We’ve seen the headlines: on 14 February, the US Department of Education ruled that race-based scholarships and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes violate civil-rights law. Universities that don’t dismantle these programmes risk losing federal funding. This is not an abstract threat. It is an orchestrated effort to erase decades of progress — the very…

We’ve seen the headlines: on 14 February, the US Department of Education ruled that race-based scholarships and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes violate civil-rights law. Universities that don’t dismantle these programmes risk losing federal funding. This is not an abstract threat. It is an orchestrated effort to erase decades of progress — the very…

Credit: Adam Gault/OJO Images via Getty Researchers who are accused of sexual misconduct start to receive fewer citations after the media covers the allegations. But the same cannot be said about scientists publicly accused of scientific fraud, whose citations remain unchanged, according to an analysis published this week in PLoS ONE1. In the wake of…

Environmental inspiration: Fong finds art in science, works inspired by nature Published 6:00 am Tuesday, March 4, 2025 By JAMES SLOAN Rogue Valley Times 1 of 4 Artist Paula Fong works on an art piece filled with leaves that was inspired by the heavy snowfall in January. (Jamie Lusch for the Rogue Valley Times) Paula…

PubMed, a free-to-use index of life-science articles, is maintained by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information.Credit: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/Shutterstock A temporary outage of the US-government-funded PubMed database of biomedical literature over the weekend sent many researchers globally into a panic. Although the disruption does not seem to have been deliberate, and the service has…

Credit: photos777/Getty China’s highest court has called for a crack down on the activities of paper mills, businesses that churn out fraudulent or poor-quality manuscripts and sell authorships. Some researchers are cautiously optimistic that the court’s guidance will help curb the use of these services, while others think the impact will be minimal. “This is…

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Data scientist Vukosi Marivate has helped to build scientific communities and networks for African researchers in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).Credit: Mariki Uitenweerde, EYEscape Corporate Photography Changemakers This Nature Q&A series celebrates people who fight racism in science and who champion inclusion. It also highlights initiatives that could be applied to other scientific workplaces.…

Sadie has spent years hiding her problem from her family. In her day job, she works as a purchasing agent for a scientific firm, which requires placing large orders for everything from chemical reagents to US$8-million worth of glass vials. But in her personal time, Sadie goes on buying sprees for herself. She has ordered…

Credit: Getty/Shutterstock Do you ever feel that agreeing to review an academic paper guarantees a wasted workday? You’re not alone. Many researchers spend hours marking up a manuscript, only to realize that they need even more time to let everything sink in before they can write coherent feedback. Not surprisingly, they’ve started turning down review…