, the industry should not forget that it relies on collective goodwill to test new therapies.

The greater good

The greater good

Governments, funding agencies and universities must all do their bit to ensure that research is appropriately assessed and rewarded.

The DIY dilemma

The DIY dilemma

The do-it-yourself-biology movement has an image problem. More commonly called DIYbio, it tends to conjure up pictures of T-shirt-clad misfits marshalling limited scientific skill in their basements as they try to make cool-but-fringe things such as glow-in-the-dark plants.

Enemy of the good

Enemy of the good

Who are the outstanding mentors of young researchers? Since 2005, Nature has awarded an annual prize for scientific mentoring, rotating through a variety of countries.

The missing piece to changing the university culture

The missing piece to changing the university culture

A new type of initiative is empowering graduate students and postdocs to reshape their academic training, providing another avenue to express their passion for research.

PLOS profits prompt revamp

PLOS profits prompt revamp

Elizabeth Marincola, PLOS's chief executive, says that the future of science publishing is not in branded, highly selective titles. Instead, she sees a world in which article metrics and community judgements help the cream of research to rise to the top.

SpotOn Conference London 2013

SpotOn Conference London 2013

A collection of talks given last week at the London SpotOn conference 2013 on science communication and peer review.

Large NIH projects cut

Large NIH projects cut

Big science is under big pressure at the NIH. Gone are the glory days of the early 2000s, when a doubling of the agency's budget over five years allowed it to establish dozens of programmes with their own large, dedicated budgets.

Preprints come to life

Preprints come to life

What are biologists so afraid of? Physicists, mathematicians and social scientists routinely post their research to preprint servers such as arXiv.org before publication, yet few life scientists follow suit. A website that goes live this week is hoping to change that.

SpotOn London 2013

SpotOn London 2013

Join us at this year's SpotOn London conference on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th November. Now celebrating its sixth year, SpotOn London is an annual two-day conference hosted by Nature Publishing Group for anyone interested in how science is communicated and carried out online.

High maintenance

High maintenance

The next president of the European Research Council will face the dual challenge of preserving the agency’s reputation for excellence while trying to address funding inequalities.

Peer review needs to expand so that more scientists are reviewing papers

Peer review needs to expand so that more scientists are reviewing papers

A new tool that selects peer reviewers by algorithm could make the peer review process more reliable, says Richard Price

The maze of impact metrics

The maze of impact metrics

So much science, so little time. Amid an ever-increasing mountain of research articles, data sets and other output, hard-pressed research funders and employers need shortcuts to identify and reward the work that matters.

Research evaluation: Impact

Research evaluation: Impact

Every organization that funds research wants to support science that makes a difference. But there is no simple formula for identifying truly important research. And the job is becoming more difficult.

Sao Paulo's success story

Sao Paulo's success story

The success of Sao Paulo's way of funding science has made it a model throughout Brazil: Sao Paulo produces 50 per cent of Brazilian science through FAPESP which receives one per cent of state tax revenue. The model allows for long-term planning and other states are now emulating it.