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The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have funded an increasing number of grants from young investigators with merit scores below the payline. This policy is critical for retaining and encouraging our future scientific base.
A recent report by the National Academy of Science makes recommendations for ensuring the integrity of research data. Critically, it also highlights the urgent issues regarding the preservation of large datasets.
We urge greater awareness of the potential genetic and environmental confounds involved in designing and interpreting studies with mice, and encourage the accurate reporting of the study's design.
A new initiative aims to jump-start drug development for psychiatric diseases by inviting neuroscientists with unconventional ideas to avail themselves of an established high-throughput chemical screening platform.
President Obama recently called for more scientist involvement in education. Science outreach programs are very welcome, but to be effective, they must include incentives for teachers and better training for scientist volunteers.
The UCLA community, together with the UK-based Pro-test movement and the US campaign group Speaking of Research, is organizing a demonstration in support of animal research. The experience of scientists in the UK suggests that this approach can help stem the tide of rising violence against researchers.
In 2008, Nature Neuroscience joined a community consortium aimed at making peer review more efficient by allowing reviews to be transferred between consortium journals. We look back at our experience with the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium over the last year.
Scientists should have a more active role in encouraging meaningful reporting of science in the popular media. This is all the more crucial given that there are now fewer experienced science reporters and a greater demand for transparency.
Understanding the exact link between functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neural activity is critical to bridge the widening gap between neuroimagers and cellular neuroscientists.
Scientific publishing depends on expert peer reviewers. Instead of perpetually arguing about the reliability and fairness of peer review, authors, editors and referees should seek to optimize this time-tested system.
