[open-science] Constructive and positive discussions

Heather Morrison hgmorris at sfu.ca
Sun Apr 7 18:06:53 UTC 2013


It is a fact that OBR is conducting a survey with a preamble that says  
the study is being conducted by a student-led organization and fine  
print that says that the study has been commissioned by industry.

As Florence points out, this is not open science. This is "science"  
conducted by industry under the guise of students. This is an  
important topic. The results of this survey could very well be  
presented in the context of a public policy discussion, and they could  
be presented as the student perspective. To do this, all the industry  
sponsor needs to do is copy and paste from the preamble of the survey.

If Tom & Peter have concerns about the tone of the discussion, it  
would be appropriate to point out that responding to criticism by  
alleging that your critic is crazy is not appropriate. I am critiquing  
the survey and the approach in a manner that is very appropriate from  
an academic standpoint, not attacking anyone personally. While I have  
serious concerns about this approach, I have no issues with Daniel or  
Mehmet personally and am inviting them to engage in the discussion.

best,

Heather Morrison

On 7-Apr-13, at 8:46 AM, Tom Morris wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 4:12 AM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk>  
> wrote:
> the intended spirit of this list ... IMO is to develop a  
> constructive approach to Open Science. I am disappointed that there  
> has been a public accusation of lying - ...
>
> Peter
> (OKFN Advisory Board)
>
> I'd definitely like to see the discussions on this list become more  
> constructive.  There seems to be a presumption of evil/guilt for  
> entire classes of organizations and people with a complementary  
> presumption of sainthood for anyone wears an academic mantle.
>
> Given that the topic of the list is nominally science, it'd be great  
> to see discussion driven by actual facts.
>
> For those parties who's attitudes and practices we're actively  
> trying to change, there are many different tactics that can be  
> used.  Continual browbeating is not necessarily the most effective  
> (or effective at all, in many cases).  Persuasion comes in many more  
> subtle forms which can be incredibly effective when used well.
>
> Tom
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