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Public access to scientists' email increasingly politicized

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Public access to scientists' email increasingly politicized
> http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.8138


> Scientists report Freedom to Bully: How Laws Intended to Free
> Information Are Used to Harass Researchers, the UCS charged: “Open
> records laws are increasingly being used as a weapon against
> researchers whose work threatens private interests.” But sometimes
> seekers of scientists’ email target researchers whose work instead
> aids private interests, as seen in this headline from above the fold
> on the Sunday, 6 September, New York Times front page: “Emails reveal
> academic ties in a food war: Industry swaps grants for lobbying
> clout.”

> The UCS announcement summarized the growing politicization of
> scientists’ email:

> The use of open records laws to harass researchers emerged with the
> growing use of electronic communications. Conversations that used to
> take place over the phone or in person are now conducted by email, a
> format that leaves a permanent record. When these email discussions
> are made public through records requests, the privacy that academics
> have long enjoyed in discussions with colleagues is compromised. This
> can have a chilling effect on the frank exchange of ideas and
> constructive criticism, a crucial part of the scientific process.

> Abuse of open records requests can also hinder researchers simply by
> hijacking their schedule. Complying with requests may take dozens or
> even hundreds of hours of researchers’ time, putting their real work
> on hold or on the back burner for a long while. This may often be the
> main purpose of such requests.

> The announcement gave examples involving, for example, climate
> scientists supporting the climate consensus, climate scientists
> opposing it, tobacco health-effects researchers, an environmental
> chemist “saddled with ‘the largest open records request ever made in
> Minnesota’ in an apparent effort to shut the research down,” and an
> occupational health scientist who “found himself on the receiving end
> of multiple open records requests from the Highland Mining Co.
> starting in 2012” for investigating the health implications of the
> environmental effects of mountaintop removal.



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Public access to scientists' email increasingly politicized Sam Wormley <swormley1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-14 13:08 -0500
  Re: Public access to scientists' email increasingly politicized gilber34 <invalid@invalid.com> - 2015-09-15 10:55 -0500

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