The Trump administrations on open access to research

• During Donald Trump's first term as President, I tracked his administration's actions and positions on open access. I plan to do the same during his second term. — Peter Suber.
  • I tracked his first term on Twitter, which I no longer use.
  • I'm tracking his second term on Mastodon. To read or follow my Mastodon posts without a Mastodon account, use the HTML version, the RSS feed, or the Bluesky bridge account. (They're all OA!)
  • The first part of this page is a collection of my tweets on his first term.
    • I created it for several reasons. I want to help readers get a rapid overview of his first administration's record on these issues. I want to make it easy for me and others to link to all or parts of that history. I want to put that history online to help us understand and anticipate what he might do in his second term. I want to help users who don't want to visit Twitter/X. I want to pull together a more complete collection than I could generate from any small number of Twitter/X searches. Although these tweets are still online, I want to capture them before they disappear.
    • When a tweet used a shortened URL, especially one that is dead or likely to die, I replace it here with a living, full-length URL. I leave the original Twitter handles and hashtags unchanged. When the tweets included URLs, I include them and turn them into active links; but in one case (a very long URL for a Google search), I use an active link without spelling out the URL.
    • I'm starting with the tweets I remembered and was able to find. I'll add more later if I find more.
  • The second part of this page is a collection of my Mastodon posts on his second term.
  • In both parts, most of these posts are about open access and threats to it. But some are about suppressing, censoring, distorting, or politicizing science.
  • Suggested short URL for this page = bit.ly/TrumpOA .

First term (Jan 20, 2017 - Jan 20, 2021)

2017

• February 8, 2017

Scott Pruit, #Trump nominee to head #EPA, sued for blocking public access to polluter emails in Oklahoma.

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/02/07/lawsuit-filed-against-trump-nominee-scott-pruitt-denying-public-access-polluter

2018

• April 22, 2018
  • 1/8 Scott Pruitt, head of #Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (@EPA), is proposing a kind of #opendata mandate. @MikeBastasch: it "will reverse long-standing EPA policy allowing regulators to rely on non-public scientific data in crafting rules...."

https://dailycaller.com/2018/03/19/epa-scott-pruitt-secret-science/

• 2/8 Under the new policy, "EPA regulators would only be allowed to consider scientific studies that make their data available for public scrutiny....Also, EPA-funded studies would need to make all their data public."

https://dailycaller.com/2018/03/19/epa-scott-pruitt-secret-science/

• 3/8 Most right-wing calls for #openaccess have been politically selective, designed to embarrass liberals or harass climate researchers. I discussed examples in this 2010 article (+ problem of supporting OA & opposing politically selective calls for OA).

https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/4738862

• 4/8 At first it seems the Pruitt policy is politically neutral. Among those arguing it's not, see Yogin Kothari (@YoginUCS). Some of the most relevant & best-confirmed science on the harms of pollution use private medical records and cannot be made OA.

http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/381485-scott-pruitts-trojan-horse-transparency-proposal-would-undermine

• 5/8 The Pruitt policy is modeled on Lamar Smith's politically one-sided and Orwellian HONEST Act. See this Google search.
• 6/8 The Union of Concerned Scientists (@UCSUSA) just obtained @EPA docs via #FOIA showing that Pruitt's push for transparency is highly political. Note that these docs were formerly OA on the EPA web site and recently taken down.

https://blog.ucsusa.org/yogin-kothari/here-are-the-transparency-policy-documents-the-epa-does-not-want-you-to-see

• 7/8 Apart from exposing the political underbelly of the Pruitt policy, kudos to @UCSUSA for providing #openaccess to the docs it obtained by #FOAI. Too few FOIA applicants take that important extra step.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cE4-gEJOeNxOv5DtZnBHopfNoxoDJ4-M

• 8/8 The Pruitt proposal is still not public. But Pruitt sent it to the White House for approval on April 19.

https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoDetails?rrid=128011

• April 25, 2018
  • 1/3 Open letter from 985 scientists to Scott Pruit at @EPA: "We urge you to cease any plans to restrict the types of science that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can use in regulatory decisionmaking...."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ucs-documents/science-and-democracy/secret-science-letter-4-23-2018.pdf

• 2/3 "EPA can only adequately protect our air and water and keep us safe from harmful chemicals if it takes full advantage of the wealth of scientific research that is available to the agency...."
• 3/3 "Proponents for these radical restrictions purport to [care about] reproducibility & transparency. In reality, these are phony issues that weaponize ‘transparency’ to facilitate political interference in science-based decisionmaking, rather than genuinely address either...."

• October 5, 2018

• US Dept of @Interior follows @EPA in deceptively using the rhetoric of #openaccess to *limit* the science that policymakers can consider. Worse, already in effect, not subject to public comments. #Trump #openwashing.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/409984-interior-implements-new-science-policy

• [@DavidWojick replied to my post above:] People have a basic right to review the underlying science when proposed regulations affect them adversely.
• [My reply to @DavidWojick above:] So far, so good, but one-sided. Agencies must be allowed to use all valid science in coming to their decisions. Ruling some out because it isn't already open blocks well-informed decisions. And using #openaccess rhetoric to dress up that obstacle to good policy is dishonest.

• October 14, 2018

• [In response to a tweet on EPA openwashing] Yes. I've been tagging @EPA openwashing for the Open Access Tracking Project (http://bit.ly/o-a-t-p). See items tagged to date:

http://tagteam.harvard.edu/hubs/oatp/item_search?q=%23oa.epa+AND+%23oa.openwashing

[Here just using a live URL, omitting the bad URL I first posted and my follow-up tweet correcting it.]

• November 30, 2018

From @undarkmag: "The Department of the @Interior is seeking to streamline its schedule for document archiving (and destruction). Some scientists worry about what will be lost."

https://undark.org/article/request-streamline-federal-document-purge-doi/

2019

• January 27, 2019

New @SciAm editorial is admirably specific on how the new Congress could undo some Trumpist damage to science and science-based policy-making. Includes recommendation to oppose the @EPA's #openwashing "science transparency" rule.

https://scientificamerican.com/article/an-open-letter-to-u-s-scientist-legislators/

• March 2, 2019

Despite the Trump admin's regressive track record on #openaccess to federally-funded research (e.g. at @EPA and @Interior), its new National Action Plan talks the talk on good OA policy. See Initiative 3. Now to watch for the details and the walk.

https://open.usa.gov/assets/files/NAP4-fourth-open-government-national-action-plan.pdf

• April 16, 2019

From Kelvin Droegemeier (@kdroege), Director, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, @WHOSTP: #Trump “recognises the importance of striking the balance of an open research environment & safeguarding American assets and intellectual property.”

https://sciencebusiness.net/news/us-science-and-tech-leadership-has-trumps-unwavering-focus-says-science-adviser

• November 12, 2019

• Trump's @EPA "is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health regulations."

https://nytimes.com/2019/11/11/climate/epa-science-trump.html

• The policy rests on #openwashing. Don't be fooled. For more background, see my April 2018 thread. [Link to thread of April 22, 2018, above.]
• Update November 26, 2019 See this call on the @EPA by six major journal editors to rescind the proposed rule. "The most relevant science, vetted through peer review, should inform public policy. Anything less will harm decision-making that claims to protect our health."

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/11/25/science.aba3197

2020

• January 17, 2020

• Immediate #OpenAccess to fed-funded research benefits authors & readers. It benefits nonresearchers as taxpayers, boosting the impact of their investment, & as beneficiaries of better healthcare, technology, policy, & education. @WhiteHouse, @WHOSTP, @realDonaldTrump, #OAintheUSA
• [In reply to this SPARC tweet:] January 16, 2020 On behalf of 210 U.S. college & university libraries, we ask @realdonaldtrump to make #OAintheUSA a reality. Making taxpayer-funded research immediately available gives students, researchers & faculty access to latest and best science to fuel innovation and speed up discoveries.

• January 23, 2020

"The [#Trump @EPA] suppressed the work of its career employees and dismissed legitimate science...dozens of former and current employees have alleged. The employees are asking investigators to discipline the top officials responsible."

https://govexec.com/management/2020/01/career-employees-allege-epa-leaders-silenced-them-key-deregulation-effort/162559/

• February 2, 2020

• When the @WHO says that #glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic" and Trump's @EPA says otherwise, who are you going to believe? Clue: The Center for Food Safety (@CFSTrueFood) reports that the EPA "relied almost entirely on #Monsanto studies."

https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/5904/siding-with-monsantobayer-trump-epa-once-again-greenlights-roundup

• Update June 19, 2020. Finally, a federal court orders review of the Trump @EPA decision that glyphosate is safe for use.

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-agency-ordered-reassess-glyphosates-impact-health-environment-2022-06-17/

• February 19, 2020

The White House OSTP (@WHOSTP) just called for public comments on US federal #openaccess policy (for texts, data, & code). Comments are due on March 16.

https://federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for-information-public-access-to-peer-reviewed-scholarly-publications-data-and-code

Refs to immediate/unembargoed OA suggest that it's related to the rumored #Trump action. #OAintheUSA

• February 27, 2020

US Dept of @Interior may adopt an #openwashing policy like @EPA. It encourages #opendata (good). But excludes non-compliant research from agency policy-making (bad). At EPA, this ruled out evidence that pollutants cause medical harm (the whole point).

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/484747-new-interior-rule-would-limit-which-scientific-studies-agency-can

• March 2, 2020

A political official in Trump's @Interior Department has inserted falsehoods about #climate into at least 9 of the Dept's scientific reports, environmental studies, and impact statements.

https://nytimes.com/2020/03/02/climate/goks-uncertainty-language-interior.html

• March 14, 2020

• The @WHOSTP and "govt science leaders...from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, [South] Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, & UK are asking publishers to make all #COVID19-related research & data immediately available to the public."

http://listserv.crl.edu/wa.exe?A2=LIBLICENSE-L;23fe98a3.2003&FT=&P=&H=&S=

• Footnote. That version of the OSTP announcement differs in small ways from the version issued by the US Embassy in South Korea in the name of the OSTP. Not clear why they differ.

https://kr.usembassy.gov/031220-president-trumps-science-advisor-leads-conference-call-with-government-science-leaders-from-around-the-world-on-covid-19/

• FWIW, the one quoted in the first tweet is slightly stronger. But it's *not yet* posted at the OSTP web site or linked from the @WHOSTP Twitter feed. Not clear why the weaker one is posted to a US govt site and the stronger one (so far) is not.

• April 29, 2020

• 1/ The @EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) has criticized the draft EPA "transparency" policy as unnecessary and harmful.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/495115-epas-independent-science-board-says-secret-science-proposal-may

• 2/ The SAB is right. Don't be misled by the EPA's rhetoric of transparency here. The EPA is #openwashing. I've given my reasons in a couple of past Twitter threads. [Links to my threads from April 22 and 25, 2018; see above.]
• Update May 5, 2020. "The [@EPA] rule is so flawed that the EPA's science advisory board, which includes several Trump appointees, is questioning the agency's approach."

https://americanindependent.com/epa-scientific-studies-blocked-pollution-air-water-donald-trump-andrew-wheeler/

• May 4, 2020

• 1/ Here's my submission to the @WHOSTP on strengthening US federal #openaccess policy. The main argument is to eliminate #embargoes on federally-funded research.

https://suber.pubpub.org/pub/apqb1mp4/

• 2/ FYI, I make public my conflicts of interests.

https://cyber.harvard.edu/~psuber/wiki/Conflicts

I hope that publishers arguing against the elimination of embargoes will make their conflicts public as well.

• 3/ The deadline for submissions is May 6, two days from today. There's still time [for] your own!

https://x.com/WHOSTP/status/1256334620494229504

If you want to write a comment, here's the original RFI (still using the original, superseded due date).

https://federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for-information-public-access-to-peer-reviewed-scholarly-publications-data-and-code

• [In reply to this tweet from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy:] May 1, 2020 Reminder: The Request for Information Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications, Data and Code Resulting From Federally Funded Research closes on May 6, 2020. We want to hear from you! #science

https://govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-02-19/pdf/2020-03189.pdf

• July 4, 2020

The @WHOSTP call for comments on federal #openaccess policy (esp eliminating embargoes) ended on May 6.

https://federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for-information-public-access-to-peer-reviewed-scholarly-publications-data-and-code

Here e.g. is my submission.

https://suber.pubpub.org/pub/apqb1mp4

Hoping for White House action before the run-up to the election makes it impossible!

#OAintheUSA

• October 29, 2020

Another false and dangerous statement from the Trump White House.

https://politico.com/news/2020/10/27/white-house-science-office-ending-pandemic-432827

I used to respect the @WHOSTP.

The pandemic has not ended in the US. It's worsening. Our two worst days for new #COVID19 infections both occurred last week.

2021

• January 1, 2021
  • On its way out, the Trump admin might approve the @EPA's regressive pseudo-open proposal.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/532249-epa-secret-science-rule-appears-to-clear-white-house-review

For my arguments against it, search for #openwashing or see these two twitter threads from April 2018. [Links to my threads from April 22 and 25, 2018; see above.]

• Update January 6, 2021. The @EPA #openwashing is now a done deal.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01/in-a-parting-gift-epa-finalizes-rules-to-limit-its-use-of-science/

• Update January 8, 2021. "Many observers believe [Democrats] could use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to revoke the rule."

https://sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/trump-s-new-rule-restricting-epa-s-use-certain-science-could-have-short-life

• Update January 12, 2021. "Green groups on Monday filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent a new rule limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) use of certain studies from taking effect."

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/533714-environmental-groups-sue-in-bid-to-block-epa-secret-science-rule

• Update January 29, 2021. The #openwashing policy from Trump's @EPA might be rolled back before it takes effect.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/536264-court-rules-against-fast-track-of-trump-epas-secret-science-rule

• Update February 2, 2021. Update. Gone and good riddance.

https://washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/01/trump-secret-science/

#environment #climate #openwashing

• February 26, 2021

New study: The #Trump @EPA removed public info from its web site, 80% of the time "just prior to or during active regulatory proceedings."

https://envirodatagov.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Access-Denied-Report.pdf

• March 6, 2021
  • 1/ Good news: #Biden's @Interior Dept just rescinded its #Trump-era #openwashing policy.

https://nationofchange.org/2021/03/04/science-wins-at-the-interior-department/

• 2/ Last month the similar policy at @EPA was overturned in court, at the request of the #Biden admin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/01/trump-secret-science/

• March 20, 2021

#Trump → #Biden:

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s webpage about climate change reawakened from a four-year slumber on Thursday morning. Turn to the page now and you’ll see: 'EPA is restoring the science in addressing the climate crisis.' "

https://grist.org/politics/biden-revives-epa-climate-change-site-trump-deleted/

Second term (Jan 20, 2025 - Jan 20, 2029)

• Also see the items tagged with "oa.Trump47" by the Open Access Tracking Project.

2025

January 2025

• January 22, 2025

I'm starting a #Mastodon thread on the new #Trump administration's actions and positions on #OpenAccess to research.

I posted frequently about the actions of his first administration. But I did it on #Twitter / #X, which I no longer use.

Also see this wiki page where I'm collecting my old Twitter posts on his first term and my new Mastodon posts on his second term.

https://cyber.harvard.edu/hoap/The_Trump_administrations_on_open_access_to_research

For updates, watch this space.

#Censorship #OpenWashing #OSTP #ScholComm #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• January 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...."

#Censorship #Climate #ClimateChange #Environment #Takedowns

• January 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.

#Censorship #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• January 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

#Censorship #Medicine #USPol #USPolitics

• January 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/2025010214

#Takedowns #TrumpAntiScience #USPol #USPolitics

• January 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

#Censorship #Climate #USPol #USPolitics

• January 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/

#Data #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

February 2025

• February 1, 2025

This is very welcome news in the face of Trumpist depredations of US public data.

https://lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2025/01/30/preserving-public-u-s-federal-data/

"In recent months the Harvard Law School [@harvard_law] Library Innovation Lab [@harvardlil] has created a data vault to download, sign as authentic, and make available copies of public government data that is most valuable to researchers, scholars, civil society and the public at large across every field. To begin, we have collected major portions of the datasets tracked by data.gov, federal #Github repositories, and #PubMed...."

#DataGov #Libraries #OpenData #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 1, 2025

Related: Also see the End of Term Web Archive, which routinely scrapes and preserves US govt web pages before new presidents take office. Launched in 2008 and still going strong. To supplement its archive, it welcomes URL nominations of sites to save.

https://eotarchive.org/

#OpenData #Preservation #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 1, 2025

Related: "As Data Goes Off-Line Under #Trump, Environmental Researchers Are Uploading Backups"

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2025/01/29/data-goes-line-under-trump-researchers-upload-backups

"In the first few days of Donald Trump’s second term as president, the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s #Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (#CEJST, for short) disappeared from government websites. It was an interactive map of U.S. Census tracts that are “marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution,” as the pre-Trump federal government put it—something researchers and the public could use to quickly locate and zoom in on specific communities and analyze the problems they face. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine stored a copy of the webpage, but even there, the map was gone. However, thanks to a team of researchers from multiple universities and other organizations, a new working version was posted online Friday."

#OpenData #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 1, 2025

Related: "The #Trump administration is scrubbing the #CDC’s website of documents on #ReproductiveRights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and more. We’re saving them. 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘺 will publish and host these vital documents for as long as necessary. To share deleted documents with 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘺, email tips@abortioneveryday.com. "

https://jessica.substack.com/p/cdc-birth-control-guidelines-pdf

#Censorship #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 1, 2025

"#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 #Agriculture #Climate #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 1, 2025

Also see the Safeguarding Research project.

https://safeguarding-research.discourse.group/

"You know of any publicly available material that needs safeguarding? Please post about it here!"

#Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 2, 2025

"Large amounts of public information about #HIV and the health of teens, #transgender and #LGBTQ+ people abruptly disappeared late Friday from the website of the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention [#CDC] as government agencies scramble to comply with directives from President Donald #Trump."

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/31/public-health-information-offline-trump-orders-00201914

#Censorship #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 2, 2025

"The #CDC has instructed its scientists to #retract or pause the publication of any research manuscript being considered by any medical or scientific journal, not merely its own internal periodicals…The move aims to ensure that no "forbidden terms" appear in the work. The policy includes manuscripts that are in the revision stages at journal (but not officially accepted) and those already accepted for publication but not yet live."

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faustfiles/114043

I trust MedPage Today, where this news appeared. But it only cites the author's Substack newsletter, which in turn cites nothing. Can anyone confirm this report?

#Censorship #Retractions #ScholComm #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 2, 2025

"In a radical break with tradition, the National Science Foundation (#NSF) this week began to search through billions of dollars of #grants the agency has already awarded for anything touching on topics that President Donald #Trump has criticized. And NSF has blocked grantees and trainees from accessing funds while the review is underway, wreaking havoc across the academic research community."

https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-nsf-starts-vetting-all-grants-comply-trump-s-orders

#Censorship #ScholComm #USPol #USPolitics

• February 2, 2025

Thanks to Kate Nyhan (@kdnyhan@social.esmarconf.org) for pointing out this #Republican argument that #Democrats politicized science during the Biden administration.

DEI: Division. Extremism. Ideology. How the Biden-Harris NSF Politicized Science

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/4BD2D522-2092-4246-91A5-58EEF99750BC

It's undated but was released in October 2024, when Dems controlled the Senate and before #Trump was re-elected.

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2024/10/new-cruz-investigation-reveals-how-biden-harris-diverted-billions-from-scientific-research-to-dei-activists

It was prepared by the #TedCruz-led Republican members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the committee overseeing the #NSF.

#DEI #Republicans #USPol #USPolitics

• February 2, 2025

"Researchers rush to preserve federal health databases before they disappear from government websites"

https://journalistsresource.org/home/researchers-rush-to-preserve-federal-health-databases-before-they-disappear-from-government-websites/

"Tips for preserving websites:

• To find the missing websites, go to Wayback Machine and type in the website’s URL in the search bar.
• If you’re concerned that certain websites or web pages may be removed, you can suggest federal websites and content that end in .gov, .mil and .com to the End of Term Web Archive.
• You can suggest federal climate and environmental databases to Environmental Data and Governance Initiative.
• You can suggest databases to The Data Liberation Project, which is run by MuckRock and Big Local News.
• Tell science journalist Maggie Koerth what CDC data you've downloaded and whether you've made them publicly available...."

#Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 2, 2025

"A Look at Federal Health Data Taken Offline"

https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/a-look-at-federal-health-data-taken-offline/

"On Friday January 31, 2025, several federal government datasets went offline. The datasets taken down included some widely used, large-scale national health surveys, indices, and data dashboards that inform research, policy making, and media coverage about health care and public health.."

#Censorship #Data #Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 4, 2025

"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

• February 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.

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 4, 2025

Update. "More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon…The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their websites."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/upshot/trump-government-websites-missing-pages.html

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 5, 2025

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/

#Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 5, 2025

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@bird.makeup) 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."

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

• February 5, 2025

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/

#Censorship #ReviseAndResubmit #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 5, 2025

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.

#OpenData #USPol #USPolitics

• February 5, 2025

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).

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

• February 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/

#Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 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/

#USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

• February 7, 2025

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.

• February 8, 2025

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

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

• February 8, 2025

"Scientists globally are racing to save vital health databases taken down amid Trump chaos."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00374-y

#CDC #FDA #Medicine #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 8, 2025

• [In response to a post asking whether federal agencies will stop complying with the Biden-era Nelson memo.] 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

• [In response to the reply that Trump might oppose the Nelson Memo just because it was a Biden initiative.] 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.

• February 8, 2025

[In response to a post that the first Trump admin's EPA had an openness policy but "not in the sense on public access though - rather, it limited the types of evidence that environmental regulators are allowed to consider."]

Yes. I called this #openwashing because it used the halo of openness or transparency to block regulations that would protect the environment and climate. (Medical studies on the harms of airborne pollution could not fully open their data, for reasons of medical privacy.) Here are the #OATP items I tagged with that sort of openwashing during the first #Trump administration.

https://tagteam.harvard.edu/hubs/oatp/item_search?q=(%23oa.trump+OR+%23oa.epa)+AND+%23oa.trump

But note that #Project2025 calls for both (1) this older kind of #EPA openwashing and (2) direct, unembargoed #OpenAccess (or #PublicAccess) to EPA-funded research, echoing the Biden-era #NelsonMemo. See p 439: "Add teeth to long-standing executive orders, memoranda, recommendations, and other policies to require that EPA regulations are based on transparent, reproducible science as well as that the data and publications resulting from taxpayer-funded activities are made immediately available to the public."

https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

• February 8, 2025

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 it looks like 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.

#Nationalism #USPol #USPolitics

• February 9, 2025

Update. The @WashPost@flipboard.com 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/

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 9, 2025

Update. "Inside the race to archive the US government’s websites"

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/07/1111328/inside-the-race-to-archive-the-us-governments-websites/

Surveying a range of initiatives with good clarity on the obstacles.

"There are questions about whether scraping the data will really be enough. Restoring websites and complex data sets is often not a simple process.…'The repairs and attempts to recover are sometimes insurmountable where we need continuous readings of data.' 'All of this data archiving work is a temporary Band-Aid,' says Gosnell. 'If data sets are removed and are no longer updated, our archived data will become increasingly stale and thus ineffective at informing decisions over time.' "

#Climate #Data #Medicine #OpenData #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 9, 2025

Update. "The Public Environmental Data Partners [#PEDP] are committed to preserving and providing public access to federal environmental data. We are a volunteer coalition of several environmental, justice, and policy organizations, researchers across several universities, archivists, and students who rely on federal datasets and tools to support critical research, advocacy, policy, and litigation work. To gather insights on what data to preserve, we reached out to our networks, which consist largely of environmental justice groups and networks, state and local government climate offices, and academic researchers. We compiled a large list of federal databases and tools, and prioritized them based on their relative impact, our confidence that we could archive them, and the relative effort it would take to obtain and archive them."

https://screening-tools.com/

Continuously updated.

#Climate #Data #Environment #OpenData #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 9, 2025

Update. "This is Version 2 of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, released by the Council on Environmental Quality [#CEQ] in December 2024. Although the tool remains unchanged, public access through the White House was discontinued on January 22, 2025. We re-created Version 2 and made it publicly accessible."

https://screening-tools.com/climate-economic-justice-screening-tool

#Climate #Environment #OpenSource #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 9, 2025

Good question from @readbeanicecream@mastodon.social (my paraphrase): Would federated #OpenScience protect it from the kinds of #censorship and #takedowns we're seeing from the #Trump admin?

https://readbeanicecream.surge.sh/2025/02/09/should-science-be-open-and-federated/#federated-science

"Just as Open Science can take its cues from #OpenSource software, Federated science could take its cues from the #fediverse...Open and federated science (#OFS) would be the combination of the two ideas…Scientific research would be transparent and open to all to contribute, read, discuss, distribute and redistribute regardless of platform, publication, or institution. Doing so could increase scientific collaboration and limit the impacts of targeted attacks on science."

#OpenAccess #OpenInfrastructure #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 9, 2025

Update. "Today we [Harvard Law School @harvard_law@bird.makeup Library Innovation Lab @harvardlil@bird.makeup] released our archive of data.gov on Source Cooperative. The 16TB collection includes over 311,000 datasets harvested during 2024 and 2025, a complete archive of federal public datasets linked by data.gov. It will be updated daily as new datasets are added to data.gov. This is the first release in our new data vault project to preserve and authenticate vital public datasets for academic research, policymaking, and public use."

https://lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2025/02/06/announcing-data-gov-archive/

#DataGov #Libraries #OpenData #Preservation #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 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 admin officials decide that covering bird flu is bad for their agenda?

#Medicine #ScholComm #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 12, 2025

Over at @deltathink@bird.makeup, 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."

#Censorship #USPol #USPolitics

• February 12, 2025

Update. "Federal data is disappearing. On Thursday, meet the teams working to rescue it and learn how you can help. Join the Internet Archive [@internetarchive@mastodon.archive.org] and the Library Innovation Lab [@harvardlil@bird.makeup] on Feb. 13, 3pm Eastern for a special event exploring the terabytes of data they have already saved and how to access it."

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2025/feb/10/federal-data-is-disappearing-on-thursday-meet-the-teams-working-to-rescue-it-and-learn-how-you-can-help/

#Censorship #OpenData #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 12, 2025

Update. If you're following this thread, you should also follow the Data Rescue Project by visiting its web site and subscribing to its email list. It aims "to serve as a clearinghouse for #data rescue-related efforts and data access points for public US governmental data that are currently at risk." And it's #crowdsourced, which gives it fighting chance to be comprehensive and up to date.

https://www.datarescueproject.org/about-data-rescue-project/

If you're on #Bluesky, also follow its B account.

https://bsky.app/profile/datarescueproject.org

I'm very aware that a solo effort, like this Mastodon thread, doesn't scale to the size of this task and I welcome the arrival of a crowdsourced effort. I will use it and refer people to it.

#Censorship #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 12, 2025

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@mastodon.archive.org #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.

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

#Censorship #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 12, 2025

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

• February 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

#Censorship #Medicine #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 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

#FOAI #Secrecy #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 13, 2025

I've signed this Declaration To #DefendResearch Against US Gov #Censorship and hope you will too. (Disclosure: I was on the drafting committee.)

https://tinyurl.com/2dyadwzr

#ScholComm #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 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.'"

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

• February 13, 2025

Update. "As the US government removes health websites and data, here’s a list of non-government data alternatives and archives"

https://journalistsresource.org/home/as-the-us-government-removes-health-websites-and-data-heres-a-list-of-non-government-data-alternatives/

"There’s no perfect alternative to the government databases, but some non-governmental organizations have their own datasets, which can be useful to journalists. Several #journalism associations have also been downloading government data and making them available to their members. To help journalists with their continued reporting, we have curated a list of non-government websites that have health data, although some use government data to create their reports. We’ll continue to update this list. If you have a suggestion for a database, please email us."

h/t @kdnyhan@social.esmarconf.org

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

• February 14, 2025

Update. From @hildabast@mastodon.online: "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?"

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

• February 14, 2025

#Vance in Munich: "To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, [European regulation of speech] looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind Soviet-era words like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5145376-vance-scolds-europe-mass-migration/

#Trump in Washington: Taking down web sites and scientific research that use banned words.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/02/04/national-science-foundation-trump-executive-orders-words/

#Censorship #DefendResearch #FirstAmendment #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 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@mstdn.science.

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

• February 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."

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

• February 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."

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

• February 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@bird.makeup 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."

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

• February 16, 2025

Update. "Join the Organizing Team for Your Local Stand Up For Science Rally!"

https://airtable.com/app4h5wUssMGXxiaX/shrxZ4tAY6LYldCNg

#DefendResearch #USPol #USPolitics

• February 17, 2025

Update. "Here’s why and how Public Environmental Data Partners [#PEDP] and others are making sure that the #climate science the public depends on is available forever."

https://theconversation.com/how-to-find-climate-data-and-science-the-trump-administration-doesnt-want-you-to-see-249321

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

• February 17, 2025

Update. "While we at the #PEGI Project [Preservation of Electronic Government Information] have been aware of the potential for a crisis like this since the start of our project in 2017, both the pace and extent of the removals and changes have been astonishing to witness. What has also been astonishing (and heartening!) is the willingness of a broad community to join together in quick action to save content, particularly data that cannot be easily captured as part of the End of Term Archive. The Public Environmental Data Partners, a project launched by the Environmental Data Governance Initiative (EDGI), has been working on collecting and preserving hard-to-crawl environmental data for the past couple of months. In the past two weeks, a coalition has formed to launch the Data Rescue Project, which then debuted its Data Rescue Tracker. They also have a helpful (and well-vetted!) list of Resources that can guide individuals and organizations wanting to contribute to this work."

https://www.pegiproject.org/blog/2025/2/14/pegi-project-urges-preservation-of-public-federal-data

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

• February 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."

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

• February 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

• February 17, 2025

Update. The Union of Concerned Scientists (#UCS, @ucsusa@bird.makeup) 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."

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

• February 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

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

• February 18, 2025

Update. "Join academic workers across the country in fighting restrictions on research - Feb. 19th Rally."

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe53wTzsA1T6b6-QxZtt20Yq1k2IX23YnDgKCli4mcTMRwYLA/viewform

"For the last three weeks, we have seen unprecedented attacks on science that have severely impacted our day-to-day work as scientists, researchers, and clinicians - funding that sustains critical scientific research to improve human health has been dramatically cut, research is being censored, and scientists are losing their jobs…The work we do is a public good and essential for the health of each and every American, now and in the future. We must fight to save science so we can continue doing the work that keeps Americans healthy."

h/t @ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social

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

• February 18, 2025

Update. @juddlegum@journa.host and #RebeccaCrosby provide more evidence that the #Trump team is taking down valuable govt pages — this time #OSHA pages on workplace safety — that use #DEI language in ways that have nothing to do with the kind of DEI Trumpists oppose.

https://popular.info/p/in-botched-dei-purge-osha-trashes

For example, they're taking down pages that refer to "diversity of state-specific…regulatory requirements" and "diverse conditions under which EMS responders could work."

PS: It's no accident that this might remind you of the brainless firing of US nuclear security staffers, which Trumpists are still trying to reverse. Autopilot ransacking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/us/politics/trump-national-nuclear-security-administration-employees-firings.html

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

• February 18, 2025

Update. US space scientists have written an open letter to #NASA and #Congress.

https://sites.google.com/view/space-science-for-everyone

"Almost all of our work as space scientists is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and we have a responsibility to oppose actions that limit the reach of our work to the public… Following NASA’s request, all AG [Analysis/Assessment Group] websites and the important, labor-intensive study reports, science goals documents, and other resources hosted on those websites are indefinitely unavailable to the communities who did this work and to the general public…We ask that all those in decision-making positions unequivocally condemn and act to reverse recent attacks on scientific integrity, federal grant funding for scientific research, and initiatives that broaden public participation in science."

PS: Also see the list of similar letters growing the left sidebar.

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

• February 19, 2025

Update. From @alicejmeadows@bird.makeup: "Declaration To #DefendResearch Against US Government Censorship"

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/02/19/declaration-to-defendresearch-against-us-government-censorship/

"Much of the resistance to the Trump administration’s efforts to censor research and researchers is happening at the grassroots level, including this Declaration To Defend Research Against US Government Censorship, instigated by Lisa Schiff, together with Catherine Mitchell, Sara Rouhi, Peter Suber, and myself [Alice Meadows]. Like many of those who are protesting against these growing threats to research, we are acting in a personal capacity, rather than on behalf of our organizations. As members of the scholarly communication community, we believe that researchers must be freely able to conduct, collaborate on, share, review, and discuss their research…I very much hope that you’ll join the 1,000 plus who have already signed."

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 19, 2025

Update. From From @mayank_mchugh@bird.makeup and @JACoates@mstdn.social at @force11@mastodon.world: "Science is Under Siege: The Open Science Community Must Act and Lead by Example"

https://upstream.force11.org/open-science-call-to-act/

"The new US administration has thrown the entire academy into chaos, threatening global health. This article is a call for the #OpenScience community to practice what it preaches and lead by example in defending science…The only viable line of defence against such rapid and intense attacks is transparency and a heightened rigour. And it is here that the open science community has a unique and essential role in this very moment."

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

• February 19, 2025

Update. "Defend Scientific Freedom and Integrity Against Political Suppression."

https://www.change.org/p/defend-scientific-freedom-and-integrity-against-political-suppression

I just signed this petition and hope you will too.

"We call on governments, funding bodies, academic institutions, and international organizations to:

1. Protect Scientific Freedom: Ensure that research funding decisions are made based on scientific merit, not political ideology.

2. Stop Censorship in Public Health and Environmental Science: Allow government scientists to communicate freely with the public and publish research without political interference.

3. Preserve Open Access to Data: Governments must not delete, withhold, or manipulate scientific data that serves the public good...."

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

• February 20, 2025

Update. Special thanks to the Association of University Presses (#AUPresses, @aupresses@hcommons.social). It not only signed the Feb 13 Declaration to #DefendResearch, it posted an announcement to spread the word.

https://aupresses.org/news/aupresses-supports-anti-censorship-declaration/

#Censorship #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 20, 2025

Update. Although the #Trump admin is firing scientists, "some science leaders argued [that it's] not specifically targeting research. 'Science seems to be collateral damage to these [downsizing] efforts that are almost random, by date of hire or date of promotion,' says Sudip Parikh, CEO of #AAAS…'It’s not strategic. It’s not based on the needs of the future, the needs of science.'"

PS: My take: Some of the destruction targets research he opposes for political reasons, like #climate research. But much of the rest is semi-random pillaging to show numbers (positions cut, dollars saved). This is evident from the growing number of firings, in a growing number of departments, that Trump and #Musk later try to rescind.

#DefendResearch #USPol #USPolitics

• February 21, 2025

Update. "A Renewed Call for Preservation of At-Risk Government Data"

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/about/cms/6103

"The directors of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research (#ISR) and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (#ICPSR) are emphasizing the critical need for preserving government data that may be at risk due to recent policy shifts....Through #DataLumos, an ICPSR archive for valuable government data resources, ICPSR is helping the data community to preserve, document, and disseminate thousands of files from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control [#CDC] and the Department of Education [#DOE]."

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

• February 21, 2025

Update. "Journalism organizations call for restoration of public data."

https://www.nasw.org/article/journalism-organizations-call-restoration-public-data

"Leaders of five #journalism organizations, including the National Association of Science Writers and representing more than 7,000 members in the United States and abroad, sent the following letter to the heads of eight U.S. federal agencies that have recently removed public datasets and databases funded by Americans’ tax dollars."

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

• February 22, 2025

Update. "Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions ‘climate’ "

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/21/trump-scientific-research-climate

"The #Trump administration is stripping away support for scientific research in the US and overseas that contains a word it finds particularly inconvenient: “climate”…Trump, who has said that the climate crisis is a “giant hoax”, has already stripped mentions of climate change and global heating from government websites."

#Censorship #Climate #DefendResearch #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 22, 2025

Update. "PLOS [@PLOS@mstdn.science] statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity"

https://theplosblog.plos.org/2025/02/plos-statement-on-recent-us-executive-orders-and-scientific-integrity/

"We are deeply concerned about a range of recent US Executive Orders that collectively have the potential to dismantle the US scientific enterprise as it has existed for the past 70 years…We will not approve changes to terminology or removal of data that compromise the scientific accuracy of content. Requests to remove legitimate authors from manuscripts violate our authorship policies which are grounded in principles of credit, accountability and transparency…We are actively working to understand the evolving implications of these directives and the disruption they have brought…We remain dedicated to the advancement of #OpenScience."

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

• February 22, 2025

Update. From @neuralreckoning@neuromatch.social: "Science must step away from nationally managed infrastructure"

https://www.thetransmitter.org/policy/science-must-step-away-from-nationally-managed-infrastructure/

"Scientific data and independence are at risk. We need to work with community-driven services and university libraries to create new multi-country organizations that are resilient to political interference."

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

• February 23, 2025

Update. From @karenhao@mas.to: "The foundations of America’s prosperity are being dismantled"

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1112274/the-foundations-of-americas-prosperity-are-being-dismantled/

"[Scientists] warn that dismantling the behind-the-scenes scientific research programs that backstop American life could lead to long-lasting, perhaps irreparable damage to everything from the quality of health care to the public’s access to next-generation consumer technologies. The US took nearly a century to craft its rich scientific ecosystem; if the unraveling that has taken place over the past month continues, Americans will feel the effects for decades to come."

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

• February 23, 2025

Update. An editorial in #JAMA and the #JAMANetwork.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2830748?guestAccessKey=47e4b56b-8f69-4ff3-a26e-3a66a88b2c67&linkId=753250407

"Some authors of scientific works in process have had to remove their names from publications for these publications to proceed; others have chosen to pause or withdraw their publications. While some of these actions are directly related to the executive order to #HHS employees to cease communications, many have been undertaken preemptively by authors who are not subject to the order but are presumably fearful of the challenges of communicating complex findings in this current environment. Some authors are engaging in anticipatory compliance by scrubbing from their manuscripts words they fear may be deemed, in the moment, politically unacceptable…We remain steadfast in our guidance to authors and readers across the JAMA Network journals and endorse and adhere to the standards set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [#ICMJE]…We will act flexibly, where appropriate, to ensure that censoring efforts will not silence the integrity of the scientific process or clear communication of scientific information important for health."

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

• February 23, 2025

Update. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (#ICMJE) has updated its guidance in light of recent actions by the #Trump administration.

https://www.icmje.org/news-and-editorials/icmje_guidance_notice.html

"If authors request removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission or publication, journal editors should seek an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors including the author to be removed or added…Corrections are warranted for errors of fact that should have been recognized at the time of publication. Matters of debate and evolving science and methods are not errors. Retraction of published work is generally reserved for errors serious enough to invalidate results and conclusions and/or when there is scientific misconduct.."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Medicine #ScholComm #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 24, 2025

Update. "Why the European Journal of Public Health and EUPHA are opposing President Trump’s attack on the language of diversity"

https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf018/8030478

"The news that the #Trump administration has ordered scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to withdraw or retract articles containing terms such as “gender,” “transgender,” “LGBT,” or “transsexual” is as shocking as it is dangerous…Such censorship is not only an assault on scientific integrity but also a harbinger of the creeping authoritarianism that Europe has seen before, one that we must resist with all the force of history…First, we will not retract published articles due to political pressure. Retractions are reserved for fraud, major errors, or ethical breaches, not for the mere use of words that a government disapproves of. Second, we will continue to publish research that includes terms related to gender, sexuality, and reproductive health. Third, we will defend the rights of researchers to publish without fear of political persecution. Fourth, we will stand in solidarity with colleagues facing censorship. Suppression of knowledge anywhere is a threat to knowledge everywhere."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #DEI #Medicine #ScholComm #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 24, 2025

Update. "ALLEA Statement on Threats to Academic Freedom and International Research Collaboration in the United States"

https://allea.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ALLEA-Statement-on-Threats-to-Academic-Freedom.pdf

"The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities expresses grave concern over the escalating threats to academic freedom, both in the United States and beyond. Recent developments regarding science and scholarship in the U.S., including executive orders freezing billions in federal research funding and censorship around topics such as climate change and gender, are forcing many U.S. science agencies and research organisations to abruptly suspend normal operations. Such censorship and political suppression of language, research topics, and methodologies—whether through funding restrictions, legislative control, or institutional interference—fundamentally compromise the integrity of scientific and scholarly endeavours not just in the U.S. but around the world due to the global nature of the research ecosystem."

#AcademicFreedom #ALLEA #Censorship #Collaboration #DefendResearch #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 24, 2025

Update. "Reflections on the Current Moment from SSP’s Board of Directors"

https://www.sspnet.org/community/news/statement-from-the-ssp-board-of-directors/

"The challenges stemming from a shifting U.S. political landscape, which threaten academic freedom, #DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) initiatives, the scholarly record, and federal research funding, are affecting the Society for Scholarly Publishing (#SSP) community in multiple ways: mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially…Since we were established in 1978, SSP has intentionally demonstrated an unwavering commitment to building a diverse and inclusive community. We actively infuse our work with equitable values, including providing leadership as a founding member of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Publishing (#C4DISC)."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #DEI #ScholComm #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 24, 2025

Update. "Will medical publishers fight Trump’s war on 'woke'?"

https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/will-medical-publishers-fight-trumps-war-on-woke

"Although many medical journal #editors have made their position known, medical #publishers are, for now, conspicuously silent…The collective resolve of the medical publishing industry is being put to the test. This is an opportunity for the industry to affirm its commitment to safeguard the scholarly record from ideological distortion. #Censorship in health research affects us all. We share a responsibility to stand firm and decry Trump’s war on "gender ideology" as a full-scale assault on the scientific method."

#DefendResearch #Journals #Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 24, 2025

Update. Statement from #TheLancet in response to recent US executive orders

https://www.thelancet.com/editorial-policies#anchor10

"The Lancet Group will be making no changes to our editorial policies regarding withdrawal, authorship change, inclusive language, or retraction. Ahead of publication, the withdrawal of submitted papers and authorship changes will only generally be considered if the written agreement of all authors is received. The Lancet Group will continue to recommend the use of inclusive language, accepting authors’ ultimate choice of terminology when it is scientifically accurate and respectful, and will continue to encourage authors to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) reporting guidelines. Published papers will only be corrected or retracted when they contain factual errors or if scientific misconduct has taken place. These policies are in line with recently issued guidance from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [#ICMJE]."

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

• February 24, 2025

Update. The Data Rescue Project spotlights 13 college and university #libguides on projects to rescue scientific and govt data from #censorship or deletion.

https://www.datarescueproject.org/libraries-supporting-data-rescue/

#DefendResearch #DRP #Libraries #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 24, 2025

Update. "Farmers Sue Over Deletion of Climate Data From Government Websites"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/climate/agriculture-farmer-website-data-lawsuit.html

"Organic farmers and environmental groups sued the Agriculture Department on Monday over its scrubbing of references to #climate change from its website…That included websites containing data sets, interactive tools and funding information that farmers and researchers relied on for planning and adaptation projects, according to the lawsuit…Peter Lehner, a lawyer for #Earthjustice, said the pages being purged were crucial for farmers facing risks linked to climate change, including heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather and wildfires."

#Agriculture #Censorship #DefendResearch #Litigation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 25, 2025

Update. "On March 7, 2025, we [Stand Up For Science] rally [in Washington DC] to defend science as a public good…We call on policymakers, institutions, and the scientific community to uphold the integrity of science, protect its accessibility, and ensure its benefits serve all people. To achieve this, we seek the following policy actions.

1. Secure and Expand Scientific Funding…

2. End Censorship and Political Interference in Science…

3. Defend Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Science."

https://standupforscience2025.org/our-policy-goals/

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

• February 26, 2025

Update. "The cost of losing government webpages and public data"

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/the-cost-of-losing-government-webpages-and-public-data/

"Jack Cushman, director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab [@harvardlil@bird.makeup], has been preserving sites and data that went dark after executive orders from President #Trump. He underlines the importance of keeping digital copies or risk parting with “our cultural memory.”

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Podcast #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 26, 2025

Update. "Federal data is disappearing. Meet the teams working to rescue it and learn how you can help."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiZuKA-o4V4

"Since the start of the new #Trump administration, hundreds of federal data sets and government websites have gone offline without warning, sometimes returning with major changes and sometimes not returning at all. On February 13th, #MuckRock hosted an event with organizations that are helping lead the efforts to preserve the public’s data."

This is a video of the event.

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

• February 26, 2025

Update. "The fight to preserve federal government data."

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2025/feb/04/the-fight-to-preserve-federal-government-data/

"Despite the Trump administration restricting access to these government sites and its underlying data, organizations and individuals have been working to preserve this data. Here are just a few of the efforts that part of an ongoing effort to preserve public information."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 26, 2025

Update. "How the Wayback Machine is preserving outdated government websites."

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-the-wayback-machine-is-preserving-outdated-government-websites/

"The #WaybackMachine is helping preserve the record of government websites before they were changed by the TTrump administration. CBS News Confirmed's Rhona Tarrant reports."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #InternetArchive #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 27, 2025

Update. "The National Archives is nonpartisan but has found itself targeted by Trump."

https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-archives-firings-layoffs-historical-recordkeeping-559027fdd2f634263bea7774a78d66fe

"The president didn’t give a public reason for firing archivist Colleen Shogan, but he has long held a grudge against the agency for notifying the Justice Department of his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office following his first term…A Trump-aligned archivist might also be less inclined to enforce the Presidential Records Act or ask questions if Trump leaves office with troves of classified documents, said Norm Eisen, executive chair of the State Democracy Defenders Fund."

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

• February 27, 2025

Update. "Will They Come for PubMed Next?"

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/114383

"PubMed is the backbone of biomedical research in the U.S. That's not an exaggeration…However, there are reasons to be extremely concerned about its continued existence…There are [at least five] ways the administration could interfere with PubMed."

PS: Although the author mixes up #PubMed with #PubMedCentral, her concerns apply to both.

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

• February 27, 2025

Update. "The Rise (and Fall?) of the National Science Foundation"

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-national-science-foundation

(#paywalled)

"The #Trump administration’s assault on the #NSF represents precisely the kind of political interference [#VannevarBush] sought to prevent — one that threatens not only scientific progress but also the very foundation of academic freedom."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• February 27, 2025

Update. "Déclaration visant à défendre la recherche contre la censure du gouvernement américain"

https://www.redactionmedicale.fr/2025/02/declaration-visant-a-defendre-la-recherche-contre-la-censure-du-gouvernement-americain

Thanks to Herve Maisonneuve for his French translation of the key recommendations of the Feb 13 Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship. He adds this good conclusion: "We are free to consider that these initiatives are useless… but [signing them] allows us to support colleagues who cannot express themselves in public."

#DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• February 27, 2025

Update. Thanks to @georgetown@bird.makeup for making this public statement.

https://president.georgetown.edu/messages/what-we-stand-for-feb-2025/

"I know that the rapidly evolving external environment is unsettling to many in the community. Some of us have received directives to stop our research activities; some of our students have had job offerings rescinded; some have read repeated external communications that question the value of their work…We promote scholarship freely based on inquiring minds…We do not conduct these activities alongside our mission; they are the essence of our mission…Be assured that we are actively tracking all developments as they occur, assessing whether they affect our mission’s work, quickly partnering with those community members affected, and supporting them as they navigate change."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Trump #Universities #USPol #USPolitics

• February 28, 2025

Update. A new editorial in Nature: "Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00562-w

"How, then, should those of us who are part of the global enterprise of education, health, science and engineering respond? One priority must be to denounce these actions, to shout about their negative effects, to support researchers and to defend their ability to work and study without fear for their jobs. Understandably, those working at — or even leading — federal agencies might feel that they cannot speak up, but researchers at other organizations, such as universities, scientific societies, businesses, labour unions and campaign groups have more freedom, and must exercise it by showing support for affected colleagues."

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

• February 28, 2025

Update. Reminder from #Trump's first term (2017): "Trump’s budget director pick: “Do we really need government-funded research at all”

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/21/14012552/trump-budget-director-research-science-mulvaney

"President Donald Trump recently picked Rep. Mick #Mulvaney…to head the White House’s Office of Management and Budget [#OMB]…In a stunning September 9 Facebook post (that’s since been deleted but is still cached), Mulvaney asked, '... what might be the best question: do we really need government funded research at all.'"

#DefendResearch #Funding #USPol #USPolitics

• February 28, 2025

Update. "Wayback Machine Saves Thousands of Federal Webpages Amid Purge of Government Data Under Trump"

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/28/internet_archive_trump_admin_data_purge

"Thousands of informational government webpages have been taken down so far in the second #Trump administration, including on public health, scientific research and LGBTQ rights. Amid this mass erasure of public information, the #InternetArchive is racing to save copies of those deleted resources."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

March 2025

• March 1, 2025

Update. "CDC Staff Prohibited From Co-Authoring Papers With World Health Organization Personnel"

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cdc-who-publication-memo_n_67c1eb34e4b0bf54864084cf

"Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [#CDC] have been prohibited from co-authoring publications with World Health Organization [#WHO] staff, dealing a blow to global research efforts and continuing the #Trump administration’s aggressive attack on government-funded science."

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

• March 2, 2025

Update. The #NIH web site is down.

https://www.nih.gov/

It's been up and down, but mostly down, since before noon yesterday.

https://downdetector.com/status/nih/

I don't know what's going on but will post updates as I find them.

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

• March 2, 2025

Update. "RFK Jr. issues rule barring public comment on HHS rulemaking"

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5170090-rfk-jr-hhs-public-comment-rulemaking-ends/

"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday released a policy prohibiting public comments during his department’s rulemaking process, ending more than 50 years of the public’s involvement in crafting his department’s rules…After assuming office, Kennedy had vowed to usher in “radical transparency” at the HHS…Lawrence O. Gostin, faculty director of O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Center…speculated that Kennedy was rescinding public comments in order to quickly “ram through” radical changes to health care, public health and scientific research in the U.S."

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

• March 2, 2025

Update. The #NIH site is back up.

https://www.nih.gov/

The reports of it being down have plummeted to near zero.

https://downdetector.com/status/nih/

But I'm still looking for a good explanation of what happened.

#Medicine #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 3, 2025

Update. Therese Choquette ran searches on #PubMed and may have found gaps corresponding to terms banned by the #Trump admin.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/therese-choquette-former-vallerskog-1531132_pubmed-activity-7301996327691816961-afAN?rcm=ACoAAADEjlkBbyOxuygZagmqeEC6540rx1UQQSs

PS: Unfortunately she compared US PubMed with Europe PubMed Central, which is apples to oranges. (PubMed is metadata-only and PMC is full text.) Can we crowdsource some systematic searches comparing (1) PubMed now with PubMed before Trump, e.g. in the Wayback Machine, and (2) US PMC with Europe PMC?

#DefendResearch #PMC #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 3, 2025

Update. "48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science"

https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/scientists-ask-congress-protect-future-science

"[48] scientific societies…representing almost 100,000 scientists from diverse disciplines, have sent a letter, organized by the #UCS, to members of Congress demanding that they protect federally funded scientific research and federal scientists. The letter is open so the number of signers may continue to grow."

#DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 3, 2025

Update. Here's the open letter mentioned in the previous post (this thread).

https://ucs-documents.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/science-network/Scientific-Society-Sign-On-Letter-signed-2-28-25.pdf

"We, the undersigned professional scientific societies, associations, and organizations, are writing to ask you to take immediate action to protect and restore life-saving and essential scientific research that…[is] funded by American taxpayers and authorized by Congress and cannot be unilaterally halted by the executive branch."

#DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 3, 2025

Update. It's just a coincidence that the newer open letter to Congress in the previous post, this thread (nd but approx March 3) …

https://ucs-documents.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/science-network/Scientific-Society-Sign-On-Letter-signed-2-28-25.pdf

… and this older letter (nd but approx Feb 17) …

https://unitedsciencealliance.org/

… were both initially signed by 48 scientific societies. They're different letters, organized by different groups, and signed by (mostly) different societies.

#DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 4, 2025

Update. The American Physical Society (#APS, @apsphysics@bird.makeup) is running a survey on the impact of cuts to US science #funding. Please take it if you're affected or likely to be affected.

https://apsphysics.fillout.com/t/6ESUva3vwGus

"This survey collects stories showcasing the transformative positive impact of #NSF, #NIST, #DOE, #NASA, and #DOD-funded research and programs as well as what would be lost if support for basic research evaporates. You can document your experiences and share how recent executive actions have impacted you. Individual stories will be only be used publicly with permission or when fully anonymized."

#DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 4, 2025

Update. "US science is under threat ― now scientists are fighting back"

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00661-8

"The courts temporarily halted some of the Trump administration’s orders, but a coherent message has broken through: federal support for science is in danger. Gradually, scientists began to stir, Varga says: “They’re realizing now that doing any one thing is better than doing nothing.” That activism is taking many forms...."

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

• March 5, 2025

Update. "‘Omg, did #PubMed go dark?’ Blackout stokes fears about database’s future"

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00674-3

"The NIH told Nature in an e-mail that, on 1 March 'some of NIH public-web services experienced service disruptions' but all services were restored on 2 March. 'NIH is committed to resilient and open access to PubMed and other NIH web services,' the team wrote. But [Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious-diseases physician] says any disruption — even if temporary — raises concerns about how researchers access essential scientific information. 'It also serves as a reminder of the need for contingency plans, such as alternative #repositories or offline access to critical research, to ensure that health-care providers and researchers are not left without crucial information when they need it most,' she says."

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

• March 5, 2025

Update. "EDGI Relaunches Federal Environmental Web Tracker"

https://envirodatagov.org/press-release-edgi-relaunches-federal-environmental-web-tracker/

"In response to the #Trump administration’s rapid dismantling of federal websites, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (#EDGI) has relaunched its Federal Environmental Web Tracker…The… Tracker makes records of significant changes to federal environmental websites publicly available in a searchable database…Since the first Trump administration, EDGI has monitored thousands of federal environmental webpages. Partners at the #InternetArchive download these webpages every day, and EDGI’s #OpenSource software compares versions of these webpages to identify differences."

#Censorship #Climate #DefendResearch #Environment #Monitoring #Preservation #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• March 5, 2025

Update. "Safeguarding Research & Culture — Distributing Cultural Memory"

https://safeguarding-research.discourse.group/about

"The destruction of knowledge and cultural heritage has happened, and therefore it can happen again. We are in the middle of that happening, whether it is caused by human action or natural causes…Safeguarding Research & Culture (#SRC) is creating an alternative #infrastructure for archiving and disseminating of cultural heritage and scientific knowledge…Together, we can ensure that our cultural, intellectual and scientific heritage exists in multiple copies, in multiple places, and that no single entity or group of entities can make it all disappear. Our archive is built according to the principles of #FAIR and #CARE, based on open technologies and standards, and resilient against loss via meaningfully distributed storage…Everyone, from individuals to institutions, can participate by accessing, contributing, and supporting these archival infrastructures."

#Censorship #Crowdsource #DefendResearch #OpenInfrastructure #OpenSource #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 5, 2025

Update. An editorial in _Annals of Internal Medicine_ responds to "Political Action That Threatens the Integrity of Medical Research."

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00985

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00985

"The editors have given a great deal of thought to actions Annals can take to counter some of this damage. Following an executive order that limited the ability of health agency staff to communicate externally, we quickly published all manuscripts with government-affiliated authors that were accepted but awaiting publication before we could receive a request to withdraw them. As a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [#ICMJE], Annals helped develop and strongly endorses the guidance it posted in early February 2025 relevant to journals' responses to requests to withdraw, revise, or alter authorship of manuscripts in process at scientific journals. To date, we are unaware of any request to retract published articles that include banned terms or address issues the U.S. administration deems unsavory. If we receive such requests, Annals will not honor them. Retraction is warranted only when there is clear evidence of major errors or scientific misconduct that seriously compromise research findings."

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

• March 6, 2025

Update. Kudos to Aix Marseille University (@univamu_europe@bird.makeup), for funding "American Scientists Who Fear #Trump #Censorship"

https://www.404media.co/french-university-to-fund-american-scientists-who-fear-trump-censorship/

"A leading French university is inviting American scientists who fear their research on subjects like #climate might be censored by Donald Trump’s administration to do their work in France. The program is called ‘safe place for science,’ and will provide 15 million Euros in funding for some 15 researchers over a 3-year period…It targets, but is not limited to, climate and environment, health, and human and social sciences."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Medicine #USPol #USPolitics

• March 6, 2025

Update. "Archivists Recreate Pre-Trump #CDC Website, Are Hosting It in Europe"

https://www.404media.co/archivists-recreate-pre-trump-cdc-website-are-hosting-it-in-europe/

"A team of volunteer archivists has recreated the Centers for Disease Control website exactly as it was the day Donald Trump was inaugurated. The site, called RestoredCDC.org, went live Tuesday and is currently being hosted in Europe."

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

• March 7, 2025

Update. "NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants"

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00703-1

"In an unprecedented move, the US #NIH has begun mass terminations of research grants that fund active scientific projects because they no longer meet “agency priorities.” NIH staff members have been instructed to identify and potentially cancel grants for projects studying transgender populations, #gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion (#DEI) in the scientific workforce, [or] #environmentaljustice…Grants that allot funding to universities in #China and those related to #climate change are also under scrutiny. 'It’s extremely alarming that grants that have been vetted by the scientific community and deemed important and impactful to understand the world are now being cancelled because of political ideology,' says Lisa Fazio, a cognitive psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who studies misinformation. 'For all this talk about free speech, this is direct censorship of scientific research.'"

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

• March 7, 2025

Update. The Stand Up For Science rally starts in two hours.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T5CnzeVD5T-2GpeicyvWJYluRWCtaayW/view

"Since being launched in mid-February, Stand Up for Science has transformed into a national movement with international support. Our primary goal: defending science as a public good and central pillar of social progress. On March 7th, we will host official events mobilizing scientists and science advocates in Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and 28 other cities around the United States....But March 7th is just the beginning. Our policy goals include a restoration of federal scientific funding, the reinstatement of wrongfully terminated employees at federal agencies, an end to governmental interference and censorship in science, and a renewed commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science. We are also committed to empowering scientists–and anyone who has benefited from scientific advancements–to engage in sustained advocacy in the years to come."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #standupforscience2025 #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 7, 2025

Update. "‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts"

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00704-0

"Thousands of researchers and supporters of science protested in cities across the US and Europe today against actions taken by the administration of US President Donald #Trump to cut the US scientific workforce and slash spending on research worldwide…Marie Walde, a biophysicist at the Roscoff Biological Station in France, posted about a rally she attended…saying: “In solidarity with our colleagues in the US, researchers and citizens all over France are protesting today for science and knowledge as a public good.” … Since taking office in January, Trump and his team have laid off, and in some cases then tried to rehire, thousands from US science agencies, whose jobs touched on nuclear safety, bird flu surveillance, extreme-weather forecasting and more."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 8, 2025

Update. #CoherentDigital launches Policy Commons 2025 Open Collection.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tobyabgreen_policy-commons-2025-open-collection-activity-7303702049764888577-k2TD

"It's our contribution to the ongoing effort to rescue, preserve and make open endangered government materials at risk of disappearing…Our focus will be on policy and technical reports, papers, documents, blogposts, videos, and podcasts but we're open to suggestions for other content types - except for datasets. There are a number of excellent ongoing efforts to rescue data so there's no need for us to replicate them…Our goal is to make these materials easy to find and permanently available…We’re calling on librarians and researchers to help identify endangered materials from government agencies and suggest at-risk websites and repositories. We're also inviting those who have been working closely with agencies to send us copies of previously open materials they may have on their hard drives and laptops."

Also see the project home page and FAQ.

https://coherentdigital.net/open-2025

#Censorship #Crowdsourced #DefendResearch #Preservation #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 8, 2025

Heard at yesterday's Stand Up For Science rally in Washington.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/healthpolicy/114556

Francis Collins, former director of the #NIH: "99% of new drug approvals depended…on NIH research…So the industry has a lot to lose if federal investment is damaged. It would be good to hear more about that from pharmaceutical company leaders -- just saying."

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD.). Said he was glad to be in a crowd with so many "mad scientists… Everybody in America should be mad…about what we are witnessing right now in our country, including the illegal and reckless attacks on science by Elon #Musk and the #Trump administration."

Former Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). When he and his colleagues introduced the 21st Century Cures Act in 2015, it included $45 billion in additional health research funding for NIH and FDA. At the time, they had support from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, including former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA). "You see, diseases don't impact just Republicans or Democrats. It [sic] impacts all of us."

Bill Nye the Science Guy. "We demand that scientists not be censored, that there be legal safeguards to prevent political interference in their research and they be enabled to communicate their findings freely."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 9, 2025

Update. Selected additional coverage of the March 7 Stand Up For Science rally in Washington and across the country:

Scientists Are Rising Up to Resist Trump Policies, Inside Climate News, March 6

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06032025/stand-up-for-science-marches-resist-trump-policies/

‘Enough is enough’: Scientists from UCLA, USC protest Trump’s policy changes, LA Times, March 7

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-03-07/stand-up-for-science-los-angeles-protest-trump-cuts

Thousands gather across U.S. and world in Stand Up for Science events, Science, March 7

https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-gather-across-u-s-stand-science-events

Out of the lab and into the streets, researchers and doctors rally for science against Trump cuts, AP, March 7

https://apnews.com/article/science-doctors-cuts-budget-trump-health-climate-cead2742a686b3dbc2fe4b1294939454

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

• March 9, 2025

Update. "USDA’s Purge of #Climate #Data is Illegal and Reckless, Doing Immediate Harm to Farmers, Lawsuit Alleges"

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05032025/usda-climate-data-purge-harms-farmers/

"The #Trump administration has deleted thousands of climate-related web pages from the U.S. Department of #Agriculture’s (#USDA) website, stripping #farmers of critical resources as droughts, floods and shifting growing conditions intensify. Now, a coalition of environmental and farming groups is suing to get that information back, arguing that the purge is not just reckless but illegal."

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

• March 10, 2025

Update. "These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration"

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html

"The above terms appeared in government memos, in official and unofficial agency guidance and in other documents viewed by The New York Times. Some [agencies] ordered the removal of these words from public-facing websites, or ordered the elimination of other materials (including school curricula) in which they might be included…The presence of some terms was used to automatically flag for review some grant proposals and contracts that could conflict with Mr. #Trump’s executive orders. The list is most likely incomplete. More agency memos may exist than those seen by New York Times reporters, and some directives are vague or suggest what language might be impermissible without flatly stating it."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• March 11, 2025

Update. See the growing number of petitions from the Union of Concerned Scientists (#UCS, @ucsusa@bird.makeup) at MoveOn.org (@moveon@threads.net) in support of US science and scientists.

https://sign.moveon.org/partnerships/union-of-concerned-scientists

#DefendResearch #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 11, 2025

Update. From @chrischirp@fediscience.org: "Censor, purge, defund: how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities"

https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/censor-purge-defund-how-trump-following

"Making a list of the actions taken since January 2025 reveals distinct patterns. Just as the administration’s actions as a whole are following an authoritarian playbook, so are the specific ways they are attacking science. I’ve displayed 35 distinct actions in the Venn Diagram below (table of actions with links), grouped into three main categories: [1] Control of science to align with state ideology; [2] Undermining the independence of universities / suppressing dissent; [3] Maintaining geopolitical / economic goals."

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

• March 11, 2025

Update. #ActionLab is a #crowdsourced collection of practical actions "for the various issues scientists are facing in the wake of destructive anti-science policies. Filter our database by action type, by location, by deadline, or by the amount of time you have to spend today. Find a way to act that is right for you."

https://airtable.com/apppMymixtqx3yqxa/shrpqNUa2cLF4gjwh

Here's the gallery view of the 27 actions posted to date.

https://airtable.com/apppMymixtqx3yqxa/shrDtqn83Zrm3KWVH

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

• March 11, 2025

Update. Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (#NASEM), talks about defending US science under #Trump.

https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/03/america-cant-be-great-without-great-science-that-is-where-the-academies-can-help?mc_cid=7d33d921dd&mc_eid=20aa62cccc

"First of all, we are working to reach officials in the administration who will be sensitive to the likely impacts of [their] actions on the health, security, economic opportunity, and well-being of all Americans. Second, we are using the contacts here at the Academies and among our members to directly appeal to other individuals who may share some of the administration’s goals. We are working with them to demonstrate how the scientific evidence base suggests some of the tactics the administration is taking now may not lead to the goals that they want to accomplish…The mantra of this administration is, of course, to make America great. Well, science has been a big part of what has made America great, and America can’t be great without great science…For example, we are doing a fast-track study on reducing red tape for researchers that should be useful to the new administration. It could dramatically increase the efficiency of federally supported science…I really encourage members to talk to their members of Congress; as their constituents, they have more impact."

#DefendResearch #USPol #USPolitics

• March 12, 2025

Update. "US science rues ongoing demotion of research under President Trump"

https://physicsworld.com/a/us-science-rues-ongoing-demotion-of-research-under-president-trump/

"In his first cabinet meeting on 26 February, #Trump suggested that officials “use scalpels” when trimming their departments’ spending and personnel – rather than #Musk’s figurative chainsaw. But bosses at the Environmental Protection Agency (#EPA) still plan to cut its budget by about two-thirds…The White House’s attack on #climate science goes beyond just the EPA. In January, the US Department of #Agriculture removed almost all data on climate change from its website…The Trump administration has also barred #NASA’s now former chief scientist Katherine Calvin and members of the State Department from travelling to China for a planning meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Meanwhile, in a speech to African energy ministers in Washington on 7 March, US energy secretary Chris Wright claimed that coal has “transformed our world and made it better”, adding that climate change, while real, is not on his list of the world’s top 10 problems."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #USPol #USPolitics

• March 12, 2025

Update. "#Trump’s next #climate move: Show global warming benefits humanity"

https://www.eenews.net/articles/trumps-next-climate-move-show-global-warming-benefits-humanity/

"President Donald Trump has long rejected climate science. Now, his administration is grappling with how to assemble a body of federal climate research to show a warming world is benefiting humanity…Proposals include…conducting a hostile review of U.S. and international climate reports, and recruiting a White House-approved list of researchers to produce a National Climate Assessment based on partisan research and industry studies."

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

• March 12, 2025

Update. "Strong Scientific Leaders Must Speak Out against the Trump Administration’s Science Denial"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strong-scientific-leaders-must-speak-out-against-the-trump-administrations/

"We are proud to be members of the #NAS [National Academy of Sciences], but we are not proud of its present inaction. In these challenging and defining times, the National Academy of Sciences, of all scientific institutions, must speak up…The new #Trump administration is now making an unprecedented effort to prevent science from informing public policy. In his first day in office, President Trump signed executive orders withdrawing the U.S. from participation in the Paris Agreement on #climate change and from the World Health Organization [#WHO]. The new administration has subsequently acted to drastically limit support for climate and medical research performed by scientists in the federal government and in universities. In this emergency, it is not enough for the National Academy of Sciences to speak up from its grass roots, as in 2016 or 2018. It must now speak as an institution if it is to fulfill its responsibilities to the nation and maintain its relevance in the future."

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

• March 13, 2025

Update. "How college presidents are quietly resisting federal attacks on higher education"

https://www.highereddive.com/news/college-presidents-resisting-federal-attacks-higher-education/742074/

"The relative lack of public statements is not a sign of cowardice as some have suggested. It’s that many college presidents have rightly concluded that quiet resistance rather than public protest is a more effective strategy. "

PS: Is quiet resistance working? If so, more power to it. It has to be better than quiet blenching. But does it work better than unquiet resistance? And how would we know?

#Academia #Universities #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

@academicchatter@a.gup.pe

• March 13, 2025

Update. It's not enough for #Trump to …

* nominate #climate denialists to run key agencies like the #EPA and #NOAA

* remove climate-related words from govt web sites

* take down whole climate science sites and datasets

* defund climate research and researchers

* layoff scientists and civil servants with climate expertise

* repeal climate regulations

* eliminate 10 regional EPA offices, including the one in DC

* and plan to replace consensus climate findings with ideological cherrypicking as the foundation for policymaking …

… now his #FBI is freezing the assets of nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity, which have received EPA grants, alleging that they might be guilty of “possible criminal violations” including “conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/192660/trump-fbi-charge-climate-organizations

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Takedowns #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

• March 13, 2025

Update. "A Call for Harm Reduction Strategies"

https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/open-knowledge/2025/a-call-for-harm-reduction-strategies

"The new US presidential administration has launched an unprecedented assault on research and higher education. This isn’t just collateral damage from wide-ranging realignment of budgets, which would be bad enough, but an orchestrated attack on academic freedom, research funding, and the institutional autonomy that underpins intellectual progress…Resistance is most effective when collective action amplifies individual efforts rather than occurring in isolation. This means fostering more frequent and open dialogue across all sectors of the academic and research community [e.g. #libraries and #publishers]."

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

• March 13, 2025

Update. "US Funding Cuts Imperil Open Infrastructure Globally"

https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/open-knowledge/2025/US-funding-cuts-imperil-open-infrastructure-globally

"The impacts of funding cuts to research in the US extend far beyond their immediate targets. We see a chain reaction that could indelibly alter the education and research landscape, including the future of open and sustainable research…So what is there to do?… Here are our three specific calls to action…"

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #OpenInfrastructure #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

• March 14, 2025

Update. "Joint Statement on Federal Censorship of American History"

https://www.historians.org/news/aha-oah-joint-statement-on-federal-censorship-of-american-history/

"The American Historical Association (#AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (#OAH) condemn recent efforts to censor historical content on federal government websites, at many public museums, and across a wide swath of government resources…Policies that purge words, phrases, and content that some officials deem suspect on ideological grounds constitute a systemic campaign to distort, manipulate, and erase significant parts of the historical record. Recent directives insidiously prioritize narrow ideology over historical research, historical accuracy, and the actual experiences of Americans.

As the institution chartered by the US Congress for “the promotion of historical studies” and “in the interest of American history, and of history in America,” the American Historical Association must speak out when the nation’s leadership wreaks havoc with that history. So, too, must the OAH, as the organization committed to promoting “excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history.” It is bad enough to forget the past; it is even worse to intentionally deny the public access to what we remember, have documented, and have expended public resources to disseminate."

"To date, 11 organizations have signed on to the statement."

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

• March 14, 2025

Update. "#APDU [Association of Public Data Users] Statement on #Education Research and #Data"

https://apdu.org/?p=5812775

"On Tuesday, March 11, 2025, over 1,000 staff from the Department of Education [#DOE] were laid off. This includes almost all staff from the Institute of Education Sciences (#IES), which housed the National Center for Education Statistics (#NCES)…NCES is mandated by law to report on the condition of education annually, collect and disseminate key education data, and support state and local education agencies…The [layoffs] make it unclear how NCES will meet its legal obligations under the Education Sciences Reform Act, Every Student Succeeds Act, the Information Quality Act, and other federal laws…Congress and policymakers must act to ensure NCES has the resources to meet its statutory obligations. Stakeholders—including researchers, educators, and state leaders—must demand transparency on how education data will be maintained."

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

• March 14, 2025

Update. Survey of US #librarians and #LIS faculty.

https://coloradomesa.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9GjMQWWDpB5zDDg

"Recent weeks and months have brought shifts to the pursuit of research across the United States, including funding freezes and budget cuts, executive orders regarding DEIA (and its variants) and other justice-related topics (e.g., environmental justice)…This survey aims to gather the perspectives of academic librarians and LIS-program faculty about the implications of these shifts (and executive orders) on research initiatives and, more broadly, academic freedom, researchers' freedom of thought/speech/expression within academia, and researchers' overall intellectual freedom."

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

• March 14, 2025

Update. "The Data Hoarders Resisting Trump’s Purge. Can #librarians and guerrilla archivists save the country’s files from #DOGE.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-data-hoarders-resisting-trumps-purge

(#paywalled)

"Lynda Kellam, a social scientist and data librarian,…who’s served in leadership positions at two Ivy League universities, described the vulnerable data as “irreplaceable.”…Kellam told me that she’d participated in a small data-preservation effort during Trump’s first term, but had never seen anything like the frenzy that ignited in late January, when the #CDC began removing information from its website. Kellam was encouraged, but worried about a lack of coördination. What if the backups languished on private hard drives? What if archivists duplicated one another’s work? She created a Google Doc to centralize information about preëxisting initiatives—an archive of archives, with detailed instructions on how to contribute to each…Kellam met with the heads of other data-librarian organizations, and together they founded the #DataRescueProject."

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

• March 15, 2025

Update. Good advice from #MichaelIgnatieff, past President of the Central European University in Budapest and Vienna (2016-2021): "How a University Fights an Authoritarian Regime. Viktor #Orbán came for me. Donald #Trump is coming for you. Here’s what to do."

https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-a-university-fights-an-authoritarian-regime

(#paywalled)

"You’re going to need an alliance that pulls together American families, employers, unions, companies, the whole network of people and institutions beyond your campus who understand that the universities of America are critical to everything that is good about the country: its commitment to freedom, its devotion to excellence, its leadership in science and medicine. This alliance is going to have to get political — to reach across red state and blue state, identify the members of Congress from both sides of the House who understand why universities matter to their communities, to the American economy, and to America’s deserved reputation for excellence. Don’t mince words. It’s too late to play nice. Call a spade a spade. Convince enough Americans that the administration’s strategy deserves only one name: vandalism."

#Academia #DefendResearch #Universities #USPol #USPolitics

@academicchatter@a.gup.pe