One of the things I've always taken for granted in my academic career is the ability to discuss my work with colleagues and to present and publish my data. So I'm a bit dumbfounded to find my freedom of scientific expression, so to speak, curtailed on not one, but two of my projects.
For the first project, this situation was expected and is, unfortunately, unbloggable. Suffice it to say that I had to sign a confidentiality agreement whose length would've made Tolstoy green with envy.
The second project was a collaboration between several labs including one in Faraway Land. Everything had gone swimmingly--we got cool data, we wrote up a manuscript, there was no authorship drama, and everyone liked the draft.
Then out of the blue, we discover that a Faraway Land government official is refusing to let us publish the data unless he is first author. Why do we need Government Official's permission to publish? I haven't a clue. But I do know that Government Official has not done any of the work, provided any funding or reagents, or contributed intellectually to the project in any way. So I'm thinking that Government Official doesn't deserve any authorship, let alone first authorship. Hell, that level of non-contribution doesn't even deserve mention in the acknowledgements!
So now I can be sued for discussing one of my projects, and the manuscript for the second project is being held hostage by a foreign government. Seriously, how bizarre is that?
Why Even Care?
4 hours ago
10 comments:
Erm, what? That's crazy. I hope the paper gets liberated...
WTF!!! Odd very very odd
That 2nd bit is WTF?!? That's just bizarre. I hope that gets resolved (favorably) soon!
How can this government fuckwad stop the rest of the authors from publishing without her?
Okay, that's the strangest thing I've heard in a while. Good luck getting things resolved.
Yeah, and I was expecting the reviewers to be the people I'd have to worry about....
Cath--Something about the sound of the phrase, "I hope the paper gets liberated" makes me think "Send in the Marines!!!" :-)
CPP--Technically, he can't stop us from submitting without him, but our collaborators in Faraway Land are dependent on his goodwill in some way that isn't entirely clear to me. So we really don't want to screw our collaborators over by pissing this dude off unless there's no other reasonable solution.
Things aren't boring, at least.
What?!? This is the craziest thing I have heard all day.
Whoa.... find out whether there is something about this project, or the circumstances of its funding, about which one of your collaborators is aware and is not telling you, because this really does sound crazy.
EGF--That's for sure!
ScienceGirl--The fact that you all agree it's totally crazy actually makes me feel better. :-)
Massimo--Oh, I'm sure there's more to this story that I don't know about, but our collaborators are working on resolving the problem. And as long as they fix it, I figure the details are not really my business.
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