Academic freedom is increasingly threatened by homophobic legislation. Stella Nyanzi describes how this affects queer African scholars, and calls for resistance.

COVID-19 vaccine mandates increased vaccine coverage in most settings, but the protective effect was not homogenous across populations (for example, children)3. Public opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates was reported globally. This opposition has resulted in diminished uptake of standard childhood vaccines, as well as low public interest in COVID-19 boosters — even when access and availability

Bullying comes in many forms, including when subordinates bully a manager. Sara Branch argues that workplaces should implement policies to combat all types of bullying.

Anglo-Saxon conventions in handling author names in the academy negatively affect scholars around the world. Academia can and must take steps to change this, writes Victoria Guazzelli Williamson.

‘Metacognition’ refers to thinking about thinking, and its function in collective human behaviour remains largely unknown. Using a multiplayer online game and agent-based modelling, Hawkins et al. found distinctive patterns of collective intelligence that only emerge when using metacognitive social inference skills.

Big STEM collaborations, however, do not operate in isolation but are part of an interconnected web of social institutions, relations and values. Part of this involves recognizing that science often comes with complex effects on the world around it, not all of which are immediately obvious — advances in renewable energy technology, for example, are reliant upon metals that are often mined in regions

Ancient DNA can inform reconstructions of prehistoric social organization, but most evidence comes from elite burial grounds. Rivollat et al. analyse ancient DNA and archaeological evidence from 94 individuals at a non-monumental graveyard in France: Gurgy ‘les Noisats’. Their results reveal a patrilocal community who buried relatives close to one another.

Science is international, but scientific publishing is dominated by English-language publications. This disproportionately benefits native or fluent English speakers. We want to take steps to address the imbalance this creates, and new technology may help.

An online emotional-support chat service recently tested a feature that enabled human responders to use GPT-3 in crafting responses. Initial evaluations showed that these AI-assisted responses were perceived as more emotionally supportive than human-only responses. Yet, this advantage was lost once users learned of the AI involvement, which prompted the company to withdraw the feature. This mirrors

Effective HIV prevention and treatment are widely available, but services are underused and underdelivered. Behavioural economics offers insights into why this is and shows us cost-effective interventions to change behaviours. We call for investment in scaling up behavioural economics approaches to aid in progress towards ending HIV.

New medications that target biological mechanisms to address obesity, diabetes and related cardiometabolic conditions are widely popular. As not everyone is eligible, willing or able to take medications, structural and behavioural solutions remain essential to treat and decrease the risk of cardiometabolic diseases.

Academic publishing is the backbone of science dissemination –– but is the current system fit for purpose? We asked a diverse group of scientists to comment on the future of publishing. They discuss systemic issues, challenges, and opportunities, and share their vision for the future.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination policies of countries differed widely. A new Resource, collated by the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) project, details the policies of 185 countries, including variation in vaccination prioritization plans, eligibility and availability, cost to the individual, and mandatory vaccination.