People gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square for a vigil in memory of sociologist Jason Arday on 17 August.Credit: Lab Mo/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty “The years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack. While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone
In response to high retraction rates, India, Peru and Vietnam have introduced guidelines and disciplinary measures against research misconduct.Credit: designer491/iStock via Getty In a bid to tighten research standards, governments and funders in countries with emerging research systems are increasingly rolling out disciplinary measures for researchers who do the wrong thing. The policies include docking
The use of large language models (LLMs) is soaring among students worldwide thanks to the tools’ growing ability to solve problems and generate text and code. In a 2026 survey of 1,054 UK undergraduate students by the Higher Education Policy Institute in Oxford, UK, roughly 94% said that they use generative artificial-intelligence tools to help
Credit: SvetaZi/iStock via Getty Early-career fellowships play a key part in helping researchers to move from supervised work to greater independence. The intense competition, however, can make the application process daunting for early-career researchers (ECRs). Based on our experience of running a successful fellowship support structure in the chemistry department at University College London (UCL),
The Department of Defense has ordered 30 U.S. universities to audit their partnerships with mostly Chinese universities and military training institutions as the Trump administration scrutinizes the country’s growing global influence. If the schools don’t complete a review and terminate any arrangements deemed problematic within the next two weeks, they face losing funding. The goal
China’s research sector has experienced spectacular growth over the past two decades. The increase in scientific output is due, in part, to a system that funnelled resources to researchers selected by prestigious talent-acquisition schemes. This approach has helped the nation’s scientists to publish in leading journals. Yet, a rapid expansion in the scientific workforce has