'Big money' grants foster 'bookkeeping' work at the expense of small-scale but potentially groundbreaking efforts, says Gary Thomas

Rather than simply demanding more open science, we should remember closure is a quite normal part of science, and instead look in detail at what's closing, when, why and to whom?

The push to replicate findings could shelve promising research and unfairly damage the reputations of careful, meticulous scientists, says Mina Bissell.

British and Australian scientists compile a list of tips to help policy makers better understand the 'imperfect nature of science'

Presidential address on why society is willing to support an endeavor as abstract and altruistic as basic scientific research and an enterprise as large and practical as the R&D enterprise as a whole.

Hours spent writing grant applications could be spent actually doing research with a grant-determining formula.

There's a little-known dirty secret in science funding; prior to World War II and the Manhattan Project, the overwhelming majority of basic research was done by corporations. Thus, the tanks, planes, materials advancements and everything else were created by the private sector.

A post highlighting some policy goals and showing how the incentive system for publishing could easily be made into an important tool for achieving them.

Crowdfunding has energised public and private sectors, says Didier Schmitt – could it reconnect science and society too?

Early career researchers need to learn how policy is made and assessed to encourage more joined-up thinking in science.

Business leaders have many reasons to complain about the budget high jinks consuming Washington, but here's one that gets too little attention: the damage automatic budget cuts are doing to basic research in America.

Universities and academics cannot live without the Research Excellence Framework, but we need to go back to a simpler form of measurement, argues Peter Scott

Researchers are rewarded for splashy findings, not for double-checking accuracy. So many scientists looking for cures to diseases have been building on ideas that aren't even true.

I am interested in copyright law, and especially interested in the inefficiencies and loopholes that have developed in a majority of creative industries as they have undergone the shift from analog to digital formats.

Relate your data to the world around them using the age-old custom of telling a story.

Science communication should be more than the dissemination of results to the public; it should also flow in the other direction, with members of the public able to communicate their priorities to scientists and those who fund them. But how?

Although approximately 50% of PhD students and postdoctoral scientists are female, males run the majority of research laboratories. Despite some reform over the past three decades, there is still an exodus of female scientists from academic research at the transitional stage between a postdoctoral researcher and laboratory head.

Rigorous analyses are needed to establish the benefits of the knowledge economy, says former Irish government science adviser Patrick Cunningham.

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.

The physicist Richard Feynman liked to gripe about what he called "Alfred Nobel's Other Mistake." The first mistake was the invention of dynamite. The second was creating the Nobel Prizes.

The events that culminated in the resignation of Bora Zivkovic from Scientific American last week demonstrate that women in science face a long struggle to root out sexism.

Peer review is one of the oldest and most respected instruments of quality control in science and research. Peer review means that a paper is evaluated by a number of experts on the topic of the article (the peers). The criteria may vary, but most of the time they include methodological and technical soundness, scientific relevance, and presentation.

Science communication should be more than the dissemination of results to the public; it should also flow in the other direction, with members of the public able to communicate their priorities to scientists and those who fund them. But how?

Many of the biggest problems in science are tackled through sustained efforts over years or decades. But if science is a long-term endeavour, why are funding and careers so fixated on the now? Guest post by Andrew Holding.

Open access to research is still held back by misunderstandings repeated by people who should know better, says Peter Suber.

An open-source approach to the problem of producing an off-patent drug in enantiopure form serves as an example of how academic and industrial researchers can join forces to make new scientific discoveries that could have a huge impact on human health.

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

Scientists like to think of science as self-correcting. To an alarming degree, it is not

Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself.

Privately owned publications threaten to cut to the bone of intellectual freedom in science, writes author.