Funders and journals, not students, should lead on standards for research rigour

Abstract

The efforts of Amy Orben and other young researchers to fight the perverse incentives that dominate science right now are all the more impressive because these scientists are at the most vulnerable point of their careers (Nature 573, 465; 2019). And, just as it’s shameful that teenagers have to lead international action against the climate crisis, students and new postdocs should not have to spearhead these efforts. Top-down pressure to improve research practice is needed. In my experience, even the smallest mandate from funders, publishers or performance assessors boosts incentive. Evaluators of research quality should openly declare how they measure a study’s rigour and how that rigour contributes to quality scores. And funders should insist that institutions sign the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, commonly known as DORA. For their part, prestigious journals need to be more willing to accept registered reports and direct replications of studies they have published. And publication of the code and syntax behind analyses in manuscripts should be obligatory across all journals. These are not radical proposals. Any one of them would reinforce trustworthiness in science. Jessica Butler University of Aberdeen, UK. [email protected] use gross national income per capita as the sole measure of a country’s development (go.nature.com/35djbd8). Countries with small populations, including the small island states, are therefore unlikely to appear on the list of nations eligible to receive aid, compiled for “statistical purposes” by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Although the OECD specifically states that the DAC list is “not designed as guidance for aid or other preferential treatment”, several UK research funders, for example, do use the DAC list to determine the eligibility of countries in research partnerships (go.nature.com/3jq92mm). The solution is to include the official United Nations list of small island developing states (go.nature.com/2ab2xhf) as eligible partners in research and development programmes. Nicholas Higgs Cape Eleuthera Institute, Rock Sound, The Bahamas. [email protected] to maximize Africa’s economic potential. Cape Town’s Neuroscience Institute promises to be an African centre of excellence, supported by scientists and clinicians from different fields. It will help to spread advances in the neurosciences across sub-Saharan Africa by acting as a nexus for training and collaboration through established networks such as the African Academy of Sciences (see also J. M. Wilmshurst et al. Pediatrics 137, e20152741; 2016). A. Graham Fieggen* University of Cape Town, South Africa. [email protected] *On behalf of 4 correspondents; see go.nature.com/2nyzbsu.