News archive
Future proofing research resilience
24 August 2021
Chris Woolston
As scientific efforts resume, infrastructure and process solutions forged during the pandemic are being honed and expanded.
Scientists at odds on Utrecht University reforms to hiring and promotion criteria
9 August 2021
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Not everyone wants to let the journal impact factor go.
A new form of CV for researchers
3 August 2021
Anthea Lacchia
Another step away from narrow, biased measures of success in science.
To gain impact through influencing policy, you need to build trust in your research
3 August 2021
Christopher Cvitanovic and Rebecca Shellock
Practical strategies for successful knowledge exchange between scientists or research institutions and decision-makers.
Microsoft Academic Graph is being discontinued. What’s next?
15 June 2021
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
The sudden discontinuation of the widely used database has prompted new initiatives to help fill the void.
Nature Index Annual Tables 2021: Country comparisons in a difficult year
20 May 2021
Catherine Armitage
China’s losses are seven other nations’ gains.
Ten rising stars of the Nature Index Annual Tables 2021
20 May 2021
Bec Crew
China’s dominance falls away, as this year’s list of fast-risers features a more global spread of institutions.
Peer-reviewers twice as likely to accept research conducted on men than the same research on women
11 May 2021
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
How biases may play out against female experimental participants.
Review articles cause “dramatic loss” in citations for original research
11 May 2021
Clare Watson
But there are some influential exceptions.
The 5 most popular scientific papers of February 2021 in the Nature Index journals
6 May 2021
Bec Crew
An unprecedented space hurricane and an urgent call-to-action in support of Black scientists feature in these widely-discussed studies.
Looming deadline on post-Brexit data agreement has researchers worried
27 April 2021
Elisabeth Jeffries
Data flow disruptions between the EU and UK would be a “lose-lose situation”.
Calls for culture change as “them versus us” mindset drives rift between academic and non-academic staff
30 March 2021
David Payne
Research managers and administrators feel that their skills are underappreciated, survey reveals.
How altmetrics could help level the playing field for women in STEM
25 March 2021
Bjarne Bartlett et al.
Traditional measures of success favour male researchers. Altmetrics could offer an alternative to help democratize academic evaluation.
Rethinking research assessment: 7 sources of bias to watch out for at your institution
16 March 2021
Gemma Conroy
Recognizing the signs of systemic bias is key to ensuring that hiring, promotion and tenure decisions are fair for everyone.
Following NASA's lead, researchers are targeting gender bias in instrument time
2 February 2021
Clare Watson
The switch to double-blind peer reviews could help to ensure that female and early-career researchers get a fair shot at using in-demand equipment.
The COVID-safe university is an opportunity to end the default ableism of academia
19 January 2021
Stuart Read, Anne Parfitt, Tanvir Bush
The restructuring of academia to make spaces and practices COVID-safe presents an opportunity to expand inclusivity, say Stuart Read, Anne Parfitt, and Tanvir Bush.
"Textbook case" of disability discrimination in grant applications
19 January 2021
Jon Brock
Justin Yerbury's appeal prompts Australia's NHMRC to revise its policy.
The race to the top among the world’s leaders in artificial intelligence
10 December 2020
Neil Savage
As revenues and research output soar in the field of AI, global competition between the United States, China and Europe heats up.
Five better ways to assess science
5 August 2020
Benjamin Plackett
Hong Kong Principles seek to replace ‘publish or perish’ culture.
These five scientific fields win the most Nobel Prizes
4 August 2020
Gemma Conroy
Scientists in neglected research areas at risk of being considered "second-class citizens."
What to do when your research comes under fire
3 June 2020
Andy Tay
3 pieces of advice from the frontlines of scientific debate.
Empathy and grit – not just publication records – should be considered in researcher assessment
12 May 2020
Clare Watson
Is this the future of metrics in academia?
Chemistry researchers cite their own work the most
27 April 2020
Gemma Conroy
But we shouldn't assume selfish motives.
How young researchers can re-shape the evaluation of their work
31 March 2020
Annemijn Algra, Inez Koopman, Rozemarijn Snoek
Looking beyond bibliometrics to evaluate success.
What's wrong with the h-index, according to its inventor
24 March 2020
Gemma Conroy
"Severe unintended negative consequences."
8 big differences between the US and UK PhD experience
11 March 2020
Helen Robertson
And one important similarity.
Unmasking the hidden networks behind academic success
25 October 2019
Margath Walker
They work well for some.
What’s lost when research is driven primarily by funding
16 October 2019
Stephen Turner & Daryl Chubin
Productivity-oriented “science on demand” leads to caution and conformity.
Highlight negative results to improve science
14 October 2019
Devang Mehta
Publishers, reviewers and other members of the scientific community must fight science’s preference for positive results — for the benefit of all, says Devang Mehta.
Russian science stays at home
10 October 2019
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Out of step with international norms.
Personal biases speed up research publication
8 October 2019
Gemma Conroy
Megajournal editors under the microscope.
How researchers can improve the quality of systematic reviews
24 September 2019
Jon Brock
A guideline to boost transparency is being updated.
Elsevier investigates hundreds of peer reviewers for manipulating citations
12 September 2019
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
The publisher is scrutinizing researchers who might be inappropriately using the review process to promote their own work.
Museum volunteering among new impact indicators for UK universities
11 September 2019
Elisabeth Jeffries
How to compare apples with apples.
The allure of the journal impact factor holds firm, despite its flaws
29 August 2019
Jon Brock
“Science needs a healthy dose of its own medicine, yet refuses to take the pill.”
A call for funders to ban institutions that use grant capture targets
7 August 2019
Dorothy Bishop
The practice has led to peverse incentives for researchers.
Here’s how to deal with failure, say senior scientists
5 July 2019
Bec Crew
Don’t take it personally.
In a race for mentions, it’s open season on researchers
18 January 2019
Alexandra Lippman and Christopher Kelty
The growing clamour for open access results makes scientists vulnerable, say Alexandra Lippman and Christopher Kelty.
China's Belt and Road Initiative finds new research partners in Europe
11 January 2019
Marijk van der Wende & Robert Tijssen
Smaller member states are the beneficiaries of China's global trade and diplomacy project.
From punish to empower: A blame-free approach to research misconduct
16 October 2018
Lex Bouter
Research institutions have a duty to foster integrity,
and that includes monitoring.
Power balance in clinical trials exposed
9 October 2018
Gemma Conroy
Industry funders routinely take charge of analysis and reporting.
When breaking free is a mark of success
3 October 2018
Gemma Conroy
Two new measures aim to assess researchers' independence from their former lab heads.
The cost of staying put
18 September 2018
Smriti Mallapaty
In academia’s great migration, some researchers are
at a disadvantage.
Africa should set own standards of research excellence
13 September 2018
Munyaradzi Makoni
'Most highly cited' criterion is not the most appropriate.
Q&A Koenraad Debackere: Impact assessment to become more complex
28 August 2018
Smriti Mallapaty
We need to define impact more clearly to be able to measure it effectively.
The A to Z of paper authorship
21 August 2018
Gemma Conroy
It's bad news for Z but A is AOK for authors listed alphabetically.
How freely should scientists share their data?
16 August 2018
Daniel Barron
The Open Science movement champions transparency, but how much and how quickly is a matter of dispute.
Q&A Adam Russell: The search for automated tools to rate research reproducibility
8 August 2018
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
A US project is exploring the use of software to assign confidence levels to published research.
Japan weighs the value of imported academics
2 August 2018
Futao Huang
Foreign faculty in Japan are less productive than their local counterparts on many measures, but better connected to global collaborations.
Indian translation pipeline in patent need of overhaul
31 July 2018
Virat Markandeya
Report recommends removing obstacles to the conversion of scientific research into products and services.
Early-career researchers herald change
25 July 2018
David Nicholas et al.*
The younger generation sees a collaborative system as key to discovery and advancement, a three-year tracking project reveals.
Italian scientists increase self-citations in response to promotion policy
4 June 2018
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Study reveals how research evaluations can lead to self-serving behaviour.
Scientists get more bang for their buck if given more freedom
23 May 2018
Smriti Mallapaty
Multi-national study challenges long-held assumptions about efficiency.
China's pick of university winners raises eyebrows
13 October 2017
Hepeng Jia
Many fear a plan to elevate 42 universities to world class status will deepen inequality.
High-impact papers score well in REF, study finds
9 October 2017
Anthea Lacchia
Researchers in the UK find that the impact factor of journal articles matches judgements by a panel of experts on research quality.
Chatter makes popular metric unreliable: Study
29 September 2017
Ivy Shih
An analysis of a popular reputation metric concludes it relies too heavily on social interaction.
Measure for measure
26 September 2017
Aidan Byrne
Funding debate over paper quality vs quantity
21 September 2017
Dyani Lewis
Researchers disagree over whether performance-based metrics adversely affect publication behaviour.
Better measures needed for research cooperation
23 June 2017
Anthea Lacchia
Researchers wrestle with a measure of collaboration increasingly used to assess the impact of their work.
Reading between the lines on citation value
13 June 2017
Adrian Barnett
COMMENT: Cited work often has little, if any, influence.
China's higher ed reforms are ambitious, but can they address systemic issues?
29 May 2017
Wang Qi
The country is casting a wider net for excellence in higher education.
Young researchers preach open access, yet many don't practice
22 May 2017
Ivy Shih
Early-career researchers in the UK are less likely to choose open access over subscription journals.
Japan's plan to cultivate more entrepreneurial scientists
10 May 2017
Ian Munroe
Although government efforts to encourage innovation face significant obstacles.
Australian funding agency announces new chief
27 April 2017
Bianca Nogrady
Former microbiologist Sue Thomas will lead the Australian Research Council from July.
Japan university reform 'unrealistic' without proper funding
7 April 2017
Atsushi Sunami
Incomplete descriptions in publications wasting healthcare research
10 March 2017
Tammy Hoffmann
COMMENT: Researchers, explain yourselves
China and South Korea flash the cash in R&D race
24 February 2017
Ivy Shih
G20 countries dominate global research spending and production, but the mix is changing.
Bigger is better for quality research
31 January 2017
Ivy Shih
Size does matter when it comes to research performance.
Thailand's basic science grows despite limited resources
24 January 2017
Tim Hornyak
More scientists could help sustain the country's recent growth in research output.
Prominent female scientists struggle to retain their edge
11 January 2017
Anthea Lacchia
Tracking the careers of leading scientists reveals maintaining an edge is harder for women in Italy.
Success is just a bolt from the blue
5 January 2017
Adrian Barnett
Citations don't always reflect the quality or impact of a researcher's work.
My corporate experiment - a scientist learns from business
16 December 2016
Sidonia Eckle
Academics can learn a lot from the corporate world.
I made my grant application public, here's why you should too
8 December 2016
Adrian Barnett
If funding applications were made under open access, science would benefit from more universal scrutiny.
Brexit uncertainty disrupting EU-UK research
29 November 2016
Mark Peplow
Uncertainty surrounding Britain’s future in EU research may be damaging science.
New award highlights gender imbalance among peer reviewers
7 November 2016
Ivy Shih
A new online award that recognises the contributions of highly-productive peer reviewers also highlights biases in the system that underscores scholarly publishing.
Comment: It's time to break ranks on university assessment
4 November 2016
Adrian Barnett
Ranking systems for universities need to be re-evaluated.
How Australian universities spent $4.5b on research in four years
27 October 2016
Bianca Nogrady
Assessing the research performance of universities is a difficult pursuit.
Comment: Research needs less 'excellence', more competence
20 October 2016
Adrian Barnett
The research sector loves talking about it but is excellence best for science?
How should governments measure innovation?
11 October 2016
Branwen Morgan
There is a need to account for all types of innovation, from big to small.
Measuring the impact of R&D spending
6 October 2016
Myles Gough
Does pouring money into research always translate into better outcomes?
In research, time is as important as money
18 August 2016
Branwen Morgan
Do longer periods of funding lead to greater scientific returns?
"The trend transforming science" - Jonathan Adams
16 March 2016
Jonathan Adams and Tamar Loach
The small but focused snapshot of research afforded by the Nature Index helps fine-tune analysis of global scientific collaboration, say Jonathan Adams and Tamar Loach.
