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Scitility’s tool Argos identifies work whose authors have a record of misconduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from giant project show how withdrawn research propagates through the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scientist reviewing a study spotted figures that looked identical to his own, leading to a frustrating campaign to prevent its publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulp and paper industry is an important contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions1,2. Country-specific strategies are essential for the industry to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, given its vast heterogeneities across countries3,4. Here we develop a comprehensive bottom-up assessment of net greenhouse gas emissions of the domestic paper-related sectors for 30 major countries from 1961 to 2019—about 3.2% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from the same period5—and explore mitigation strategies through 2,160 scenarios covering key factors. Our results show substantial differences across countries in terms of historical emissions evolution trends and structure. All countries can achieve net-zero emissions for their pulp and paper industry by 2050, with a single measure for most developed countries and several measures for most developing countries. Except for energy-efficiency improvement and energy-system decarbonization, tropical developing countries with abundant forest resources should give priority to sustainable forest management, whereas other developing countries should pay more attention to enhancing methane capture rate and reducing recycling. These insights are crucial for developing net-zero strategies tailored to each country and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 for the pulp and paper industry.A bottom-up assessment of the net greenhouse gas emissions of the pulp and paper industries of 30 countries from 1961 to 2019 leads to country-specific strategies to achieve net zero by 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unreliable data, falsification and other issues related to misconduct are driving a growing proportion of retractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments reveal that human skin is most reliably cut by specific thicknesses of paper, including the kind used to print certain high-profile journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXCLUSIVE: Poor-quality studies are polluting the literature — a group will study the businesses that produce them to stem the flow of bogus research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Browser plug-in alerts users when studies — or their references — have been posted on a site known for raising integrity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientists compiling a review scan more than 1,000 papers and find troubling images in some 10%.Scientists compiling a review scan more than 1,000 papers and find troubling images in nearly 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a century, scientists pondered whether bird flight evolved by animals gliding down from trees or by creatures running and flapping from the ground up. A landmark 1974 paper reset the debate to focus on the evolution of the flight stroke instead. Fiftieth anniversary of an advance in understanding how flight evolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness of when a paper can’t be trusted is often too low — but adopting some easy-to-use technological solutions can help researchers, publishers and referees to clean things up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This journal will double down on efforts to diversify the pool of corresponding authors and referees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borrowing the idea of ‘bug bounties’ from the technology industry could provide a systematic way to detect and correct the errors that litter the scientific literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ERROR project offers researchers a bounty for spotting mistakes in published papers — a strategy borrowed from the software industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do you get your creative juices flowing after spending hours, days or months looking at a blank screen? Researchers share their advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campaigners who want scrutiny of biometrics research on Uyghurs, Tibetans and other groups are frustrated by slow progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crop of referee reports from the Royal Society’s archive reveal discussions about cutting printing costs, reviewer holidays and even editing images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of DOIs suggests that digital preservation is not keeping up with burgeoning scholarly knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence could help speedily summarize research. But it comes with risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some researchers publish a new paper every five days, on average. Data trackers suspect not all their manuscripts were produced through honest labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publishers are deploying AI-based tools to detect suspicious images, but generative AI threatens their efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The confidential 124-page report from the University of Rochester, disclosed in a lawsuit, details the extent of Ranga Dias’s scientific misconduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities must declare all their retractions and launch investigations into misconduct cases; a Nature analysis reveals that since 2021 there have been more than 17,000 retractions with Chinese co-authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By joining a collecting society, researchers can ensure they are paid when copyrighted book content and papers are reproduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generative-AI technologies can create convincing scientific data with ease — publishers and integrity specialists fear a torrent of faked science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large language model does everything from reading the literature to writing and reviewing its own papers, but it has limited applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which researchers can artificially inflate their reference counts are growing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Letter to the Editor [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covalent bonds share electron pairs between two atoms and make up the skeletons of most organic compounds in single, double and triple bonds. In contrast, examples of one-electron bonds remain scarce, most probably due to their intrinsic weakness1–4. Although several pioneering studies have reported one-electron bonds between heteroatoms, direct evidence for one-electron bonds between carbon atoms remains elusive. Here we report the isolation of a compound with a one-electron σ-bond between carbon atoms by means of the one-electron oxidation of a hydrocarbon with an elongated C–C single bond5,6. The presence of the C•C one-electron σ-bond (2.921(3) Å at 100 K) was confirmed experimentally by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and Raman spectroscopy, and theoretically by density functional theory calculations. The results of this paper unequivocally demonstrate the existence of a C•C one-electron σ-bond, which was postulated nearly a century ago7, and can thus be expected to pave the way for further development in different areas of chemistry by probing the boundary between bonded and non-bonded states.The one-electron oxidation of a hydrocarbon with an elongated C–C single bond provides direct evidence for a one-electron σ-bond between carbon atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, physicists reported something remarkable: they had isolated ultrathin films of carbon atoms using sticky tape alone, and found that the films had astounding properties. The finding would forever change condensed-matter physics.Two decades of 2D materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Too often, journal assessments of potentially unreliable research are superficial, opaque and prolonged. Changes to the guidance given by the Committee on Publication Ethics could tighten up the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of review reports identifies dozens of adjectives that could indicate text written with the help of chatbots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large language models are transforming scientific writing and publishing. But the productivity boost that these tools bring could have a downside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions1, with behavioural science increasingly part of this process2. In April 2020, an influential paper3 proposed 19 policy recommendations (‘claims’) detailing how evidence from behavioural science could contribute to efforts to reduce impacts and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we assess 747 pandemic-related research articles that empirically investigated those claims. We report the scale of evidence and whether evidence supports them to indicate applicability for policymaking. Two independent teams, involving 72 reviewers, found evidence for 18 of 19 claims, with both teams finding evidence supporting 16 (89%) of those 18 claims. The strongest evidence supported claims that anticipated culture, polarization and misinformation would be associated with policy effectiveness. Claims suggesting trusted leaders and positive social norms increased adherence to behavioural interventions also had strong empirical support, as did appealing to social consensus or bipartisan agreement. Targeted language in messaging yielded mixed effects and there were no effects for highlighting individual benefits or protecting others. No available evidence existed to assess any distinct differences in effects between using the terms ‘physical distancing’ and ‘social distancing’. Analysis of 463 papers containing data showed generally large samples; 418 involved human participants with a mean of 16,848 (median of 1,699). That statistical power underscored improved suitability of behavioural science research for informing policy decisions. Furthermore, by implementing a standardized approach to evidence selection and synthesis, we amplify broader implications for advancing scientific evidence in policy formulation and prioritization.Evaluation of evidence generated to test 19 proposed policy recommendations and guidance for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The controversy over online misinformation and social media has opened a gap between public discourse and scientific research. Public intellectuals and journalists frequently make sweeping claims about the effects of exposure to false content online that are inconsistent with much of the current empirical evidence. Here we identify three common misperceptions: that average exposure to problematic content is high, that algorithms are largely responsible for this exposure and that social media is a primary cause of broader social problems such as polarization. In our review of behavioural science research on online misinformation, we document a pattern of low exposure to false and inflammatory content that is concentrated among a narrow fringe with strong motivations to seek out such information. In response, we recommend holding platforms accountable for facilitating exposure to false and extreme content in the tails of the distribution, where consumption is highest and the risk of real-world harm is greatest. We also call for increased platform transparency, including collaborations with outside researchers, to better evaluate the effects of online misinformation and the most effective responses to it. Taking these steps is especially important outside the USA and Western Europe, where research and data are scant and harms may be more severe.This Perspective identifies common misperceptions regarding the harms of online misinformation, finding that exposure to false and inflammatory content is rare and concentrated among a small minority of people who already have extreme views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Human Cell Atlas is yielding detailed maps of human tissues and systems throughout life, along with methods to handle single-cell data. Four scientists reflect on how the project is transforming our understanding of human biology.Scientists reflect on insights from the Human Cell Atlas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chatbots and other tools are increasingly being considered, but people power is still seen as a safer option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Letter to the Editor [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To avoid the restrictions of paywalls, researchers must often pay an article-processing fee. Nature explores ways to offset the cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless modules that provide telecommunications and power-harvesting capabilities enabled by radio-frequency (RF) electronics are vital components of skin-interfaced stretchable electronics1–7. However, recent studies on stretchable RF components have demonstrated that substantial changes in electrical properties, such as a shift in the antenna resonance frequency, occur even under relatively low elastic strains8–15. Such changes lead directly to greatly reduced wireless signal strength or power-transfer efficiency in stretchable systems, particularly in physically dynamic environments such as the surface of the skin. Here we present strain-invariant stretchable RF electronics capable of completely maintaining the original RF properties under various elastic strains using a ‘dielectro-elastic’ material as the substrate. Dielectro-elastic materials have physically tunable dielectric properties that effectively avert frequency shifts arising in interfacing RF electronics. Compared with conventional stretchable substrate materials, our material has superior electrical, mechanical and thermal properties that are suitable for high-performance stretchable RF electronics. In this paper, we describe the materials, fabrication and design strategies that serve as the foundation for enabling the strain-invariant behaviour of key RF components based on experimental and computational studies. Finally, we present a set of skin-interfaced wireless healthcare monitors based on strain-invariant stretchable RF electronics with a wireless operational distance of up to 30 m under strain.Stretchable radio-frequency electronics based on a dielectro-elastic elastomer is demonstrated to be capable of completely maintaining operating frequencies unaffected by strain and shows superior electrical, mechanical and thermal properties compared with conventional stretchable substrate materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A popular theory about how trees cooperate has enchanted the public and raised the profile of forest conservation. But some ecologists think its scientific basis has been oversold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune cells rely on transient physical interactions with other immune and non-immune populations to regulate their function1. To study these ‘kiss-and-run’ interactions directly in vivo, we previously developed LIPSTIC (labelling immune partnerships by SorTagging intercellular contacts)2, an approach that uses enzymatic transfer of a labelled substrate between the molecular partners CD40L and CD40 to label interacting cells. Reliance on this pathway limited the use of LIPSTIC to measuring interactions between CD4+ T helper cells and antigen-presenting cells, however. Here we report the development of a universal version of LIPSTIC (uLIPSTIC), which can record physical interactions both among immune cells and between immune and non-immune populations irrespective of the receptors and ligands involved. We show that uLIPSTIC can be used, among other things, to monitor the priming of CD8+ T cells by dendritic cells, reveal the steady-state cellular partners of regulatory T cells and identify germinal centre-resident T follicular helper cells on the basis of their ability to interact cognately with germinal centre B cells. By coupling uLIPSTIC with single-cell transcriptomics, we build a catalogue of the immune populations that physically interact with intestinal epithelial cells at the steady state and profile the evolution of the interactome of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus-specific CD8+ T cells in multiple organs following systemic infection. Thus, uLIPSTIC provides a broadly useful technology for measuring and understanding cell–cell interactions across multiple biological systems.A paper reports the development of a universal tool for studying cellular interactions in biological systems, and demonstrates its coupling with single-cell transcriptomics methods to provide insights into the biology of the interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journals, funders and institutions that employ researchers all want to produce or disseminate rigorous scientific knowledge — and all can learn lessons from misconduct cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature talks to the librarian behind China’s Early Warning Journal List about how it is compiled each year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies of the human dopamine transporter reveal how it binds to molecules such as dopamine and cocaine. Dopamine imbalances underlie some brain conditions and these data will aid targeted drug design.Insights into how molecules bind to the human dopamine transporter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2004, the results of an ambitious Antarctic ice-drilling project brought insight into hundreds of thousands of years of climatic changes. The extraordinary sample still has much to offer climate research — even as its successor is being drilled. Twentieth anniversary of a 800,000-year sample of climate history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US and Chinese firms dominate the list of companies that are producing the most research and patents in artificial intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from the Nature Index suggest changing make-up of international partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]