As BP finishes sealing the undersea well that’s been spewing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the past three months, is it also trying to seal the lips of university scientists who might be in a position to criticize it? The Press-Register of Mobile, Ala., says it has obtained a copy of a contract that BP is offering to research scientists in the Gulf region, seeking their expert advice but also prohibiting them from publishing their data, sharing it with other scientists, or speaking about it for at least the next three years.
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4 Responses to BP Contract Said to Ban Researchers From Sharing Data
mlipsitch - July 18, 2010 at 12:03 am
Not surprising, but discouraging. I wrote a Commentary on this topic (in the biomedical context) in a recent issue of the Chronicle http://chronicle.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/article/The-Hidden-Risk-to-Academic/66050/ . As I found in the biomedical area, this seems to be an example in which some universities have no safeguards against having their faculty sign private consulting agreements that place them under tight restrictions (see the detailed article in the Press Register http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/bp_buys_up_gulf_scientists_for.html cited here for the comments by the chair of Marine Sciences at Univ. of South Alabama).Universities may permit their faculty to take on consulting jobs, but surely they are within their rights to insist that such jobs not restrict faculty from doing their primary jobs as faculty, including research, teaching, and public engagement on areas of their expertise.
mlipsitch - July 18, 2010 at 12:04 am
Sorry, the general link to the piece on biomedical consulting and “gag” agreements is http://chronicle.com/article/The-Hidden-Risk-to-Academic/66050/
sebclibrary - July 19, 2010 at 10:20 am
BP is shooting itself in the foot again.
jack_cade - July 19, 2010 at 11:02 am
BP is one of the most successful companies in the world. Yet, there is absolutely collassal incompetence within its ranks, from the board, the CEO, down to the folks running the rigs (the workers seem to have been brow-beaten into following bad policies).Where is the market logic in that?Or are all other companies similarly inept?Or does ineptitude pay?Is it the bulling idiot that is successful while the thoughtful reserved moral and competent person might achieve modest success within the capitalist system, but never the towering success of the Goldman Sachs, and BP CEOs.