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Getting the Job: It's Not Just Who You Know, but How You Know Them
People are more likely to land high-paying jobs through friends of friends than through their close friends or family, study finds.
A Road Map Aims to Improve the Lives of Junior Scientists in Europe
A Road Map Aims to Improve the Lives of Junior Scientists in Europe
University associations, legislators, students and other stakeholders release a declaration on ways to recruit and retain early-career researchers in academia.
Introducing the FAIR Principles for Research Software
Research software is a fundamental and vital part of research, yet significant challenges to discoverability, productivity, quality, reproducibility, and sustainability exist.
Science's No-fee Public-access Policy Will Take Effect in 2023
The Science family of journals will soon allow authors to publicly share manuscripts more widely without incurring fees.
Why I Think Ending Article-Processing Charges Will Save Open Access
Why I Think Ending Article-Processing Charges Will Save Open Access
The way that the global north pays for publishing hampers public, scholar-led efforts in Latin America.
School Environments and Obesity
The rapid rise in obesity rates among school children in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) could have a direct impact on the region's physical and mental health, disability, and mortality. This review presents the available interventions likely to reduce, mitigate and/or prevent obesity among school children in LAC by modifying the food and built environments within and around schools. Two independent reviewers searched five databases: MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature for peer-reviewed literature published from 1 January 2000 to September 2021; searching and screening prospective studies published in English, Spanish and Portuguese. This was followed by data extraction and quality assessment using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB 2) and the Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I), adopting also the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Due to the heterogeneity of the intervention's characteristics and obesity-related measurements across studies, a narrative synthesis was conducted. A total of 1342 research papers were screened, and 9 studies were included; 4 in Mexico, and 1 each in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. Four studies reported strategies for modifying food provision; four other targeted the built environment, (modifying school premises and providing materials for physical activity); a final study included both food and built environment intervention components. Overall, two studies reported that the intervention was significantly associated with a lower increase over time in BMI/obesity in the intervention against the control group. The remaining studies were non-significant. Data suggest that school environmental interventions, complementing nutritional and physical education can contribute to reduce incremental childhood obesity trends. However, evidence of the extent to which food and built environment components factor into obesogenic environments, within and around school grounds is inconclusive. Insufficient data hindered any urban/rural comparisons. Further school environmental intervention studies to inform policies for preventing/reducing childhood obesity in LAC are needed.
Assessing Social Aid: the Scale-up Process Needs Evidence, Too
Assessing Social Aid: the Scale-up Process Needs Evidence, Too
When programmes expand, new complexities and indirect consequences must be studied.
Government Appoints Science Minister After Three-Month Vacancy
Nusrat Ghani faces pressing issues such as the future of funding for Britain's researchers.
Reward Research for Being Useful - Not Just Flashy
Funders must make pragmatism prestigious; the current obsession with novelty risks making science irrelevant.
What Italy's Far-Right Election Victory Means for Science
Researchers fear further cuts to funding and a lack of action on climate.
Where is the UK Science Minister? Government's Plans Worry Researchers
New Prime Minister Liz Truss has yet to appoint someone to oversee research, and her economic policy has sparked a currency crisis.
How Nature Contributed to Science's Discriminatory Legacy
Nature examines its history in order to acknowledge it - and learn from it.
Most US Professors Are Trained at Same Few Elite Universities
'Jarring' study reveals hiring bias at US institutions.
The Case for Lotteries As a Tiebreaker of Quality in Research Funding
The Case for Lotteries As a Tiebreaker of Quality in Research Funding
More funders should consider using randomization to choose grant recipients when decisions are too close to call.
The Fraught Quest to Account for Sex in Biology Research
Funders and publishers are increasingly asking researchers to account for the role of sex in experiments - a requirement that's contentious and hard to get right.
Five-Year Campaign Breaks Science's Citation Paywall
Reference lists for more than 60 million journal studies in Crossref are now free to view and reuse.
Inside the US Supreme Court's War on Science
A new ultraconservative supermajority on the United States' top court is undermining science's role in informing public policy. Scholars fear the results could be disastrous for public health, justice and democracy itself.
More Research Will Be Publicly Accessible Sooner
Research manuscripts and the associated scientific data generated for projects that are funded by federal agencies in the United States will need to be made publicly available immediately on publication.
How to Stop Cities and Companies Causing Planetary Harm
Researchers must help to define science-based targets for water, nutrients, carbon emissions and more to avoid cascading effects and stave off tipping points in Earth's systems.
Liz Truss Must Value Science, Not Fear It
Populist slogans won't cut it: the new UK government has nothing to lose and everything to gain by working constructively with scientists and universities.