Daily briefing: Citation padding gets papers accepted

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A 25-day-old monkey embryo stained with conventional dye (pink) and with fluorescent dyes (multicoloured). Blue denotes cell nuclei; the dense central patch of green and red marks trophoblasts, cells in the embryo's outer layer.Credit: Zhai et al./Cell

Monkey embryos have been grown in the laboratory for 25 days, making them among the oldest primate embryos ever grown outside the womb. Researchers could watch organs and the nervous system begin to form in the cells. One team even found early signs of blood cells, which are almost impossible to obtain during human embryonic development.

Nature | 5 min read

References: Cell paper 1 & Cell paper 2

Mpox — the disease caused by the monkeypox virus — is no longer a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced. Millions of mpox vaccines were distributed to slow the spread, mostly in rich countries. Vaccines and treatments have largely been out of reach in Africa, where mpox has disproportionately affected poor populations in remote areas since long before the 2022 outbreak. Some researchers worry that the decision will draw essential resources away from the disease. "I fear that we will see a return to that status quo at least until perhaps the next outbreak that impacts wealthy countries in the West," says infectious-disease scientist Boghuma Titanji.

Nature | 6 min read

When diving for delicious squid in the cold ocean depths, scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) apparently ‘hold their breath’. Being fish, they don't breathe as such, but they seem to shut off water flowing over their gills, to keep their bodies warm. It's the first time such behaviour has been spotted. Heat loss from gills is a key weakness for diving fish, because gills are "essentially just giant radiators strapped to your head", says shark researcher Mark Royer.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Science paper

Researchers who agree to pad their papers with superfluous citations are more likely to get their work published. A 2012 survey of 1,169 academics showed that those who were coerced into manipulating their citations had an acceptance rate of 85%, compared with 39% for those who resisted. Editors who push researchers into adding references might be looking to boost either their journal's or their own citation counts. One solution to the problem is to exclude journal self-citations from metrics such as impact factor, says study author Eric Fong, who studies research management.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Research Policy paper

In the latest short stories for Nature's Futures series:

• A family deals with the frozen consequences of an eternal lab accident in ‘Erst Island’.

• Opting out of the Internet of things is harder than it sounds in ‘Forgotten’

A landmark regulation proposed by US President Joe Biden that aims to drastically curb the power sector's emissions could jump-start long-stalled — and controversial — carbon-capture and sequestration technology (CCS). CCS aspires to capture and bury carbon emissions from power plants fired by fossil fuels. Whether Biden's rule holds up to court challenges will hinge in part on the argument that CCS is ready for prime time. Many experts say it is — particularly with new tax incentives intended to drive down the cost of the technology. But the technology has so far been demonstrated at only a handful of power plants around the world.

Nature | 7 min read

The first draft of a human pangenome is starting to capture the full genetic diversity of people. Unlike the first human genome, which contained mostly DNA from just one person, the pangenome is drawn from 47 people from around the globe. Scientists had to get creative with how to depict this genomic diversity: "One can imagine it a little like an underground map, where different lines meet in an important hub, but then they leave in different directions — although some of them might still meet again in another train station," senior Nature editor Michelle Trenkmann tells the Nature Podcast.

Nature Podcast | 21 min listen

Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.

We should move past ‘trust the science’ and embrace ‘trust the scientific process’ — including the complexities of how scientific consensus is reached — argues Science editor-in-chief H. Holden Thorp. (Science | 4 min read)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01626-5

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