- Bishop Hill blog

Fred Pearce has written an article about availability of scientific data for Index on Censorship magazine. A Mr McIntyre is mentioned frequently.

The fuss over climategate showed that the world is increasingly unwilling to accept the message that “we are scientists; trust us”. Other people want to join the scientific conversation. Good scientists, interested in finding truth, should want to encourage them, not put up the shutters. The wider world instinctively knows to distrust those in all walks of life who reject openness. As McIntyre put it recently, “probably no single issue damages the reputation of the climate science community more than the refusal to show the data that supports their work”. There should, for the good of science as well as public discourse, be a presumption in favour of open access.

This is very definitely a read the whole thing article.

Update on Dec 1, 2011 by

Bishop Hill

There is a related debate here.

Join Index on Censorship for ‘Data Debate: is transparency bad for science?’, a panel debate to launch the new issue of Index on Censorship magazine, ‘Dark Matter: what’s science got to hide?’

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

Speakers include Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, George Monbiot, Guardian columnist and Baroness Onora O’Neill. Jo Glanville, Editor of Index on Censorship, will chair.