Articles in 2021

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  • Syndemic theory considers how social inequalities drive disease interaction. A new study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine how stress interacts with multiple diseases to affect quality of life in Soweto, South Africa.

    • Cassandra L. Workman
    News & Views
  • Mendenhall et al. use a locally constructed measure of stress and a mixed-methods approach to investigate a syndemic in Soweto, South Africa. Stress interacted with multiple morbidities to reduce quality of life, conditioned by illness experiences.

    • Emily Mendenhall
    • Andrew Wooyoung Kim
    • Alexander C. Tsai
    Article
  • Retractions are a key tool for maintaining the integrity of the published record. We need to recognize and reward researchers, especially early-career researchers, who do the right thing in coming forward with a request to retract research that cannot be relied upon due to honest error.

    Editorial
  • Behavioural science can enhance ocean sustainability by providing insights into illegal fishing. Current enforcement criminalizes small-scale fishers and fails to address root causes, letting large-scale illegal fishing off the hook. Efforts to address illegal fishing would benefit from more holistic behavioural research.

    • Dyhia Belhabib
    • Philippe Le Billon
    • Nathan J. Bennett
    Comment
  • COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups has recently been well observed, and is symptomatic of wider health inequalities. An approach that unites insights from sociology and medicine is the only way to address this pressing issue.

    • Norris E. Igbineweka
    • Nomathamsanqa Tshuma
    • Noémi B. A. Roy
    Comment
  • Scientific progress depends on researchers updating their beliefs when new evidence arises. McDiarmid and colleagues show that psychologists adjust their beliefs after seeing new results from a replication project. While updating is less than a Bayesian model would justify, it is not undermined by personal investment.

    • Michael Gordon
    • Thomas Pfeiffer
    News & Views
  • Scientific fieldwork can involve travel to countries where disclosing LGBTQ+ identity is unsafe. This is a significant challenge faced by LGBTQ+ scientists, writes Christina Atchison, and should be part of risk assessments and fieldwork support.

    • Christina J. Atchison
    World View
  • Subjective experience of the topic of study can bring passion and creativity to cognitive research. Micah Allen describes this as a double-edged sword, as he recalls witnessing how subjective feeling overrode hard data. But there are ways in which researchers can benefit from subjectively informed research, while guarding against its pitfalls.

    • Micah Allen
    World View
  • The international day of LGBTQ+ people in STEM, 18 November, celebrates diversity in sexuality and gender identity, and raises awareness of persisting obstacles and challenges for LGBTQ+ scientists. It is important that the scientific community, journals and publishers included, creates the conditions that allow LGBTQ+ scientists to thrive — not only today, but every day.

    Editorial
  • The coming years are likely to see slowing economic growth, which has significant consequences for developed democracies. This Perspective by Burgess et al. considers the implications of slowed growth and proposes a guided civic revival approach to addressing challenges.

    • Matthew G. Burgess
    • Amanda R. Carrico
    • Steve Vanderheiden
    Perspective
  • Greater exposure to media coverage of traumatic events is associated with greater symptoms of post-traumatic stress. A new study by Dick et al. indicates that this relationship is stronger in youth with a specific pattern of brain activation that may make them more vulnerable to the effects of trauma.

    • Lisa M. Shin
    • Samuel R. Sommers
    News & Views
  • A key question in human evolutionary genetics is whether and how natural selection has shaped the human genome. A new study by Song and colleagues uses GWAS data to examine evidence for the effects of polygenic adaptation in complex traits at different time scales.

    • Oscar Lao
    News & Views
  • Registered Reports were introduced a decade ago as a means for improving the rigour and credibility of confirmatory research. Chambers and Tzavella overview the format’s past, its current status and future developments.

    • Christopher D. Chambers
    • Loukia Tzavella
    Review Article