Mastodawn

#Climate #ClimateChange #Environment #Takedowns

petersuber Jan 22, 2025

Update. "The mad dash to protect environmental data from Donald Trump"
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/18/24346025/data-donald-trump-climate-environment-epa
(#paywalled)

"Information about climate change vanished from federal websites under Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change “a hoax.” Now, federal agencies could face deep staff and budget cuts overseen by Trump cronies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The proposed cuts not only threaten what kind of data the government shares but also whether it can collect and organize it at all....

One key resource that could languish under the Trump administration is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, #EJScreen.…Even if it stays online, the tool is not as useful without constant upkeep....

Much of the environmental data included in EJScreen is collected by the #EPA itself. The EPA isn’t likely to abandon its air quality monitors anytime soon, but #Project2025…proposes eliminating the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights that manages the tool...."

The mad dash to protect environmental data from Donald Trump

Researchers are bracing for new threats to government data on pollution and climate change under the Trump administration.

The Verge

#Censorship #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Jan 24, 2025

Update. Here's a good use of #GitHub to track textual changes and page takedowns on federal govt web sites since #Trump took office.
https://www.404media.co/github-is-showing-the-trump-administration-scrubbing-government-web-pages-in-real-time/

This project is dedicated to the pages on #DEI. I hope someone launches a similar project on the pages dedicated to science and research.

GitHub Is Showing the Trump Administration Scrubbing Government Web Pages in Real Time

Watch the Trump administration play DEI whac-a-mole on this government agency's GitHub page.

404 Media

#Censorship #Medicine #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Jan 25, 2025

Update. "For the first time in its more than 60-year history, the #CDC's [#OpenAccess] Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (#MMWR) did not go out as scheduled because of a communications pause at federal health agencies issued by the #Trump administration."
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/generalinfectiousdisease/113905

Trump's Gag Order Halts CDC Publication

MMWR did not publish as usual at 1 p.m. today

#Takedowns #TrumpAntiScience #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Jan 26, 2025

Update. As recently as January 2, 2025, #NASA had five modules for teaching #OpenScience on its web site. The #Trump administration has taken them down.
https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/tops/os101/

Here they are in the @internetarchive Wayback Machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250102141453/https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/tops/os101/

EDIT 01/09/26: The course is now back up on the #NASA website. (h/t @csmarcum)
https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/training/

Open Science Trainings

Click on a tab below to learn about available open science training courses.

NASA Science

#Climate #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Jan 28, 2025

Update. If you're following this thread, also follow the Silencing Science Tracker from Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (at Columbia Law School) and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund.
https://climate.law.columbia.edu/Silencing-Science-Tracker

Silencing Science Tracker | Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

#Data #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Jan 31, 2025

Update. "Datasets aggregated on data.gov, the largest repository of U.S. government #OpenData on the internet, are being deleted, according to the website’s own information. Since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, more than 2,000 datasets have disappeared from the database."
https://www.404media.co/archivists-work-to-identify-and-save-the-thousands-of-datasets-disappearing-from-data-gov/

Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov

More than 2,000 datasets have disappeared from data.gov since Trump was inaugurated. But analyzing exactly what happened and where it went is going to take some time.

404 Media

#Agriculture #Censorship #Climate #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 1, 2025

Update. "#USDA ordered to scrub climate change from websites"
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/31/usda-climate-change-websites-00201826

"Agriculture Department employees have been ordered to delete landing pages discussing climate change across agency websites and document climate change references for further review, according to an internal email obtained by POLITICO...."

#Censorship #ScholComm #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 4, 2025

Update. I just posted an item outside this thread that belongs in the thread. Sorry. Here it is. The #Trump #CDC is asking staffers to withdraw pending scientific publications that use newly-prohibited terms like #transgender, #immigrant, or #LGBT.
https://fediscience.org/@petersuber/113946091994922725

petersuber (@[email protected])

"Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [#CDC] were ordered late on Friday to withdraw any pending publications, at any scientific journal, that mention terms such as “transgender,” “immigrant,” “L.G.B.T.” or “pregnant people.” https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02/01/us/trump-tariffs-news#trump-gender-research When CDC employees were co-authors of such pending papers, they were ordered to write to the journals and ask to be removed as co-authors. When all co-authors were CDC employees, they were ordered to ask the journal to retract the article from consideration. #Censorship #Retractions #ScholComm #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

FediScience.org

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 4, 2025

Update. "Top advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [#CDC] are asking the agency’s acting director to explain the abrupt removal of information and data from CDC websites, and say when it will be restored. In a sharply worded letter sent Saturday, the group asked Acting Director Susan Monarez what the rationale was for removing the data, if the consequences and legal authority of such a decision were considered, what was being done to safeguard the data sets that were removed, and when access to them would return. The letter asks for answers by Feb. 7."
https://archive.is/SWhYj

The CDC advisory board was disbanded by Trump in 2019 and revived by Biden in 2021. The members "expect to be fired" for asking the agency to explain and reverse the takedowns.

#Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

Update. "Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, Doctors for America filed a #lawsuit today [Feb 4] against the Office of Personnel Management (#OPM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (#CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (#FDA), and the Department of Health & Human Services (#HHS) for the removal of a broad range of #health-related data and other information used by health professionals and researchers from publicly accessible government websites."
https://www.citizen.org/news/doctors-for-america-sues-over-removal-of-health-information-from-hhs-cdc-fda-websites/

Doctors for America Sues Over Removal of Health Information From HHS, CDC, FDA Websites - Public Citizen

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, Doctors for America filed a lawsuit today against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the…

Public Citizen

#Authorship #Retractions #ScholComm #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

Update, on the #CDC order directing staffers to retract pending journal articles that use now-prohibited terms like #transgender and #immigrant (earlier in this thread) …

Bravo to the #BMJ (@bmj_latest) for calling this order "sinister and ludicrous."
https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r253

"This is not how it works. Medically relevant terminology and inclusive language follow evidence based reporting standards or are matters of individual journal style and policy. They do not follow political orders. Similarly, co-authors cannot simply scrub themselves from articles. Authorship gives credit and accountability for the work, and an article’s list of authors does not ghost contributors. If authors wish to withdraw submissions under review at a journal, this process is feasible should all of their co-authors agree. However, if somebody who merits inclusion in the authorship group of an article requests to be removed, even with the approval of the co-authors, this is a breach of publication ethics."

#Censorship #ReviseAndResubmit #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

Update. Here's an online tool from #BradleyAllf to help you publish research in the #Trump age, especially if you're a US govt scientist. Just paste in your abstract and it will underline the banned words.
https://brad7280.github.io/thoughtcrime-checker/

Thoughtcrime Checker

#OpenData #USPol #USPolitics

Update. "Staffers with Elon #Musk’s [#DOGE] entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (#NOAA)…today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/doge-noaa-headquarters

What's the #Trump or #Trumpist interest here?

1. "#Project2025…called for the agency to be 'broken up and downsized', claiming the agency is 'harmful to US prosperity' for its role in #climate science."

2. Andrew Rosenberg, a former NOAA official, "noted it had been a longtime goal of corporations that rely on NOAA data to prevent the agency from making the data public, instead of giving it directly to private corporations that create products based on it, such as weather forecasting services."

PS: Rosenberg is right. During the GWBush admin, Senator #RickSantorum (R-PA) repeatedly tried to take down NOAA's open weather data, to benefit AccuWeather, the for-profit weather forecaster in his state. I wrote about it often at the time and may have to dig out and reup those old pieces.

Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats

Members reportedly sought access to IT systems at agency that Project 2025 has called ‘harmful to US prosperity’

The Guardian

#Censorship #Medicine #ScholComm #SocietyPublisher #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

Update. The #BMJ isn't the only journal pushing back against the #CDC directive that staff scientists should retract pending publications that use Trump-banned words. (Earlier in this thread.)

Kudos to the _American Journal of Public Health_ (#AJPH) for pushing back as well.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/114076

From publisher Georges Benjamin: "We at the American Journal of Public Health have no interest in following the president's prohibitions on language. We will publish things under our guidelines, under our ethical principles." Benjamin acknowledged that the journal may now get fewer submissions from government scientists.

AJPH is published by the American Public Health Association (#APHA).

Public Health Journal Won't Be Complicit in Trump Admin's Censorship

'We will publish things under our guidelines, under our ethical principles'

#Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 6, 2025

Update. #OMB is telling #DOGE to stop using #Slack. Why? Because Slack messages are subject to #FOI requests.
https://www.404media.co/doge-employees-ordered-to-stop-using-slack-while-agency-transitions-to-a-records-system-not-subject-to-foia/

DOGE Employees Ordered to Stop Using Slack While Agency Transitions to a Records System Not Subject to FOIA

Employees at Elon Musk's agency have been told "OMB is asking us to stop generating new slack messages starting now."

404 Media

#USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 7, 2025

Update. If you're following this thread, you might also follow Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to #Trump Administration Actions, from #JustSecurity.
https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

A public resource tracking the legal challenges to Trump administration executive orders and actions.

Just Security

petersuber

This is the first fed agency action of its kind since #Trump took office. Note that, so far, this work has not stopped or changed.

#CDC #Censorship #Medicine #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

Update. "Intense backlash prompted the reinstatement of some online resources. But guidelines for safe contraception and information on racial inequities in health care remain missing."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/health/trump-gender-ideology-research.html

C.D.C. Site Restores Some Purged Files After ‘Gender Ideology’ Ban Outcry

Intense backlash prompted the reinstatement of some online resources. But guidelines for safe contraception and information on racial inequities in health care remain missing.

The New York Times

#Nationalism #USPol #USPolitics

Update. "White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation"
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/02/white-house-budget-proposal-could-shatter-the-national-science-foundation/

" 'This kind of cut would kill American science and boost #China and other nations into global science leadership positions,' [said] Neal Lane, who led the #NSF in the 1990s during Bill Clinton's presidency."

PS: I've never liked #nationalist arguments for funding or fostering science. Science is international. But the #Trump admin is putting us in a dilemma. Either we see deep cuts in US science funding. Or we use nationalist arguments to avert those cuts.

There are non-nationalist arguments to fund US science. For example, good science is usually expensive and those who do it well should be funded for the benefit of all. Unfortunately that argument is not likely to work on Trump admin officials. It's not US-specific and applies everywhere, even in China.

White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation

“This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China.”…

Ars Technica

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 9, 2025

Update. The @WashPost does a good job showing the breadth of govt science and info taken down by the #Trump admin.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2025/sample-government-webpages-trump-doesnt-want-you-see/

A sample of the government webpages Trump doesn’t want you to see

Dozens of government webpages disappeared as part of his plan to reshape the U.S. government to his liking. Not even NASA was spared.

The Washington Post

#Medicine #ScholComm #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 9, 2025

Update. "Trump officials exerting unprecedented control over CDC scientific journal"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-officials-influence-cdc-mmwr/

"Trump administration political appointees have taken steps in recent weeks to exert unprecedented influence over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's flagship medical research publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, multiple federal health officials tell CBS News. The interference included dictating what to cover and withholding studies on the growing bird flu outbreak."

PS: Just curious. How do Trump officials decide that covering bird flu is bad for their agenda?

Trump officials exerting unprecedented control over CDC scientific journal

"The MMWR has lost its autonomy," one health official told CBS News.

#Censorship #USPol #USPolitics

Over at @deltathink, Dan Pollock and Ann Michael estimate the impact of #Trump executive actions on academic publishing, starting with the #CDC.
https://www.deltathink.com/news-views-special-edition-how-much-of-scholarly-publishing-is-affected-by-us-presidential-executive-orders

"The proportion of CDC-authored papers is tiny [0.1% of global output and 0.6% of US output], and so their suppression is unlikely to lead to a drop in publishing output. However, should the orders spread to other areas of health research, then the effects could be profound – especially for journals and publishers relying heavily on US-authored papers."

News & Views Special Edition: How much scholarly publishing is affected by US Presidential Executive Orders?

h/t https://fediscience.org/@jnonfiction@social.coop

Update The #Trump admin has taken down the #OSTP #NelsonMemo.

It was formerly at this URL.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf

You can still find it in the @internetarchive #WaybackMachine, as recently as Jan 18, 2025.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250118021041/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf

We can't tell yet whether it was taken down because Trump officials didn't like the #OpenAccess policies it laid out, didn't like its use of #DEI language — or both.

#Censorship #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

Update. I still don't know the full story behind the takedown of the #NelsonMemo. But here's a clue. The Dept of Defense (#DOD) continued rolling its memo-based #OpenAccess policy *after* Trump took office and *after* the memo was taken down.
https://fediscience.org/@petersuber/113964410103345053

That's a sign that agencies have not been told to stop rolling out their memo-based policy upgrades. But of course that may change.

Also note that memo is preserved in the #NationalArchives, for now, not just in the Wayback Machine.
https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf

(Yes, I'm aware that Trump fired Colleen Shogan, the Biden-era National Archivist.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/trump-fires-the-nations-archivist-in-latest-round-of-personnel-purge.html

#USPol #USPolitics

petersuber (@[email protected])

Update. The Dept of Defense (#DOD) just released the implementation plan for its upgraded #OpenAccess policy under the Biden-era #OSTP #NelsonMemo. https://discover.dtic.mil/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/DoD_PublicAccessPlan_Dec_2024.pdf This is the first fed agency action of its kind since #Trump took office. Note that, so far, this work has not stopped or changed.

FediScience.org

#Censorship #Medicine #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 13, 2025

Update. "In the initial days of the #Trump administration, officials scoured federal websites for any mention of what they deemed #DEI keywords — terms as generic as “diverse” and “historically” and even “women.” They soon identified reams of some of the country’s most valuable public health data containing some of the targeted words, including language about LGBTQ+ people, and quickly took down much of it — from surveys on obesity and suicide rates to real-time reports on immediate infectious disease threats like bird flu."
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/399319/trump-cdc-health-data-removed-obesity-suicide

Trump’s shocking purge of public health data, explained

Trump and Elon Musk have said they want to get rid of DEI. But their purge has swept up data on obesity and suicide rates plus teen smoking and sexual behavior.

Vox

#FOIA #Secrecy #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 13, 2025

Update. "The White House has designated Mr. #Musk’s office, United States #DOGE Service, as an entity insulated from public records requests."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/politics/trump-musk-doge-foia-public-records.html

In Nov 2024 before Musk joined the #Trump government, he wrote on X / Twitter: "There should be no need for FOIA requests. All government data should be default public for maximum transparency."
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853079605596340235

Trump’s Declaration Allows Musk’s Efficiency Team to Skirt Open Records Laws

Government watchdog groups say they will challenge the Trump administration’s decision to put the initiative under the Presidential Records Act, which shields its work from public disclosure.

The New York Times

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Litigation #Medicine #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 13, 2025

Update. "Court Orders #CDC, #FDA to Restore Scrubbed Webpages, Data"
https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/114177

"A federal judge on Tuesday ordered government agencies to restore public access to health-related webpages and datasets that they removed to comply with an executive order by President #Trump…The scrubbed material includes reports on HIV prevention, a CDC webpage for providing clinicians with guidance on reproductive healthcare, and an FDA study on 'sex differences in the clinical evaluation of medical products.'"

Court Orders CDC, FDA to Restore Scrubbed Webpages, Data

Judge agreed to temporary restraining order requested by the Doctors for America advocacy group

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 14, 2025

Update. From @hildabast: "What if We Can’t Rely on PubMed?"
https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2025/02/14/what-if-we-cant-rely-on-pubmed/

"#PubMed is incredibly reliable…That said, between the risks of an exodus of key personnel, understaffing, or goodness-knows-what vandalism when a goon squad arrives at NIH, it’s not paranoid any more to think ahead to the once-unthinkable. What would PubMed enshittification look like? Could PubMed go down more often, and for longer? Might services no longer be free? How else could the #quality and #reliability of its services be degraded?"

What if We Can't Rely on PubMed? - Absolutely Maybe

PubMed is incredibly reliable. And a lot depends on it. It’s an ecosystem built around MEDLINE, the steady feed of new publications…

Absolutely Maybe

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 15, 2025

Update. From #HaroldVarmus, "I Used to Run the #NIH. Here’s What Worries Me."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/opinion/trump-public-health-funding-nih.html

"I’ve spent over five decades as a scientist in academia and the federal government, including as director of the NIH. Never before have I seen my profession so politicized as it is now under the #Trump administration…For baffling reasons, the executive branch is now waging war on America’s scientific enterprise. This assault includes nominating leaders hostile to science and unqualified for their roles; issuing a barrage of executive orders that disrupt research by restricting meetings, publications, travel and grant making; censoring ideas and even certain words from scientific discourse; and trying to withhold billions of dollars from universities and other research institutions that help pay the costs of research."

PS: In addition to being a former NIH director, Varmus is a Nobel laureate (1989 Medicine) and co-founder of @PLOS.

Opinion | American Science is Under Attack

The Trump administration hobbles research and endangers the public health.

The New York Times

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Legislation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 15, 2025

Update. "The Trump Administration Is Targeting Science. The Scientific Integrity Act Could Help Protect It."
https://blog.ucsusa.org/kellickson/the-trump-administration-is-targeting-science-the-scientific-integrity-act-could-help-protect-it/

"The Scientific Integrity Act (#SI Act) is a bipartisan bill re-introduced on February 6th in the US House of Representatives… [It] would include language prohibiting scientific or research misconduct; preventing intimidation or attempted coercion to alter or censor scientific or technical findings; and allowing public dissemination of scientific and technical findings…It would ensure that scientific conclusions are not made based on political considerations but based on the best available science."

The Trump Administration Is Targeting Science. The Scientific Integrity Act Could Help Protect It

The first few weeks of the Trump administration has seen a flurry of far-reaching executive orders and other actions that threaten, among other things, the ability of federal agencies to pursue science and share that science with the public. These dangerous and in some circumstances, potentially unc

The Equation

#Censorship #DefendResearch #OpenData #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 16, 2025

Update. "The #Trump administration and Elon #Musk are reportedly taking aim at #NOAA, the agency responsible for the National Weather Service and many other crucial functions."
https://www.fastcompany.com/91274927/trump-wants-to-dismantle-the-agency-that-provides-weather-forecasts-it-will-make-your-life-worse

"#Project2025 specifically noted NOAA as a target, as well. The Heritage Foundation’s 900-page right-wing playbook called the agency “one of the main drivers of the #climate change alarm industry” and recommended it be “dismantled and many of its functions eliminated” and instead #privatized. It’s not clear what that would look like, though experts have said it isn’t a good idea—and that private weather companies wouldn’t even want that change because they’d have to bear the cost of collecting weather data that’s currently given to them for free."

Trump wants to dismantle the agency that provides weather forecasts. It will make your life worse

The Trump administration and Elon Musk are reportedly taking aim at NOAA, the agency responsible for the National Weather Service and many other crucial functions.

Fast Company

#Climate #DefendResearch #OpenData #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 16, 2025

Update. "Science at Risk: Protect #NOAA"
https://secure.ucsusa.org/a/2025-protect-noaa-science-aaas

I just signed this open letter from @ucsusa and hope you will too.

"Scientists and other experts: Add your name to this open letter calling on Congress and the #Trump administration to ensure that NOAA and its sub-agencies remain fully funded and staffed, and that the independent, trusted science the agency produces is protected."

Science at Risk: Protect NOAA

Scientists and other experts: Add your name to this open letter calling on Congress and the Trump administration to ensure that NOAA and its sub-agencies remain fully funded and staffed, and that the independent, trusted science the agency produces is protected.

Union of Concerned Scientists

#DefendResearch #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 16, 2025

Update. "Join the Organizing Team for Your Local Stand Up For Science Rally!"
https://airtable.com/app4h5wUssMGXxiaX/shrxZ4tAY6LYldCNg

Airtable | Everyone's app platform

Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. Get started for free.

Airtable

#Academia #Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

petersuber Feb 17, 2025

Update. I applaud this open letter from 48 US scientific societies to US researchers, educators, and academics.
https://unitedsciencealliance.org/

"Today, science is under threat…We need scientific research to support the health and safety of people and our planet. We need policy decisions that are grounded in research and data…We will champion scientific integrity, including academic freedom, the inclusion of diverse perspectives, and policies grounded in scientific evidence…Scientific truths are nonpartisan. It has never been more important to recommit to scientific knowledge, and to ensure you have access to data, are free from censorship, and are able to do your valuable work."

Letter to researchers, educators, and academics

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 17, 2025

Update. "This position is a response to concerns raised regarding prohibition of specific terminology, and restrictions on researchers’ activities and collaborations. #COPE [Committee on Publication Ethics] considers that authors and editors are best placed to determine the appropriate language to be used in their respective fields, to ensure that research is communicated appropriately…COPE supports the World Association of Medical Editors (#WAME)’s statement that editorial decisions must remain unaffected by the authors’ nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion. Publication choices should not be swayed by external governmental policies, unless compliance with applicable laws is at stake.”
https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/banned-terms-scholarly-publications-and-restrictions-researchers-activities

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 17, 2025

Update. The Union of Concerned Scientists (#UCS, @ucsusa) just released this open letter to Congress. I signed and hope you will too.
https://secure.ucsusa.org/a/2024-save-science-save-lives

"I am asking you to defend the science and scientists that keep Americans safe. The Trump administration's current agenda is eviscerating the protections that Americans count on and support: clean air and water; safe food and medicine; products that won't harm us; and protection from extreme weather and other damaging effects of climate change…Protecting rigorous and independent science is a common-sense, nonpartisan goal."

Save Science, Save Lives

Please join science supporters, scientists, and experts in signing an open letter asking Congress to stand up against attempts to politicize or eliminate scientific roles, agencies, and federal research that protect our health, environment, and our communities.

Union of Concerned Scientists

#DefendResearch #Ethics #Medicine #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber Feb 18, 2025

Update. Kathleen Bachynski and Martin McKee argue that #Trump cuts to medical research and ongoing clinical trials violate the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki on Research Ethics and the 1979 Belmont Report on Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research.
https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r289

BlueDot🇺🇦Feb 17, 2025

@petersuber

Of course if I were writing to a Republican member of Congress, I'd describe independent science as "a common-sense, nonpartisan goal."

But it isn't. Science is inherently anti-fascist, because #fascism is anti-science. Indeed, fascists have been railing for years against the very idea that there is objective truth. The destruction of the American scientific community was always part of the plan.

@ucsusa

noplasticshower Feb 16, 2025

@petersuber disgusted with Republicans

Jay Thoden van Velzen ☁️🛡️

Feb 16, 2025

@petersuber that cat 5 or 6 hurricane will still come. Now you just won't know about it, until it hits you

PhillyChuck Feb 16, 2025

@petersuber Does he not realize how critical weather was to the D-Day landings, and also the Japanese A-bombs? Of course, he wanted the other side to win.

CelloMom On Cars Feb 16, 2025

@petersuber

So WEIRD, the way private companies harvest the publicly available output of public institutions, make money and a reputation off of it, and suddenly are shown to need the Cinderella after all.

Tytrater Feb 16, 2025

@petersuber can’t measure climate change if we stop measuring the weather

Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary Feb 15, 2025

@petersuber Why are they only introducing something like this now, when it's really unlikely to be passed? We need more than theatre.

acm Feb 15, 2025

@petersuber @PLOS really baffled? these guys HATE that facts are constantly being used against them, so they want to stomp out anything that generates new facts. Environmental science is their #1 enemy, but people who wanted to control/contain Covid are Trump enemies too. Plus, academia breeds leftists...

Magnus Ahltorp Feb 16, 2025

@acm_redfox @petersuber @PLOS Yep. The reasons are not baffling to anyone who has listened to these people.

If you elect the anti-science, anti-everything guy, don’t be baffled when he’s anti-science and anti-everything.

Visions of Napa Feb 14, 2025

@petersuber @hildabast I have two rare diseases that could kill me without treatment. I use PubMed to keep me and my doctors informed to the latest research and treatments. Most doctors I meet know so very little about rare diseases.

Michael Roberts Feb 13, 2025

@petersuber By "government" he doesn't mean beacons of freedom like himself, though (or the imperial presidency). He literally only means the professional bureaucracies he wants to dominate.

Dan Goodman Feb 12, 2025

@petersuber @internetarchive I'm sure they wouldn't want us wasting public funds paying for overpriced APCs right? 😂

@neuralreckoning @internetarchive
Sorry if you already know this. The #NelsonMemo described #GreenOA policies. It required deposit in OA #repositories, not submission to OA #journals. Some publishers told authors that they'd have to pay #APCs to comply with the policy. But that was deception and spin. Compliance with the policy was always free of charge. When journals charge APCs to publish fed-funded research, it was to publish in those journals, not to comply with federal policy.

Dan Goodman Feb 12, 2025

@petersuber @internetarchive no I know, I was just being snarky. I would guess that despite claiming that they want to reduce government spending they wouldn't support this because it's too left-coded for them and they're not actually against corporate profiteering.

jonny (good kind)Feb 12, 2025

@neuralreckoning
@petersuber @internetarchive
I'm so confused in this moment bc like surely the big publishers will use their lobbying arms to push for restoration of us research funding, and I hate how the fascists managed to align our interests

@neuralreckoning @petersuber @internetarchive

El Duvelle Feb 12, 2025

@jonny ha, I was thinking just that. Maybe they can at least be useful for this one thing?

Dan Goodman Feb 12, 2025

@elduvelle @jonny @petersuber @internetarchive I think they will lobby for spending more money on publishing and less on science. Their perfect world. 😉

El Duvelle Feb 12, 2025

@neuralreckoning yes.. Probably that's what will happen and the US government will be very happy to oblige them 🙃

PS I hope your talk went well! In the end I couldn't come but I am sad to have missed it..
@jonny @petersuber @internetarchive

Kate Nyhan is changing servers Feb 12, 2025

@petersuber @deltathink
I haven't clicked through yet, but - sure, .1% is a low rate. But .1% of a very big number is still a big number.

Kate Nyhan is changing servers Feb 12, 2025

@petersuber @deltathink
Ok, I clicked through, and I think I'm getting clearer on some things. If I understand correctly, they are talking about papers with FUNDING, not necessarily AUTHOR AFFILIATION, from the various federal agencies.

Kate Nyhan is changing servers Feb 12, 2025

@petersuber @deltathink
Distinguishing between intramural and extramural is important, more so than agency 1 vs agency 2. I wonder what the figures would be for intramural-across-HHS - I'm sure it's smaller than extramural-with-HHS-funding, but is it a quarter? Half? I have no idea. But that's important, because the Project 2025/DOGE/Trump/MAHA people can exert authority over intramural researchers more easily than extramural ones, I think.

Dannyboyguyman Feb 9, 2025

@petersuber "I like the numbers where they're at" -Trump, March 2020

Joshua Neds-Fox Feb 9, 2025

@petersuber need plausible deniability that US policy contributed to the coming global bird flu pandemic. no data/reporting, no govt acknowledgment.

Eva Chanda Feb 9, 2025

@petersuber
Bird flu explains why eggs are so expensive, so they wouldn't be able to blame migrants or trans people or whatever. Plus so far it's affecting mainly poultry and dairy workers i.e. the poors, mostly brown, so they don't care.
#BirdFlu #CDCcensorship #MuskPurge #TrumpPurge

Photo Ewen 📷Feb 9, 2025

@petersuber
@WashPost

I feel like we're at the stage of making archives of the media listing the damage, because these will go missing later as well.

Mike Taylor 🦕Feb 7, 2025

@petersuber It will be, though, won't it? Just because it came from the Biden White House.

@mike
We honestly don't know yet. On the one hand, #Trump has taken down govt science sites and datasets in his first and second terms. On the other hand, his Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP) drafted an #OpenAccess policy for federal agencies much like the one later adopted by the #Biden OSTP through the #NelsonMemo. He could have stopped those OSTP efforts but he didn't. As the time came to make a decision and perhaps sign off on it, he was entangled in impeachment hearings. One way to read these conflicting trends is that he takes down science he has ideological reasons to dislike (e.g. on climate and gender) but doesn't oppose OA as such. Or, since he probably has no opinion about OA as such, the advisors he trusts might not oppose OA as such. For example, one passage in #Project2025 (p. 439) supports OA for EPA-funded research. We'll have to wait and see.

More details on both of this tension.
https://bit.ly/TrumpOA

The Trump administrations on open access to research - Harvard Open Access Project

Mike Taylor 🦕Feb 8, 2025

@petersuber I very much hope you're right. I suspect the outcome will be nothing to do with whether Trump does or doesn't like OA, or even understand what it is; but will hinge purely on whether it's seen as a Biden White House thing.

@mike
Yes, he has a history of opposing whatever Biden did and just because Biden did it. In his first term, ditto with Obama. On the other hand, he might have allowed his (first-term) #OSTP to draft a stronger federal #OpenScience policy than Obama's in part because it would outdo what Obama was able to do on that front. In his new term, might he have a similar motive to outdo what Biden was able to do? Again, we don't know and will have to wait and see.

Mike Taylor 🦕Feb 8, 2025

@petersuber Well, that would be extremely welcome, if unexpected.

@mike @petersuber

The first Trump admin's open science policy at EPA
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/06/2020-29179/strengthening-transparency-in-pivotal-science-underlying-significant-regulatory-actions-and

Federal Register :: Request Access

@mike @petersuber
Not in the sense on public access though - rather, it limited the types of evidence that environmental regulators are allowed to consider.

@mike @petersuber
Contemporaneous news coverage https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01/in-a-parting-gift-epa-finalizes-rules-to-limit-its-use-of-science/

In a parting gift, EPA finalizes rules to limit its use of science

On its way out, the Trump administration makes things harder for the next one.

Ars Technica

@mike @petersuber
Also relevant

Goobie, G. C., Rice, M. B., & Carlsten, C. (2021). The Environmental Protection Agency’s “Strengthening Transparency in Pivotal Science” Rule: Don’t Let History Repeat Itself. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 18(10), 1614–1617. https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202103-259VP

@kdnyhan @mike
Thanks, I hadn't seen this. Just tagged it retroactively for #OATP.