nature | ScienceGeist

Send us a link

Why Paying Peer Reviewers Works, According to a Journal's Editor-in-chief

A biology journal that paid peer reviewers found that the approach cut the time to a first editorial decision by 85% and maintained high-quality reviews.

nature

Read this article

News

Science Communication

Science Culture

Scientists Should Recognize Their Own Political Biases to Build Public Trust

nature

Science Communication

Science Culture

Scientists Should Recognize Their Own Political Biases to Build Public Trust

Public trust in science can't be sustained by the support of narrow constituencies at one end of an ideological spectrum.

Read this article

Why Science Needs the Humanities More Than Ever

Why Science Needs the Humanities More Than Ever

From AI to biotechnology, today’s scientific breakthroughs raise ethical and social challenges that technical expertise alone cannot solve.

Read this article

Brexit Tore Apart European Science - Now the Research Rifts Are Healing

nature

Collaboration

Funding

Brexit Tore Apart European Science - Now the Research Rifts Are Healing

The UK's share of EU research funding is climbing, but lost networks will be harder to recover.

nature

Read this article

Opinion

Collaboration

Europe is Ditching US Tech - What Does This Mean for Researchers?

nature

Collaboration

Europe is Ditching US Tech - What Does This Mean for Researchers?

European governments are choosing European digital tools - and some universities and researchers are doing the same.

nature

Read this article

News

Journals

Tool Flags Suspicious Journals Before Researchers Submit Papers

nature

Journals

Tool Flags Suspicious Journals Before Researchers Submit Papers

The free platform, called Journal Trends, could also allow integrity sleuths to spot low-quality publications.

Read this article

First and Last Authors More Likely to Be Men in Leading Science Journals

nature

Gender

Publishing

First and Last Authors More Likely to Be Men in Leading Science Journals

Women's participation in science has risen sharply, but a Nature Index analysis finds that gender gaps in first and last authorship - markers of key scientific achievements - have barely shifted over the past decade.

Read this article

Nature is Expanding Registered Reports to All the Fields in Which We Publish

nature

Research

Publishing

Nature is Expanding Registered Reports to All the Fields in Which We Publish

Registered Reports improve the credibility of scientific claims by rewarding big questions, sound methods and solid analyses. They need to become a standard tool in research.

nature

Read this article

News

Funding

White House Proposes Vast Overhaul of US Science Funding: What You Need to Know

nature

Funding

White House Proposes Vast Overhaul of US Science Funding: What You Need to Know

The Trump administration's proposal aims to improve transparency in federal funding, but critics fear the proposed rules would politicize research

Read this article

Why It's Time to Bin Recommendation Letters in Science Job Applications

Why It's Time to Bin Recommendation Letters in Science Job Applications

If hiring organizations must ask for references, they should do so closer to the end of the process.

nature

Read this article

Publications

Early Career Researchers

Mentoring

Mental Health

Science Culture

Poor Supervision is Pushing Young Researchers out of Academia

nature

Early Career Researchers

Mentoring

Mental Health

Science Culture

Poor Supervision is Pushing Young Researchers out of Academia

A survey finds that academic supervisors can have a huge impact on their students' mental health.

nature

Read this article

Opinion

Social Sciences

Will AI Ruin the Social Sciences - or Revolutionize Them?

nature

Social Sciences

Will AI Ruin the Social Sciences - or Revolutionize Them?

The technology can whip up spurious findings and pollute survey responses, but it could also make research more rigorous.

Read this article

Robots Run This Laboratory in Japan - And Are Changing How Scientists Work

nature

Infrastructures

Japan

Robots Run This Laboratory in Japan - And Are Changing How Scientists Work

Researchers hope to build a facility with thousands of robots capable of performing experiments independently by 2040.

Read this article

Innovation Starts in Schools - Lessons from China

Innovation Starts in Schools - Lessons from China

Countries that want successful innovation systems must invest in science education and science teachers.

Read this article

NIH Ousts Infectious-disease Leaders As COVID Scientists Face US Charges

NIH Ousts Infectious-disease Leaders As COVID Scientists Face US Charges

Eight of the top ten officials at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office.

Read this article

Tough Peer-review Process? Your Paper Might End Up Being More Highly Cited

Tough Peer-review Process? Your Paper Might End Up Being More Highly Cited

An AI-led analysis of publicly available peer-review reports links requests for major revisions with papers that end up having high impact.

nature

Read this article

News

Intellectual Property

Technology

Publishing

Elsevier Vs Meta: First Science Publisher Sues over Scraped Research Papers

nature

Intellectual Property

Technology

Publishing

Elsevier Vs Meta: First Science Publisher Sues over Scraped Research Papers

Science publishing giant Elsevier has joined a class-action lawsuit against Meta that alleges the reproduction of copyrighted works in developing the Llama AI model.

Read this article

NIH Grant Cuts Disproportionately Hit Minority and Female Scientists

NIH Grant Cuts Disproportionately Hit Minority and Female Scientists

A survey reveals sharp divides in who bore the brunt of last year's spree of grant cancellations by the Trump administration.

nature

Read this article

News

Peer Review

First AI Tool to Detect Suspicious Peer Reviews Rolled out by Academic Publisher

nature

Peer Review

First AI Tool to Detect Suspicious Peer Reviews Rolled out by Academic Publisher

Artificial-intelligence tool spots copied peer reviews, helping to uncover fraud in academic publishing.

Read this article

Early-career Researchers Do More 'disruptive' Science Than Veterans

Early-career Researchers Do More 'disruptive' Science Than Veterans

Analysis of papers from millions of scientists shows that older researchers tend to stick with ideas from their past.

Read this article

Responses to the AI Grant Flood Must Prioritize Fairness As Part of Excellence

nature

Funding

Evaluation

Responses to the AI Grant Flood Must Prioritize Fairness As Part of Excellence

Research funding agencies are battling a wave of AI-assisted applications. Countermeasures should not entrench existing power structures.

Read this article

Prestigious European Science Funder Scraps Stricter Rules After Researcher Backlash

Prestigious European Science Funder Scraps Stricter Rules After Researcher Backlash

The tough new policy was introduced to curb submissions, but drew criticism from researchers.

nature

Read this article

News

Publishing

How Much of the Scientific Literature is Generated by AI?

nature

Publishing

How Much of the Scientific Literature is Generated by AI?

Tools for reliably estimating what artificial intelligence is being used for are still lacking.

Read this article

Key US Science Panels Are Being Axed - and Others Are Becoming Less Open

nature

Science

Politics

Key US Science Panels Are Being Axed - and Others Are Becoming Less Open

A Nature analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies - and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain.

Read this article

Could Agentic AI Topple Grant-Funding Systems?

Could Agentic AI Topple Grant-Funding Systems?

Funders must take action before an increase in submission of high-quality proposals written using AI models makes it impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff.

nature

Read this article

News

Funding

US Lawmakers Vote to Reduce Science Spending - But Reject Trump's Massive Cuts

nature

Funding

US Lawmakers Vote to Reduce Science Spending - But Reject Trump's Massive Cuts

A draft bill would preserve NASA's overall funding but downsize the National Science Foundation's budget by 20%.

Read this article

AI Doom Warnings Are Getting Louder. Are They Realistic?

nature

Technology

Risk

AI Doom Warnings Are Getting Louder. Are They Realistic?

Researchers are increasingly sounding the alarm that artificial intelligence could end humanity. But such doomsday warnings carry their own risks.

Read this article

'Staggering' Number of People Believe Unproven Claims About Vaccines, Raw Milk and More

nature

Public Health

Trust

'Staggering' Number of People Believe Unproven Claims About Vaccines, Raw Milk and More

Survey results suggest a rise in questioning of scientific evidence.

Read this article

Reproducibility and Robustness of Economics and Political Science Research

nature

Reproducibility

SSH

Reproducibility and Robustness of Economics and Political Science Research

Robustness checks and reproduction of analyses with existing and updated data based on 110 articles in economics and political science journals with data and code-sharing requirements found high levels of robustness and reproducibility and determined that robustness was not dependent on author characteristics or data availability.

Read this article

NSF Awards Record Number of Coveted PhD Fellowships in Surprise Move

nature

Funding

Careers

NSF Awards Record Number of Coveted PhD Fellowships in Surprise Move

Quantum science and AI research are big winners just a year after the US funding giant slashed its Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards in half.

nature

Read this article

Subscribe to nature

Subscribe to our newsletter

Send us a link

Why Paying Peer Reviewers Works, According to a Journal's Editor-in-chief

Why Paying Peer Reviewers Works, According to a Journal's Editor-in-chief

Scientists Should Recognize Their Own Political Biases to Build Public Trust

Scientists Should Recognize Their Own Political Biases to Build Public Trust

Why Science Needs the Humanities More Than Ever

Why Science Needs the Humanities More Than Ever

Brexit Tore Apart European Science - Now the Research Rifts Are Healing

Brexit Tore Apart European Science - Now the Research Rifts Are Healing

Europe is Ditching US Tech - What Does This Mean for Researchers?

Europe is Ditching US Tech - What Does This Mean for Researchers?

Tool Flags Suspicious Journals Before Researchers Submit Papers

Tool Flags Suspicious Journals Before Researchers Submit Papers

First and Last Authors More Likely to Be Men in Leading Science Journals

First and Last Authors More Likely to Be Men in Leading Science Journals

Nature is Expanding Registered Reports to All the Fields in Which We Publish

Nature is Expanding Registered Reports to All the Fields in Which We Publish

White House Proposes Vast Overhaul of US Science Funding: What You Need to Know

White House Proposes Vast Overhaul of US Science Funding: What You Need to Know

Why It's Time to Bin Recommendation Letters in Science Job Applications

Why It's Time to Bin Recommendation Letters in Science Job Applications

Poor Supervision is Pushing Young Researchers out of Academia

Poor Supervision is Pushing Young Researchers out of Academia

Will AI Ruin the Social Sciences - or Revolutionize Them?

Will AI Ruin the Social Sciences - or Revolutionize Them?

Robots Run This Laboratory in Japan - And Are Changing How Scientists Work

Robots Run This Laboratory in Japan - And Are Changing How Scientists Work

Innovation Starts in Schools - Lessons from China

Innovation Starts in Schools - Lessons from China

NIH Ousts Infectious-disease Leaders As COVID Scientists Face US Charges

NIH Ousts Infectious-disease Leaders As COVID Scientists Face US Charges

Tough Peer-review Process? Your Paper Might End Up Being More Highly Cited

Tough Peer-review Process? Your Paper Might End Up Being More Highly Cited

Elsevier Vs Meta: First Science Publisher Sues over Scraped Research Papers

Elsevier Vs Meta: First Science Publisher Sues over Scraped Research Papers

NIH Grant Cuts Disproportionately Hit Minority and Female Scientists

NIH Grant Cuts Disproportionately Hit Minority and Female Scientists

First AI Tool to Detect Suspicious Peer Reviews Rolled out by Academic Publisher

First AI Tool to Detect Suspicious Peer Reviews Rolled out by Academic Publisher

Early-career Researchers Do More 'disruptive' Science Than Veterans

Early-career Researchers Do More 'disruptive' Science Than Veterans

Responses to the AI Grant Flood Must Prioritize Fairness As Part of Excellence

Responses to the AI Grant Flood Must Prioritize Fairness As Part of Excellence

Prestigious European Science Funder Scraps Stricter Rules After Researcher Backlash

Prestigious European Science Funder Scraps Stricter Rules After Researcher Backlash

How Much of the Scientific Literature is Generated by AI?

How Much of the Scientific Literature is Generated by AI?

Key US Science Panels Are Being Axed - and Others Are Becoming Less Open

Key US Science Panels Are Being Axed - and Others Are Becoming Less Open

Could Agentic AI Topple Grant-Funding Systems?

Could Agentic AI Topple Grant-Funding Systems?

US Lawmakers Vote to Reduce Science Spending - But Reject Trump's Massive Cuts

US Lawmakers Vote to Reduce Science Spending - But Reject Trump's Massive Cuts

AI Doom Warnings Are Getting Louder. Are They Realistic?

AI Doom Warnings Are Getting Louder. Are They Realistic?

'Staggering' Number of People Believe Unproven Claims About Vaccines, Raw Milk and More

'Staggering' Number of People Believe Unproven Claims About Vaccines, Raw Milk and More

Reproducibility and Robustness of Economics and Political Science Research

Reproducibility and Robustness of Economics and Political Science Research

NSF Awards Record Number of Coveted PhD Fellowships in Surprise Move

NSF Awards Record Number of Coveted PhD Fellowships in Surprise Move