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Pay grades will rise for researchers at South Korea's Institute for Basic Science under reforms.Credit: Institute for Basic Science

South Korea is overhauling its flagship basic research organization, the Institute for Basic Science, after accusations of financial mismanagement. The reforms will include changes to the organization’s administrative structure, its purchasing system and its pay grades. Initially modelled on the Max Planck Society in Germany and RIKEN in Japan, the institute is seen by many as the country’s attempt to win its first scientific Nobel prize.

Nature | 3 min read & Nature | 6 min read

Scientific publisher Elsevier is investigating hundreds of researchers whom it suspects of deliberately manipulating the peer-review process to boost their own citation numbers. Elsevier is looking into whether some reviewers encourage authors to cite the reviewers’ own research in exchange for positive feedback. The practice is widely known to occur, but its extent is unknown because the data underlying peer review usually remain confidential. Elsevier says the investigations will lead to some retractions.

Nature | 4 min read

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pledged to sharply reduce its use of animals in toxicity tests — a move that some scientists and environmentalists say could undermine their ability to determine whether chemicals are dangerous to people. Computer models that can replace some animal tests are often proprietary, meaning that results can’t be easily reproduced or reviewed. “We are going to get caught in a position where we won’t really be able to regulate chemicals in the US,” says environmental health scientist Laura Vandenberg.

Nature | 3 min read

FEATURES & OPINION

An exclusive analysis by Nature suggests that several fields of science are moving away from male-dominated conferences and panels. The investigation looked at the line-up of invited speakers in at least nine influential meetings in each of five disciplines — neuroscience, artificial intelligence, chemistry, geology and microbiology — over the past nine years. Firm gender quotas or policies that compel diversity seem to reap the most success, and it takes persistence to make changes stick.

Nature | 11 min read

Registered Reports are on the rise — now it’s time to plan their next evolution, says cognitive neuroscientist Chris Chambers, who has championed the approach for years. Registered Reports aim to counter perverse incentives by allowing journals to provisionally commit to publishing a study, regardless of the results. Chambers calls for increased transparency, standardization and efficiency to make the format even more powerful.

Nature | 10 min read

Conservation scientists working to save influential art from the 1960s are trying to understand the power of Day-Glo yellow — paint so bright it hurts. Using laser microscopes and spectrometers, they are reverse-engineering the mid-century recipe for the neon hue named Saturn Yellow, which is kept as a strict secret by its maker. Their goal: to reproduce both the uncanny shade, which gleams at the edges of the visible spectrum, and the effects of time on its glow.

LA Times | 9 min read