News & Comment

Global inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines stem from pre-existing disparities. The Global South and Global North must cooperate to address them, argues Ayoade Alakija.

Although the Global North is grappling with whether COVID-19 will turn endemic, in Mali and other resource-poor countries ‘living with COVID-19’ would be devastating, warns Samba Sow.

COVAX emerged as a key mechanism to advance COVID-19 vaccine equity. To fully succeed, it needs support that extends beyond vaccine donations, argues Anuradha Gupta.

In ten contributions, mathematical modellers, public health officials, intellectual property experts and activists explain how vaccine inequities continue to fuel the pandemic, and how multilateral cooperation can help.

On the occasion of our fifth anniversary, we look back and reflect on the journal’s first five years of life.

To celebrate our 5th anniversary, present and past editors of the journal discuss some of their favourite papers and highlight what made them stand out.

Human behaviour is complex and multifaceted, and is studied by a broad range of disciplines across the social and natural sciences. To mark our 5th anniversary, we asked leading scientists in some of the key disciplines that we cover to share their vision of the future of research in their disciplines. Our contributors underscore how important it is to broaden the scope of their disciplines to increase ecological validity and diversity of representation, in order to address pressing societal challenges that range from new technologies, modes of interaction and sociopolitical upheaval to disease, poverty, hunger, inequality and climate change. Taken together, these contributions highlight how achieving progress in each discipline will require incorporating insights and methods from others, breaking down disciplinary silos.

Combatting climate and ecological change is often framed as the responsibility of either individuals or national governments. Organizations, which are intermediate in size and influence, have enormous potential to deliver effective policies. As an illustration, we consider approaches taken by UK organizations to reduce meat consumption.

Researchers are disincentivized from conducting urgently needed qualitative research, argues Veli-Matti Karhulahti. He recommends the adoption of registered reports for qualitative research as a remedial course of action.