Researcher (junior)

Narratives describing research in departments should be replaced by institution-level document, recommends funder-backed study

More innovative screening of grant applications that avoid full peer review could remove red tape burden on researchers, says Adam Tickell

Doctoral training centre sorry for email suggesting doctoral students work in fields and sell cosmetics to make ends meet

Formula-driven funding for those hardest hit by deadlock with EU and more fellowship money unveiled under ‘Plan B’ road map

Rapid erosion of value of £9,250 is ‘stretching unit of resource to breaking point’ and will require new legislation, says Jo Johnson

‘Unclear’ status of main UK science funder has led to slow decision-making, inefficiency and limited cross-disciplinary research, finds report

Ilan Gur and Matt Clifford will lead UK’s new ‘high risk, high reward’ scientific research agency

Long-term settlement for Francis Crick Institute announced by PM ‘maintains current levels of activity’

Empty podiums, low engagement from speakers and higher costs have led events large and small to rethink combining online and physical gatherings

Companies built on university-based research twice as likely to succeed if they receive Innovate UK backing, study suggests

Research England unveils substantial uplifts for both quality-related research funding and knowledge exchange activities

‘DragonBear’ alliance may force Western universities to cancel research partnerships with China, says former science minister Lord Johnson

The Canadian botanist who discovered the ‘wisdom of trees’ reflects on the growing enthusiasm for her work and why scientists should get emotional about their research

New citation study overturns long-held belief that science is no laughing matter

Temporary deal arrives on day of UK’s new open access policy, but raises issue of paying high price for ‘ego trip’ of Nature publication

Only a handful of UK universities maximised their public profiles during the pandemic because press officers were diverted towards internal crises or social media engagement, says Fiona Fox

Widespread withholding of potentially negative results has allowed misleading evidence reviews to gain traction, says study author

Members lack expertise and groupthink is a constant peril. Better to entrust scrutiny to expert lawyers and ethicists, says Adrian Furnham

Complicity of Russian universities in the savage assault on Ukraine must lead to severe punishments, write four Ukrainian academics

Standard mentoring is not enough if we want a resilient, compassionate and happy research workforce, says Mark Reed

Around one in 12 postgraduate researchers would publish fraudulent results if it helped them get ahead, says study

A joint EU-AU document places universities in the vanguard of increased intercontinental collaboration, says Jan Palmowski

Scientists should strive for real impact, not to impress a panel of busy peers, with their agendas, biases and blind spots, says Pedro Domingos 

Senior academics who flatter juniors and promulgate a high-minded vision of higher education are all in recruitment mode, says Harvey Graff

Publishers need to examine their biases and universities their support mechanisms, say Avi Staiman, Marnie Jo Petray and Gaillynn Clements

Comparison with current data suggests government proposals are ‘not exactly a revolution in the funding balance’, say experts

Accurate reporting of results is important, but meaning is rarely distorted by orthographic or grammatical slips, says Adrian Furnham

As the pandemic increases public scrutiny of science, the UK Parliament is holding another inquiry into the long-running issue of reproducibility. Five of its contributors give their views on how sloppy science can be eliminated and trust be more firmly rooted 

Pushing the ARC to focus on commercialisation neglects the complex interdependency between basic and applied research, says Duncan Ivison

UK higher education says it wants diversity, but its treatment of early career researchers suggests otherwise, says Edda Nicolson

Coyness, contention and competing agendas all hamper historians and sociologists of sex. Matthew Reisz speaks to those who choose, nevertheless, to probe this most sensitive and intimate of subjects

A push to end the habit of assessing researchers by their publication metrics is gaining momentum. But are journal impact factors really as meaningless as is claimed? And will requiring scientists to describe their various contributions really improve fairness and rigour – or just bureaucracy? Jack Grove reports

Both researchers and journalists should adopt a more agnostic lens when confronted with novel findings, says Anne-Laure Sellier

The UK’s whole-genome sequencing project could spark a global step change in the treatment of rare diseases, says Damian Smedley

The abolition of publishers and the bypassing of Big Tech is a prerequisite for maximising the power of science, says Andy Farnell

Shifting fields takes courage, but if a tenured professor can’t take the leap to address the ecological emergency, who can, asks Adam Aron

The crisis in peer reviewing can be overcome if journals and universities do more to incentivise it, say Dirk Lindebaum and Peter Jordan

Shrugging is not good enough. Victims must be supported to speak out – and conference organisers must act, says Kirsten England

Spending commitments on Aria, Horizon Europe and UKRI should be welcomed – as should the Treasury’s growing scrutiny of UK and EU research structures, says John Womersley

The spending review must confirm the substance beneath the government’s froth about becoming a science superpower, says James Wilsdon

Lotteries for viable funding applications may be one way forward, say Lisette Jong, Thomas Franssen, Stephen Pinfield and James Wilsdon

Both Princeton University and Max Planck win two Nobels in two days after David MacMillan and Benjamin List scoop chemistry prize

Google Translate’s limitations spell out why we must revisit old questions about artificial intelligence, says Lionel Tarassenko

Increased digital literacy will also help boost employability and finally end the crisis narrative, says Jo Fox

One-time science superstar explains why he is happier not being famous and why the ‘hobbyist’ approach to research tools no longer works

Covid’s creation of an environment in which lessons can be debated will improve public understanding, say Deenan Pillay and David King

Uncritical and misinformed imitation of physics or biology is a misconception of collaboration, says Harvey J. Graff

Block grants need to be divided up, but UK research quality does not depend on a regular national audit

With academic conferences on hold, novel ways of collaborating have taken off – from preprints and digital networks to AI-backed matchmaking, writes Jack Grove

Researchers in developing countries could be frozen out by high article charges unless wider publishing reform is undertaken, say four Brazilian researchers

International action needed to eliminate ‘cloned journals’ that prey on early career researchers, says Indian research integrity adviser

Vaccine inequality and over-reliance on remote data collection threaten to diminish marginal voices, say Nicole Stremlau and Gianluca Iazzolino

Former foreign students recount memorable experiences in world’s most isolated country, including being openly spied on by their hosts

Universities must accept that overworked scholars cannot simply resume their research careers overnight, says Jenny Pickerill

New guidelines have rightly rejected publisher claims that gold is the only sustainable path for open access, say Stephen Eglen and Rupert Gatti

Students are not being pushed to consider imaginative ideas that would truly tackle global warming, argues Peter Sutoris

Tackling global warming will need the work of humanities researchers as much as scientists or engineers, says ex-universities minister Chris Skidmore

Academics’ reading lists are increasingly directed by algorithms. But are the recommendation services of platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Mendeley distorting science? And might AI ultimately lead it to a disastrous echo chamber? David Matthews reports

With ‘storytelling’ CVs becoming crucial in hiring and funding decisions, Jack Grove explores how academics can craft compelling research statements

Abandoning measurable evaluation criteria will make judgements more political and more random, say Raymond Poot and Willem Mulder