Hi ECOLOGers, Because of several recent high-profile news stories from various fields, I have became interested in how often researchers are discouraged from publishing their results. I am a PhD student and this doesn't draw from my own experience, which has been very positive and well-supported, but I'm curious about how we stack up to other fields.
I've made is a short survey for researchers about whether they have ever been pressured to not publish data or results. So far I have gotten a number of interesting responses mainly from young researchers who come from similar institutions to my own. This brings up issues of how young researchers can learn to deal with these situations when there are major power differentials between the two sides in a discussion. However, the demographic I've reached so far might lead me to a different interpretation of the results than is more generally correct! So I'd like hear from the broader community, including people who have worked in research for different lengths of time and at different types of institutions. I'm not planning to publish the results as a manuscript, unless the results are particularly fascinating in which case I would consider writing a letter to the editor or a short note. Instead, I plan to write a blog post about the results and share them. I hope this generates some discussion within the community. There's a space at the end of the survey to provide your email address if you'd like to see the results when I write them up. You can access the survey, which will take less than 5 minutes, here: http://goo.gl/forms/PXEOC4BTkh Because of response bias, it would be great if people who have never encountered this situation would also take the survey. Thanks so much for your time, Chelsea Little PhD student in Ecology University of Zurich Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
