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“Scientific data is more freely available than ever. But does the push for openness help or hinder science?”

This is the question asked by Index on Censorship, who describe themselves as “Britain’s leading organisation promoting freedom of expression.” The UK Commons Select Committee conducted their inquiry into peer review earlier this year, examining the processes of scientific publication and suggesting that not only the peer review process, but all of science, should be open access.

How much of research should be accessible is a question that’s been raised in a recent high-profile case between tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) and the University of Stirling. PMI used freedom of information laws to request that the university hand over their data investigating smoking behaviour, in a landmark trial that has caused outcry in the scientific community.

Gerard Hastings from the University of Stirling said, “We assured [study participants] we would treat [their information] with absolute confidence and that it would be restricted to the research… this is data the tobacco companies themselves would never be allowed to collect.” He went to say that this “has enormous implications for academic freedom.” [1]

Whether scientific research is endangered by freedom of information requests is a question that will be discussed at Index for Censorship’s debate, “Data Debate: is transparency bad for science?” which takes place on Tuesday 6 December, 6.30pm, at Imperial College London. Speakers at the event are Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, George Monbiot, Guardian columnist, and the philosopher Baroness Onora O’Neill.

F1000 have always been advocates of open science (our chairman having started the first open-access publisher BioMedCentral), and last week we announced the development of a new publishing model, F1000 Research, that includes both open peer-review and the deposition of data sets. We will be attending the debate next week; if you’ll be there too, do let us know. We’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

[1] BBC News article,“University fights Philip Morris tobacco research bid”, 1 September 2011

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Launched in 1972, Index on Censorship is “the only magazine devoted to protecting and promoting free expression. International in outlook, outspoken in comment, and publishing some of the world’s finest writers, Index exposes stories that are suppressed, publishes banned writing, initiates debate and gives breadth to news that has often been “dumbed down” in the world’s media.”