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Retractions are a key tool for maintaining the integrity of the published record. We need to recognize and reward researchers, especially early-career researchers, who do the right thing in coming forward with a request to retract research that cannot be relied upon due to honest error.
Behavioural science can enhance ocean sustainability by providing insights into illegal fishing. Current enforcement criminalizes small-scale fishers and fails to address root causes, letting large-scale illegal fishing off the hook. Efforts to address illegal fishing would benefit from more holistic behavioural research.
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups has recently been well observed, and is symptomatic of wider health inequalities. An approach that unites insights from sociology and medicine is the only way to address this pressing issue.
Scientific fieldwork can involve travel to countries where disclosing LGBTQ+ identity is unsafe. This is a significant challenge faced by LGBTQ+ scientists, writes Christina Atchison, and should be part of risk assessments and fieldwork support.
Subjective experience of the topic of study can bring passion and creativity to cognitive research. Micah Allen describes this as a double-edged sword, as he recalls witnessing how subjective feeling overrode hard data. But there are ways in which researchers can benefit from subjectively informed research, while guarding against its pitfalls.
The international day of LGBTQ+ people in STEM, 18 November, celebrates diversity in sexuality and gender identity, and raises awareness of persisting obstacles and challenges for LGBTQ+ scientists. It is important that the scientific community, journals and publishers included, creates the conditions that allow LGBTQ+ scientists to thrive — not only today, but every day.
Nudges are tools to achieve behavioural change. To evaluate nudges, it is essential to consider not only their overall welfare effects but also their distributional effects. Some nudges will not help, and might hurt, identifiable groups. More targeted, personalized nudging may be needed to maximize social welfare and promote distributive justice.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists have exploited the provisional nature of scientific consensus and the realities of how science is conducted to paint scientists and public health leaders as malign actors.
In fast-paced crises like COVID-19, making use of scientific discovery in policymaking is challenging. We should learn the lessons of the current pandemic to make science a better partner to decision-makers in future crises, Sandro Galea writes.
Description, prediction and explanation are all important in science. We welcome descriptive, predictive and explanatory studies, so long as the work is clear about its aims and uses appropriate methods to achieve its goals.
Discovering an error that leads to retraction is a harrowing experience, especially for early-career researchers. Joana Grave shares the story of the retraction of her first published paper and how community support helped her through this challenge.
Reading scientific papers is a necessary part of the research enterprise, but poor writing impedes the flow of information from authors to their audiences. We argue that a return to narrative in scientific writing is not incompatible with rigour and objectivity; it can mitigate information overload and achieve the core purpose of publication: to communicate.
At Wellcome we are committed to finding the next generation of approaches for youth anxiety and depression. Since 2020 we have been learning what works, for whom, and why, by commissioning reviews into the ‘active ingredients’ of successful interventions. Here we share four key calls to action that we hope the mental health science community can take forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic presents opportunities for transformative actions towards improving children’s and young people’s mental health, argues Archana Basu.
The rich diversity of India offers challenges and opportunities. Researchers can navigate by adapting practices and communication to the local context and including indigenous meaning systems in the vocabulary of the discipline, writes Purnima Singh.
