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  • NEWS FEATURE

A mental-health crisis is gripping science — toxic research culture is to blame

With researchers reporting high rates of anxiety and depression, calls are growing to fundamentally change science before it’s too late.
  1. Shannon Hall
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Cartoon showing a giant hand placing large scientific apparatus on top of three distressed scientists

Illustration by Sébastien Thibault

There is a mental-health crisis in science — at all career stages and across the world. Graduate students are being harassed and discriminated against, paid meagre wages, bullied, overworked and sometimes sexually assaulted. It doesn’t get much better for early-career researchers struggling to land long-term employment. And established senior researchers face immense pressure to win grants, publish in high-profile journals and maintain their reputations in highly competitive fields.

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Nature 617, 666-668 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01708-4

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