Using a machine-learning framework to study the diffusion of biomedical knowledge in the literature, we find that scientific ideas experience popularity booms and busts when knowledge diffusion is constricted, which leads to adverse consequences for science and scientists. Our work highlights the need for research to have an effect on diverse audiences to achieve sustained scientific advancement.

In celebration of the fifth year anniversary of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, we ask authors of some of our most impactful articles (with respect to news stories, social media engagement, Altmetric scores, citations, policy mentions and article accesses) to reflect on the successes of their Reviews.

Kang et al. examine how patterns of knowledge diffusion can forecast the collapse of scientific ‘bubbles’, highlighting that sustained scientific advancement requires diverse audiences.

AI promises to transform medicine, but geographic concentration may hinder its equitable application. Here, authors map a global atlas of medical AI research and show that greater integration of global expertize could help AI deliver on its promise.

Affective research generates more diverse citations that cover a higher variety of research fields when compared to cognitive research. This occurs despite a more narrow focus of topics included in the original affective articles themselves

Roughly 6,000 readers answered our poll, with many declaring that Bluesky was nicer, kinder and less antagonistic to science than X.

Nature Astronomy is staffed by a small team of full-time editors, each covering a broad range of scientific topics and different sections of the journal. Two recruits have recently joined the team, promising renewed vigour as we go into 2025.

The emergence of China as a global leader in scientific output is being overshadowed by a growing crisis of confidence in its research integrity. In addition to existing efforts, we propose five actionable initiatives to bolster the fight against China’s retraction crisis.

The particle-physics funder will provide financial incentives to encourage practices such as data sharing and transparent peer review.

Huge analysis identifies regional variations in the criteria that institutions use to move researchers up the ranks.

Publishing highly cited papers helps postdoctoral researchers to land a faculty job.