What bugs me about this is that the scientists actually honored the governments request in this. They should have simply gone right ahead and make a big stink rather than to be meek sheep and to complain afterwards they didn't get their say.
Well, the problem is that governments hire academics to do studies for them, which makes them their clients. That puts a scientist in a weird position.
Here in the Netherlands, I know of a study that is jointly paid for by two government departments, but the steering committee won't allow one of them to access the preliminary results because they're afraid it will leak before it is final, or something to that extent. I have to be a bit oblique here, but the point is that civil servants tend to be rather fearful when it comes to "managing information".
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 19.0 ms ] threadHere in the Netherlands, I know of a study that is jointly paid for by two government departments, but the steering committee won't allow one of them to access the preliminary results because they're afraid it will leak before it is final, or something to that extent. I have to be a bit oblique here, but the point is that civil servants tend to be rather fearful when it comes to "managing information".