Featured
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Career Feature |
My PI yelled at me and I’m devastated. What do I do?
It can be hard when junior scientists feel unsupported. Nature asked three scientists for their advice on how to respond.
- Nikki Forrester
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Nature Index |
Plagiarism in peer-review reports could be the ‘tip of the iceberg’
Researchers say swathe of copied text could indicate a widespread problem.
- Jackson Ryan
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Editorial |
Why it’s essential to study sex and gender, even as tensions rise
Some scholars are reluctant to research sex and gender out of fear that their studies will be misused. In a series of specially commissioned articles, Nature encourages scientists to engage.
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Nature Index |
Algorithm ranks peer reviewers by reputation — but critics warn of bias
There are questions about whether the tool, which could be used by editors to find and shortlist peer reviewers, would disadvantage inexperienced candidates or those in certain locations.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
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Nature Index |
Researchers want a ‘nutrition label’ for academic-paper facts
An ‘at a glance’ approach to publication details, such as journal acceptance rates and the number of peer reviewers, would promote transparency, scientists say.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
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Spotlight |
How young people benefit from Swiss apprenticeships
Computational biologist Jitao David Zhang says that the country’s vocational training programme teaches key work and life skills.
- Jitao David Zhang
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Career Column |
How we landed job interviews for professorships straight out of our PhD programmes
Follow these tips for an uber-organized (and successful) job hunt.
- Violeta Rodriguez
- & Qimin Liu
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Career Column |
How two PhD students overcame the odds to snag tenure-track jobs
Between us, we got several offers to lead labs before we had finished our PhDs.
- Violeta Rodriguez
- & Qimin Liu
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Correspondence |
Adopt universal standards for study adaptation to boost health, education and social-science research
- Dragos Iliescu
- & Samuel Greiff
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Correspondence |
How can we make PhD training fit for the modern world? Broaden its philosophical foundations
- Ganesh Alagarasan
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Correspondence |
Allow researchers with caring responsibilities ‘promotion pauses’ to make research more equitable
- Daniel H. Lowenstein
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Career Feature |
Africa’s postdoc workforce is on the rise — but at what cost?
Will a growth in postdoctoral positions across Africa cause bottlenecks, replicating the career-progression challenges faced by scientists elsewhere?
- Linda Nordling
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Where I Work |
How I use tide gauges to develop geospatial maps
Geographer Muh Aris Marfai collects reference data for Indonesia’s coastal areas to prepare for the impacts of climate change.
- Nikki Forrester
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Correspondence |
Superconductivity case shows the need for zero tolerance of toxic lab culture
- Juan Pablo Fuenzalida Werner
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Correspondence |
Cuts to postgraduate funding threaten Brazilian science — again
- Marcus F. Oliveira
- & Adriane R. Todeschini
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Career Q&A |
The beauty of what science can do when urgently needed
Working amid New York City’s pandemic response inspired Nili Ostrov’s approach to expanding the list of organisms that can be used in synthetic biology and engineering.
- Katherine Bourzac
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Nature Index |
Larger or longer grants unlikely to push senior scientists towards high-risk, high-reward work
A survey of US professors suggests that broad changes to grant schemes might be needed to incentivize new approaches to research.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
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Nature Index |
Is AI ready to mass-produce lay summaries of research articles?
A surge in tools that generate text is allowing research papers to be summarized for a broad audience, and in any language. But scientists caution that major challenges remain.
- Kamal Nahas
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News |
Is the Mars rover’s rock collection worth $11 billion?
Budget woes force NASA to reassess Perseverance’s travel plan, and seek cheaper ways of getting samples back to Earth.
- Alexandra Witze
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Career Column |
People, passion, publishable: an early-career researcher’s checklist for prioritizing projects
Stuck between several lines of research? Here’s how we decide which ones to pursue, say Elizabeth Tenney, Jacqueline Chen and McKenzie Preston.
- Elizabeth Tenney
- , Jacqueline M. Chen
- & McKenzie Preston
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Nature Index |
Peer-replication model aims to address science’s ‘reproducibility crisis’
Researchers propose that independent attempts to replicate results should complement conventional peer review.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Career Column |
Being a parent is a hidden scientific superpower — here’s why
My lack of time and fresh perspective has made me a better, more focused scientist, says nutrition epidemiologist Lindsey Smith Taillie.
- Lindsey Smith Taillie
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Editorial |
Nature publishes too few papers from women researchers — that must change
This journal will double down on efforts to diversify the pool of corresponding authors and referees.
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Perspective |
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actually do.
- Lisa Messeri
- & M. J. Crockett
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News Feature |
What science says about hybrid working — and how to make it a success
How researchers can maximize creativity and connection in the ‘new normal’.
- David Adam
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Career Column |
How I made my lab meetings more inclusive with a rapid-relay technique
Johanna Joyce’s use of the ‘flashlight’ method has helped her lab members to connect and be more mindful about their science.
- Johanna Joyce
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Nature Index |
How institutions can tap into research managers’ potential
The editors of a book exploring the perspectives of research managers talk about how policymakers and institutional leaders can better support these essential professionals.
- Bec Crew
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Editorial |
Why it would be a dangerous folly to end US–China science pact
With renewal of the two countries’ decades-long science pact still on hold, there is too much talk about the risks of collaboration — and too little about the benefits.
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Career Q&A |
I help researchers build fantastic funding proposals — here’s how
Glòria García-Negredo supports scientists who are writing grant applications, and creates links between research groups.
- Miles Lizak
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Career News |
‘This is exclusion’: Florida law restricts hiring of researchers from seven countries
Policy that prohibits partnerships between state universities and ‘countries of concern’, including China, will erode competitiveness, faculty members say.
- Amanda Heidt
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News |
China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct
Universities must declare all their retractions and launch investigations into misconduct cases; a Nature analysis reveals that since 2021 there have been more than 17,000 retractions with Chinese co-authors.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Career Feature |
Could roving researchers help address the challenge of taking parental leave?
Institutions are taking notice of a handful of programmes designed to address the issues scientists face when choosing to take a long-term absence.
- Amy Coombs
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Correspondence |
Best practice for LGBTQ+ data collection by STEM organizations
- Alexander L. Bond
- & Tyler L. Kelly
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Editorial |
Open science — embrace it before it’s too late
A UNESCO report laments the lack of progress in making science more collaborative. Greater awareness could aid efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
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News |
JWST is most in-demand telescope ever — leaving many astronomers in the cold
Reviewers will probably approve only one in every nine research proposals submitted in latest application cycle.
- Rahul Rao
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Career Column |
How to enhance lab-team efficiency with tools from the tech industry
Using freely available software can help to maximize productivity and avoid collaboration pain points.
- Lathan Liou
- & Akshay Swaminathan
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Career Feature |
How co-working labs reduce costs and accelerate progress for biotech start-ups
Shared lab spaces provide a streamlined launchpad, offering benches as well as a diverse network of industry mentors.
- Rachel Brazil
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News |
Leading US particle-physics lab faces uncertain future
Several organizations are vying for the contract to manage Fermilab, after it received failing grades from the US Department of Energy.
- Dan Garisto
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Career Feature |
The open-science movement for sharing laboratory materials gains momentum
Many researchers support open science, but how can they translate this view into behaviours to boost sharing?
- Andy Tay
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Correspondence |
Does generative AI help academics to do more or less?
- Richard Watermeyer
- , Donna Lanclos
- & Lawrie Phipps
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Career Column |
Organize your –80 °C freezer to save time and prevent frozen fingertips
Start the new year by sorting out your lab’s cold storage, to simplify purchasing, improve experiment planning and reduce the frequency of lost samples.
- Kelsey Alexandra Woodruff
- & Christina Marie Termini
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Career Column |
Start 2024 by asking: ‘Why do science?’
Step back from the usual lab-meeting format, and ask yourself and your colleagues why you all do what you do, say Mirko Treccani and Laura Veschetti.
- Mirko Treccani
- & Laura Veschetti
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Career Feature |
If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools
Three researchers who went out on a limb to bridge a gap in their field talk to Nature about how and why they went about designing their own, unique devices — and the challenges involved.
- Rachael Pells
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Spotlight |
How high-impact papers from Indian researchers are shaping science
Studies to tackle air quality in Delhi and solve the mystery of an emerging pathogen are among those helping to raise the profile of Indian science.
- Michael Eisenstein
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World View |
How to make data open? Stop overlooking librarians
Digital archivists are already experts at tackling the complex challenges of making research data open and accessible. We can help to smooth the transition.
- Jessica Farrell
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Career Column |
How to slay zombie research projects and move on
Find time to kill tasks that aren’t progressing, and beware taking on ones with unrealistic deadlines or deliverables.
- A. R. Siders
- , Nicola Ulibarri
- & Rebecca L. Nelson
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News |
Massive shake-up of French science system is biggest in decades
Billion-euro plan includes greater oversight for national research institutes and the creation of a top-level council to advise the president on science.
- Barbara Casassus
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Nature Index |
Women who travel boost research networks at home — but only in countries with high gender equity
Researchers moving between institutions in low- and middle-income countries can confer wide-reaching benefits on their colleagues.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Nature Index |
US agency launches experiments to find innovative ways to fund research
Caleb Watney explains how the National Science Foundation’s ‘science of science’ programme will find efficiencies and support ‘high-risk, high-reward’ studies.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
France’s research mega-campus faces leadership crisis