Oxyria (Polygonaceae) is a small genus only comprising two species, Oxyria digyna and O. sinensis. Both species have well-documented usage in Chinese herbal medicine. We sequenced and assembled the complete mitogenomes of these two species and conducted a comparative analysis of the mitogenomes within Polygonaceae. Both O. digyna and O. sinensis displayed distinctive multi-branched conformations, consisting of one linear and one circular molecule. These two species shared similar gene compositions and exhibited distinct codon preferences, with mononucleotides as the most abundant type of simple sequence repeats. In the mitogenome of O. sinensis, a pair of long forward repeat sequences can mediate the division of molecule 1 into two sub-genomic circular molecules. Homologous sequence analysis revealed the occurrence of gene transfer between the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes within Oxyria species. Additionally, a substantial number of homologous collinear blocks with varied arrangements were observed across different Polygonaceae species. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that mitogenome genes can serve as reliable markers for constructing phylogenetic relationships within Polygonaceae. Comparative analysis of eight species revealed Polygonaceae mitogenomes exhibited variability in gene presence, and most protein-coding genes (PCGs) have undergone negative selection. Overall, our study provided a comprehensive overview of the structural, functional, and evolutionary characteristics of the Polygonaceae mitogenomes.

Learned societies, as professional bodies for scientists, are an integral part of the scientific system. However, their membership fees have the potential to be prohibitive to the most vulnerable members of the scientific community. To shed light on how membership fees are structured, we conducted a survey of 182 international learned societies relevant to researchers in ecology and evolution. We found that 83% of these societies offered fee concessions to students, but only 26% to postdoctoral researchers. An average regular membership fee—US$67.8, student fee—US$27.4 (42.7% of the regular fee) and postdoctoral fee—US$42.7 (52.9%). Other types of individual concessions, such as for emeritus, family or unemployed, were rare (2–20%). Of the surveyed societies, 43% had discounts for members from developing countries (Global South). Such discounts were more common among societies located in high-income countries. Societies with a publicly visible commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion were more likely to offer different types of concessions. Currently, fees may prevent researchers from vulnerable and underprivileged groups from accessing multiple professional benefits offered by learned societies in ecology and evolution. This includes postdoctoral researchers, who should receive more support. We recommend tangible actions towards making learned societies more affordable and accessible.

Contributorship refers to indicating who did what in a project, going beyond a simple list ofauthors. In scholarly journal articles about a project, the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT)has become a popular way to provide individual contribution information, often withaccompanying machine-readable metadata. While CRediT is used by hundreds of scientificjournals, the official version of CRediT exists only in English. To support scientific publishersand researchers writing in other languages, we have created translations of the fourteen CRediTroles and their descriptions into thirty-six languages. To ensure high quality, at least one speakerfluent in the target language drafted the translation, with additional involvement of a secondfluent person. Because hundreds of scientific journals publish non-English work, the use of ourtranslations could improve the recognition of the associated researchers’ contributions. We havecontacted relevant publishers and academic organizations to make them more aware of CRediT,of our translations, and of contributorship generally. To conclude, we discuss the potential forCRediT and other ontologies to be applied more broadly, for example to facilitate greater recognition of people who are not co-authors but are named in Acknowledgments sections.

Oxyria (Polygonaceae) is a small genus only comprising two species, Oxyria digyna and O. sinensis. Both species are well-known Chinese herbal medicines with a long history of use. We sequenced and assembled the complete mitogenomes of these two species and conducted a comparative analysis of the mitogenomes within Polygonaceae. Both O. digyna and O. sinensis displayed distinctive multi-branched conformations, consisting of one linear and one circular molecule. These two species shared similar gene compositions and exhibited distinct codon preferences, with mononucleotides as the most abundant type of simple sequence repeats. In the mitogenome of O. sinensis, a pair of long forward repeat sequences can mediate the division of molecule 1 into two sub-genomic circular molecules. Homologous sequence analysis revealed the occurrence of gene transfer between the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes within Oxyria species. Additionally, a substantial number of homologous collinear blocks with varied arrangements were observed across different Polygonaceae species. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that mitogenome genes can serve as reliable markers for constructing phylogenetic relationships within Polygonaceae. Comparative analysis of eight species revealed Polygonaceae mitogenomes exhibited variability in gene presence, and most protein-coding genes (PCGs) have undergone negative selection. Overall, our study provided a comprehensive overview of the structural, functional, and evolutionary characteristics of the Polygonaceae mitogenomes.

Open science (OS) practices have gained broad recognition in psychology, especially in social and personality psychology, and many surveys have examined researchers’ perspectives on OS to identify ways to increase adoption. Yet current evidence comes predominantly from Western regions where OS is relatively established, leaving many other research contexts understudied. Here we present survey data from 372 researchers in China and Nigeria, two countries distinct research contexts. We examined respondents’ awareness and lifetime use of OS practices, attitudes and intentions toward OS, perceived barriers, and perceptions of questionable research practices (QRPs). Respondents in both countries were generally aware of OS practices and viewed them favorably, but engagement was uneven across practices and implementation intentions were lower for more demanding practices such as registered reports, replication studies, and preregistration. Reported barriers reflected both shared challenges and country-specific constraints: researchers in both countries reported a lack of OS training and education, whereas Chinese researchers emphasized incentives and evaluation policies, while Nigerian researchers faced greater infrastructural constraints. Consistent with previous surveys, many common QRPs were perceived as widespread, and self-reported engagement in QRPs was not negligible. These findings suggest that positive attitudes toward OS do not by themselves ensure implementation, especially when openness requires additional labor, infrastructure, training, or career risk. Our results also highlight the limits of standardized OS surveys and the need for more contextualized approaches, including the full spectrum of OS practices, qualitative methods, and the perspective of researchers actively promoting OS in non-Western contexts.