Alberto Cairo on storytelling in science communication
Alberto Cairo responds to a Correspondence criticising the use of storytelling techniques in scientific research articles and journalism. Read more
The dos and don’ts of communicating with editors and reviewers
Some thoughts and advice from the editors at Nature Methods on communicating with us and our reviewers, particularly on matters of disagreement. Read more
A retraction resulting from cell line contamination
After nine years in print, Nature Methods today published its first retraction; one that could have been prevented by cell line authentication. What does this mean for journal-mandated cell line testing? Read more
Let’s give statistics the attention it deserves
This month we launch a new column ‘Points of Significance’ devoted to statistics, a topic of profound importance for biological research, but one that often doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Read more
Data visualization: A view of every Points of View column
We have organized all the Points of View columns on data visualization published in Nature Methods and provide this as a guide to accessing this trove of practical advice on visualizing scientific data. Read more
Serial dilution woes
A recent report adds further evidence that assays relying on serial dilution and tip-based dispensing could be a source of irreproducibility, particularly in pharmacological assays. Read more
Reporting standards to enhance article reproducibility
Beginning May 1st Nature Methods will be requiring authors of manuscripts being sent back to peer review to fill out a checklist to disclose technical and statistical information about their submission. Read more
Return of the Points of View column
Our popular “Points of View” column returns this month after a brief hiatus. Here is a bit of history of the column and an introduction to its new author. Read more
Nature journals provide a CC license for community experiments
Nature Methods has long been an advocate of the value of community experiments (or competitions/challenges) to assess and compare the performance of algorithms and software tools. In 2008 we discussed the value of these competitions and advocated that they also be used to assess the performance of less widely used algorithms such as those used for single particle tracking. Such an experiment for assessing single particle tracking was run in 2012, although the results are still awaiting publication. Read more
A different kind of Method of the Year for 2012
Our choice of Method of the Year in prior years has tended to be methods that generally didn’t even exist only a few years earlier but which had quickly bounded onto the scientific stage and attracted the attention of a large portion of the scientific community. Targeted proteomics, our choice for 2012, on the other hand has existed for years in scaled-down forms using methods based on antibodies. Western blotting, immunofluorescence, antibody arrays, etc. can all be used to detect and measure targeted subsets the proteins expressed in cells and tissues. Read more
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Let’s give statistics the attention it deserves
Let’s give statistics the attention it deserves
Guidelines for algorithms and software in Nature Methods