Reproducing results: how big is the problem?
Paul Jump examines the many reasons for irreproducibility in science and efforts to tackle it
Paul Jump examines the many reasons for irreproducibility in science and efforts to tackle it
A survey suggests research misconduct in the UK is higher than previously feared. Joanna Williams and five other academics ponder the results
What single change to university practice would have the most positive and far-reaching consequences? Eight academics and thinkers give us their views
Are research careers meritocratic? Do universities do enough to support researchers? Is impact more important than publications? Is interdisciplinarity the key to new discoveries? Can...
US scientists doing industry-sponsored work have found that unwelcome results can elicit an intimidating response from their paymasters. Tim Cornwell reports Oprah Winfrey was on trial in a Texas...
The Italian physicist known for making complex science intelligible explains how radical student politics, hallucinogenic drugs and hitch-hiking around America helped him become one of science’s...
The Pinciples of Development - Molecular Embryology of Flowering Plants
Training, bold interdisciplinary partnerships and ‘bridging skills’ are all essential for social scientists who want to make best use of all the data now available to them
We examine citation data to get an idea of the most exciting and potentially ground-breaking research topics
Fred Hoyle's best ideas lit up the scientific world, but his worst meant devastating humiliation for astronomy's brightest star, says Simon Mitton At the end of the Second World War, British...
As the season of goodwill comes around again, warm words about collegiality and fellowship have been dutifully corralled into all-staff missives from university leaders. But in an era of management,...
As an international review of the UK’s REF begins even before the assessment panels have done their work, has the exercise’s reliance on rereading published papers finally had its day? Might it be...
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...
Public confusion is one thing, but some subjects provoke quizzical and sometimes dismissive frowns even among colleagues from different departments. Here, nine academics set the record straight about...
Covid-19 has prompted an explosion in preprints but has curtailed networking and underlined the extra pressures on women and junior academics. Simon Baker asks whether the pandemic era is a dark blip...