Editorials in 2025

Humans are a social species, and one expression of this is prosocial behaviour: we often behave in ways that do not directly benefit ourselves, but others. On International Volunteer Day, we are launching a Collection on prosocial behaviour to celebrate its importance as a core human behaviour.

Waste is not only a material issue but also a social one. Our Focus on waste highlights the crucial role of the human perspective, and calls for the recentring of human experience, equity and local knowledge in waste management. A people-centred approach is essential for creating strategies that are both effective and equitable, and promote environmental, health and social justice for all.

The Global Flourishing Study is a longitudinal panel study that is collecting nationally representative, multidimensional well-being data from more than 200,000 people in 22 geographically and culturally diverse countries. The first wave of results highlights the value of tracking a rich set of flourishing indicators for both science and policy.