[Taxacom] [EXT] Re: NZ Royal Society fails to object to suppression and censorship of science

Mary Barkworth Mary.Barkworth at usu.edu
Mon Aug 9 17:46:14 CDT 2021


A panel to evaluate a complaint is a far cry from "[endorsing] calls for suppression and censorship as being compatible with the Society's ethics policy. It simply means that if someone wants to complain about rejection of their manuscript or whatever, their complaint will be reviewed by a panel rather than being automatically accepted, dismissed, or referred to the same individual who made the decision that is being appealed. 
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> On Behalf Of John Grehan via Taxacom
Sent: Monday, August 9, 2021 4:33 PM
To: Peter A Rauch <peterar at berkeley.edu>
Cc: taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: [EXT] Re: [Taxacom] NZ Royal Society fails to object to suppression and censorship of science

I mentioned earlier that I would provide the R Soc Panel document to anyone who asks (and will send to Peter next). Point is that the Society set up the panel to 'evaluate' a complaint. The Panel denied any conflict with the Society's ethics and recommended no further action. That is the Society conclusion. Thus the Society, through its Panel, has effectively endorsed calls for suppression and censorship as being compatible with the Society's ethics policy.

John Grehan

On Mon, Aug 9, 2021 at 6:18 PM Peter A Rauch <peterar at berkeley.edu> wrote:

> John pointed to the published paper by Waters et al., Syst. Biol., as 
> the stimulus for his comments, and states [*emphasis* mine]:
>
> "... now the Royal Society Te Apārangi (New Zealand) has trashed its 
> slogan "We support New Zealanders to explore, discover and share 
> knowledge" *by providing endorsement of suppression and censorship by 
> their members through a Panel that concluded that there was nothing 
> wrong for their members to do this*.
>
> I'm still missing the point he apparently wants to make (about the 
> RSTA's
> Panel) because I don't know (John didn't provide?) what that Panel 
> actually wrote ("concluded"), nor what the RSTA wrote (to "endorse" 
> the Panel's "conclusions").
>
> Peter R
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 8, 2021 at 3:06 PM John Grehan via Taxacom < 
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>> Some of you may recall that some years ago several researchers 
>> published a paper in Systematic Biology in which they called for the 
>> suppression and censorship of a research program they opposed. That 
>> they felt it was OK for scientists to openly admit to such practices 
>> is shocking enough, but now the Royal Society Te Apārangi (New 
>> Zealand) has trashed its slogan "We support New Zealanders to 
>> explore, discover and share knowledge" by providing endorsement of 
>> suppression and censorship by their members through a Panel that 
>> concluded that there was nothing wrong for their members to do this. 
>> Perhaps others on Taxacome feel the same way,  that it is OK  for 
>> scientists to actively engage in suppression. To me it is horrifying, 
>> but perhaps I am in an ethical minority. Boggles the mind.
>>
>> John Grehan
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