It's been a very bizarre week for those of us interested in science policy and the interface between government research and the public interest.
To say the least: Trump bans agencies from 'providing updates on social media or to reporters'. Which is, of course, very reminiscent of the Canadian Conservative government under Stephen Harper and how they muzzled government scientists.
Where Canadian scholarly and professional societies weren't really prepared for what happened and took a while to respond, in the US these societies have been quite a bit more pro-active in responding President Trump's attempts to muzzle government scientists. In fact, as soon as Donald Trump was elected we started to see societies releasing extremely cautious statements about their hopes for science under the Trump administration.
With the recent gag orders issued to various agencies like the EPA and the National Parks Service, various societies have responded with public statements.
I've pointed to a bunch of those statements below. I have only concentrated on statements released since inauguration rather than going back to November, December or early January. I have also no doubt missed many statements. Please feel free to include links to statements of either type either in the comments below or to me via email at dupuisj at gmail dot com. As for the societies themselves, please feel free to toot your own horns and let me know about your statements.
- American Anthropological Association
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- American Association of Law Libraries
- American Chemical Society
- American Geophysical Union
- American Library Association, Office for Intellectual Freedom
- American Meteorological Society
- American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- American Society For Microbiology
- Ecological Society of America
- Entomological Society of America
I obviously know the library- and science-based societies much better than those associated with other disciplines so would particularly welcome links to statements from a broader range of disciplinary areas.
Update 2017.01.27. Added American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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