Publishing

Photograph of a pink pencil standing out from a row of blue pencils.
Publishing Microphone

Women are systematically under-cited in neuroscience. New tools can change that.

An omitted citation in a high-profile paper led us to examine our own practices and to help others adopt tools that promote citation diversity.

By Anne Churchland, Felicia Davatolhagh
22 July 2024 | 5 min listen
Picture of bees in flight.

Postdoc’s grad-school sleuthing raises questions about bee waggle-dance data

A journal has flagged two papers with expressions of concern, which note a co-author acknowledged errors.

By Shaena Montanari
4 July 2024 | 6 min read

Widely used calcium imaging protocol can lead to spurious results, new paper cautions

The technique, which measures calcium currents as a proxy for neuronal firing, sometimes reports unusual and potentially misleading waves of activity in the hippocampus.

By Angie Voyles Askham
19 June 2024 | 0 min watch
A photograph of Paul-Antoine Libourel.
Sleep Microphone

At the end of the earth with Paul-Antoine Libourel

The French researcher’s accomplishments working with chinstrap penguins in the Antarctic highlight the importance of recording sleep in the wild.

By Yves Sciama
11 June 2024 | 18 min listen
A magnifying glass shines a light on a series of Xs.

Bounty hunting for blunders: Q&A with Russell Poldrack and Jan Wessel

The guinea pigs for a post-publication error-spotting project discuss why the field should destigmatize slipups—and how to handle them better.

By Calli McMurray
7 June 2024 | 10 min read
an illustration of scientists parachuting

The perils of parachute research

Scientists who study autism in lower-income countries are working to end practices that exploit or ignore collaborators and communities on the ground.

By Linda Nordling
6 June 2024 | 11 min read

Anti-vax blogger retracts critique of study that debunked vaccination-autism link

The commentary contained misguided criticisms of the study’s statistical methods, the lead investigator says.

By Calli McMurray
29 May 2024 | 3 min read
Illustration of a nametag with many names on it.
Publishing Microphone

At the credit crossroads: Modern neuroscience needs a cultural shift to adopt new authorship practices

Old heuristics to acknowledge contributors—calling out first and last authors, with everyone else in between—don’t work well for large collaborative and interdisciplinary projects, yet they remain the default.

By Megan Peters
20 May 2024 | 9 min listen
Community Microphone

How to use race and ethnicity data responsibly in neuroscience research

Follow these four tips to avoid using the information in problematic ways, including as a proxy for environmental variables.

By Gina Jiménez
24 April 2024 | 7 min listen

Reporting bias widespread in early-childhood autism intervention trials

Only 7 percent of completed registered trials were later updated with results, one of several failings identified in a new analysis.

By Gina Jiménez
18 April 2024 | 5 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of neurons in the fly’s ventral nerve cord.

New connectomes fly beyond the brain

Researchers are mapping the neurons in Drosophila’s ventral nerve cord, where the central nervous system meets the rest of the body.

By Laura Dattaro
26 July 2024 | 7 min read
Illustration of researchers talking to laypeople amidst strands of DNA.

Building an autism research registry: Q&A with Tony Charman

A purpose-built database of participants who have shared genomic and behavioral data could give clinical trials a boost, Charman says.

By Cathleen O’Grady
25 July 2024 | 8 min read

Cerebellar circuit may convert expected pain relief into real thing

The newly identified circuit taps into the brain’s opioid system to provide a top-down form of pain relief.

By Angie Voyles Askham
24 July 2024 | 6 min read