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Social-progress panel seeks public comment
Marc Fleurbaey and colleagues explain why and how 300 scholars in the social sciences and humanities are collaborating to synthesize knowledge for policymakers.
The ups and downs of data sharing in science
The ups and downs of data sharing in science
Pooling clinical details helps doctors to diagnose rare diseases — but more sharing is needed.
First CRISPR clinical trial gets green light from US panel
The technique's first test in people could begin as early as the end of the year.
'Ransomware' cyberattack highlights vulnerability of universities
Staff at Canadian university given little guidance on how to mitigate future problems.
A code of conduct for data on epidemics
A code of conduct for data on epidemics
As a long-term champion of open-access research data on pandemic viruses and a member of the Italian Parliament, I urge Brazil to hasten the reform of its current biosecurity legislation. This would enable sharing of vital Zika virus samples and information, as recently called for by the World Health Organization…
Reproducibility: Archive computer code with raw data
Software tools such as knitr and R Markdown allow the description and code of a statistical analysis to be combined into a single document, providing a pipeline from the raw data to the final results and figures. Outputs are updated by re-running the scripts using version-control tools such as Git and GitHub.
Predatory journals: Ban predators from the scientific record
Universities and colleges should stop using the quantity of published articles as a measure of academic performance. Researchers and respectable journals should not cite articles from predatory journals, and academic library databases should exclude metadata for such publications.
Boon or burden: what has the EU ever done for science?
More than 500 million people and 28 nations make up the European Union. It will lose one of its richest, most populous members, if the United Kingdom votes to leave on 23 June. Ahead of a possible ‘Brexit’, Nature examines five core ways that the EU shapes the course of research.
Muddled meanings hamper efforts to fix reproducibility crisis
Researchers tease out different definitions of a crucial scientific term.
Gene editing can drive science to openness
The fast-moving field of gene-drive research provides an opportunity to rewrite the rules of the science, says Kevin Esvelt.
Lessons from researcher rehab
Common compliance situations can get good researchers into trouble, warn James M. DuBois and colleagues.
Lab Wars, a game of scientific sabotage
Two researchers today launch a game that captures this anarchic spirit. Board-game fans Caezar Al-Jassar, a postdoc at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and Kuly Heer, a clinical psychologist, have designed the card game Lab Wars to represent the scientific rat race, with extra sabotage.
Government slammed for losing track of its own research
Government can't say how many policy studies it paid for or published, report reveals.
Plan to synthesize human genome elicits mixed response
Some admire project's ambition; others say it hasn't justified its aims.
The developing world needs basic research too
The establishment of an agency in Indonesia that will support 'frontier research' is a welcome development, argues Dyna Rochmyaningsih.
Open-access journal eLife gets £25 million boost
Biology's big funders announce investment will continue to 2022.
Digital forensics: from the crime lab to the library
Archivists are borrowing and adapting techniques used in criminal investigations to access data and files created in now-obsolete systems.
Crunch time
Overtime pay for postdoctoral scientists is welcome — but could mean fewer positions.
1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility
Survey sheds light on the ‘crisis’ rocking research.
Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness
Drug researcher David Nutt discusses brain-imaging studies with hallucinogens and how he needed to crowdfund the resources to analyse the data.
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