Open Science
Reporting Negative and Null Results
A study that finds nothing is not a failed study. Leaving null results unpublished distorts the evidence base — and writing them up well is a genuine...
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Trusted Research · Since 2026
Directive Academy
Guides on peer review, research integrity & scholarly publishing — for authors, reviewers and editors
Open Science
How to Cite Data, Software and Code
You would never use another author's figure without citing it — yet datasets and analysis code are used every...
Directive Editorial Team · 2 min
Scientific Writing
Reporting Sex and Gender in Research: The SAGER Guidelines
Treating "sex" and "gender" as the same word has produced decades of incomplete medicine. The SAGER guidelines...
Directive Editorial Team · 4 min
Scientific Writing
Accessibility in Scientific Publishing: Making Your Paper Readable by Everyone
Roughly one in twelve men has a colour-vision deficiency, and thousands of researchers use screen readers. A f...
Directive Editorial Team · 4 min
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Research Integrity
Authorship Disputes: How to Prevent and Resolve Them
Authorship arguments stall more papers than bad data ever will. Almost all of them trace back to a conversation that never happened at the start of th...
Peer Review
Suggesting Reviewers: Who You Can Recommend and Who You Can't
Almost every submission form asks you to suggest reviewers, and almost nobody explains how. Done well, it speeds up your review. Done badly, it delays...
Peer Review
Fake Peer Review and Reviewer Fraud: How It Happens and How Journals Stop It
Thousands of papers have been retracted because the "reviewers" were the authors themselves. Here is how reviewer fraud works, why it is hard to spot,...
Research Integrity
How Similarity Screening Works (and How to Read a Similarity Report)
A "38% similarity" result is not a verdict of plagiarism — and a 5% result is not proof of innocence. Here is what similarity software actually measur...
Open Science
Preprint, Accepted Manuscript, Version of Record: Article Versions Explained
Your paper exists in several versions, and they are not interchangeable. Knowing which is which tells you what you may share, what to cite, and what a...
Research Integrity
ICMJE Recommendations: A Medical Author's Guide
If you publish in medicine, one document shapes more of the rules than any other. Here is what the ICMJE Recommendations require — authorship, trial r...
Research Integrity
COPE Core Practices Explained for Authors
Most journals say they "follow COPE". Here is what that actually means — the ten Core Practices, what they oblige a publisher to do, and how to use th...
Open Science
Digital Preservation: What Happens to Your Article in 50 Years
Journals close. Servers fail. Publishers are sold. Digital preservation is the quiet infrastructure that keeps your paper readable decades from now —...
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