Greetings --
Have any of you encountered a situation in which empirical research
conducted by a student under faculty supervision (or by a faculty person for
that matter) has been "censored" by the institution?
The research is still in the proposal stage, but we cannot obtain approval
to proceed without inclusion of a statement that the results of the research
cannot be presented or published without the permission of our college. The
research concerns predictors of student retention. The student, an
outstandingly promising psychology major who hopes to go on to graduate
school, is quite frustrated because if she completes the study she may not
be able to present it or publish it in any form without "permission" --
potentially preventing her from being able to demonstrate that she has
conducted and presented or published research when she wants to apply to
graduate programs.
I feel like there are issues of academic freedom and of proper scientific
methodology involved here (I was taught -- and teach -- that the scientist
has the responsibility to make the results of empirical work publicly
available), but also the educational issue of failing to facilitate the
academic development of a student.
If you have encountered such a situation, I would appreciate hearing about
how it was handled or resolved (you can reply to me back channel at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you haven't encountered anything like this but have any wise advise for
proceeding, I'd appreciate that as well.
Thanks,
Deb Hume
