Apply the legal ‘true malice’ principle to protect research-misconduct sleuths
Nature, Published online: 30 December 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04230-3 Apply the legal ‘true malice’ principle to protect research-misconduct sleuths
Can novelty scores on papers shift the power dynamics in scientific publishing?
Novelty scores can help journals to predict whether a manuscript will be impactful.Credit: PRUDENCIOALVAREZ/iStock via Getty A publication platform called DeSci Publish aims to predict the impact of manuscripts by giving them a ‘novelty score’. The developers say that this score could assist journal editors in deciding which studies to publish, and could be an […]
I help researchers to measure methane at a local level so that we can make global changes
“I work for the Clean Air Task Force, a non-profit organization in Boston, Massachusetts, which aims to reduce the emissions that cause climate change by promoting and distributing the latest energy technology. It also pushes for policy changes in organizations and governments around the world. I focus on methane, which can be 80 times more […]
A guide to the Nature Index
The Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The index tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural-science and health-science journals, chosen based on reputation by an independent group of researchers. The Nature Index provides absolute and fractional counts of article publication at the institutional and national level and, as […]
Raising a glass to the Four Friends Doing Science journal club
Nature, Published online: 28 November 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03534-8 Four researchers who left Serbia to pursue their careers rely on this group to keep in touch and to navigate life in science.
creative solutions for time-starved researchers
Illustrations: Richard L. Tillotson Art and science have a long and intertwined history. During his five-year research trip on HMS BeagleCharles Darwin drew his own finches; and Marianne North, his contemporary, was both a prolific painter and a botanist who set up a dedicated gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. Their artistic […]
Let the data talk: embrace exploratory research
Attending a psychology conference this month, I was struck by an unsettling trend in social-science research. The abstract book revealed that nearly all of the 1,500 posters and talks related to some kind of confirmatory work — using statistical analyses to test an existing hypothesis. Hardly any reported the sort of open-ended exploratory research needed […]
How I’m creating career opportunities for researchers back home in Mexico
David Posner (at lectern) introduces his plan to bring students from Mexico’s Vasco de Quiroga University to Cambridge, UK, for a research stay.Credit: Pedro Andres Garcia Escamilla Born in the United States to a Mexican mum and a UK–US dad, I grew up in Mexico but relocated back to the United States in 2012, aged […]
I had three children during my PhD: here’s what I learnt
Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg’s three children were all born while she worked towards her PhD.Credit: Weile’s Foto I’ll never forget when I was sitting in a lecture hall, overhearing fellow students behind me discussing how having a baby during graduate school is “career suicide”. When I stood up, revealing my 30-week bump, their shocked expressions spoke […]
Should I climb the career ladder as a manager, or will I regret leaving the lab bench behind?
Illustration: David Parkins The problem Dear Nature, I am a chemical engineer with a PhD, working in the food industry. I’m at a point in my career where I need to decide whether I want a managerial career path or should stick with technical, problem-solving work in research and development. My biggest worry is that, […]