Background: Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a powerful analysis method used to identify the best treatments for a condition and is used extensively by health care decision makers. Although software routines exist for conducting NMA, they require considerable statistical programming expertise to use, which limits the number of researchers able to…

"Ethics in practice" are the ethical dilemmas that arise during the conduct of research. In this article, we describe the ethical issues we faced when conducting an exploration of the experiences of 19 potential living kidney donors, and demonstrate how reflexivity can guide the ethical decision-making throughout the research process. We…

There is a crisis of valuation practices in the current academic life sciences, triggered by unsustainable growth and "hyper-competition." Quantitative metrics in evaluating researchers are seen as replacing deeper considerations of the quality and novelty of work, as well as substantive care for the societal implications of research.…

Three aspects of clinical research career decision-making were explored: the timing of the decision to enter a research career, the relationship between research success and the timing of the decision, and the impact of two disincentives to enter research careers. (Author/MLW)

While methods and results of school-based studies have been reported widely in the literature, little published information exists on the practical aspects of recruiting schools and students into a study. This paper reflects on the experiences of a UK-based sexual health survey among 3007 students aged 15-18 years. The survey explored beliefs,…