SCIENCE sciencemag.orgCREDITS: (GRAPHIC) C. SMITH/
SCIENCE
; (DATA) PEW RESEARCH CENTER; (PHOTO) FRANK CANON
coding for ribosomal RNA, an essential part
of the cell’s protein-building machinery.
The consortium hopes to finish mapping
remaining stretches within 1 year.France to pair science, media
POLICY | France plans to bring scientists
and journalists closer together in an effort
to boost public access to reliable scientific
information and combat misinformation.
Parliament is expected to approve the
project in coming weeks as part of a 10-year
science plan. The science ministry said
the plan is needed “at a time when French
society is crossed by currents of irrationality
and doubts about progress and knowledge.”
An early draft of the bill called for a sci-
ence media center similar to those in the
United Kingdom and Germany. But after
critics said funders of a French center could
distort its agenda and threaten journalistic
independence, the bill was reworded. It now
calls for a “series of actions or network.”HHMI mandates open access
PUBLISHING | The Howard Hughes
Medical Institute (HHMI), one of the largest
research philanthropies, said on 1 October
it will begin to require its staff scientists to
make research papers in which they played
a leading role immediately free to read.
The new policy will replace the current
requirement that HHMI papers become
open access within 12 months of publica-
tion. HHMI-supported scientists can comply
with the rule, which takes effect in January
2022, by publishing in journals with open-
access options or depositing a near-final,
peer-reviewed version in a free archive.
They can also use HHMI funds to publish in
hybrid journals, which allow authors to pay
for open-access publication but also charge
subscriptions, but only if the journal is tran-
sitioning to immediate open access for all
content. (For nonprofit publishers’ journals,
this provision takes effect in 2023.) HHMI
also said this week it will join Coalition S,
which includes funders mostly in Europe, in
its campaign to flip journals to immediate
open access. The new policy, which applies
to papers on which an HHMI scientist is
the first, last, or corresponding author, may
divert papers from top-tier journals that
lack open-access options, acknowledges bio-
chemist Erin O’Shea, HHMI’s president. In
2019, 13% of all papers in Cell, 5% in Nature,
and 7% in Science would have been subject
to the new requirement, the institute said.
O’Shea says the open-access model helps
accelerate science, so she hopes those sub-
scription journals and others will find ways
to help HHMI authors comply.U.S. le ads in science trust gulf
PUBLIC OPINION | When it comes to trust-
ing scientists, Americans are the most
split ideologically, a survey of 20 coun-
tries has found. Some 62% of Americans
who identified their politics as left wing
said they held “a lot” of trust in scien-
tists “to do what is right” for the public,
the Pew Research Center reported on
29 September. But only 20% of those who
identified with the right wing expressed
that level of confidence. The polarizationwas smaller in other countries. Still,
respondents in all countries had high
regard for scientists, with 36% express-
ing “a lot of trust” in them, matching the
military for most trusted and besting
perceptions of government and business
leaders and the news media.U.S. census dispute is extended
DEMOGRAPHY | The political battle over
when to stop tracking down Americans
who haven’t completed the 2020 U.S.
census continued this week. After a
court ruling last week overturned the
Trump administration’s deadline of
30 September, the Census Bureau said
on 28 September it would finish the
fieldwork by 5 October. Critics have
worried ending the work too soon could
cause a large undercount. In April,
the Census Bureau said the COVID-
pandemic had forced delays in deploying
some 500,000 door-to-door enumerators.
But in early August, the White House
said the fieldwork must wrap up by the
end of September. City and state officials
and civil rights groups sued to block that
plan, leading to last week’s ruling.CONSERVATIONUnregulated reptile trade threatens species
M
ore than one-third of reptile species, or nearly 4000, have been offered for sale
online in recent years, researchers at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical
Garden in China found when they searched 151 websites for ads for pet reptiles
placed between 2000 and 2019. Some species for sale are endangered, reports
the study, published on 29 September in Nature Communications. More than
half of reptiles imported to the United States are captured from the wild, and the trade
of most reptiles is not regulated, the study notes, even though researchers don’t know
enough about some 1500 species to tell whether they are endangered. The Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) moni-
tors the trade of just 9% of reptile species, typically those sold in larger volumes, such
as crocodiles and pythons, whose skin is used in shoes, wallets, and other items.
In all, CITES regulates trade of 856 reptile species and has banned sales for 98. The
International Union for Conservation of Nature lists 1406 as species of concern.Trade in Sri Lanka’s
critically endangered
Knuckles pygmy
lizard was banned
last year.United States
Canada
Australia
United Kingdom
Germany
Italy
France
BrazilLeft Right Diference
62
74
68
62
55
47223420 +
+
+
+ 27
+
+- 0
35
39
35
38
312235A partisan divide
Share of survey respondents, by political
orientation, who trust scientists “a lot”m2 OCTOBER 2020 • VOL 370 ISSUE 6512 15