Hi Perhaps the situation is different in the USA than Canada, but up here we could still track a fair bit (although less than in the past) of the basic support for universities to government, both provincial and federal. So the time and other resources (e.g., space) invested in unfunded research is still being supported by government. And even in the USA, I gather that the situation would vary between private and public institutions.
Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor & Chair of Psychology [email protected] Room 4L41A 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax Dept of Psychology, U of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0R4 CANADA >>> "Mike Palij" <[email protected]> 08-Feb-13 8:06 AM >>> On Thu, 7 Feb 2013 20:59:07 -0500 (EST), David Epstein wrote: >On Thu, 7 Feb 2013, Deborah S. Briihl went: >> I know what others have stated, but at this point I would wonder >> about this given the second email, which sounds incredibly rude. > >I can't really know whether the second email was over the top, not >having seen how any of the messages were worded. But it did strike me >really strange to think that someone should be denied a pdf on account >of having no professional affiliation. Unless the original request >was phrased antagonistically, I would have responded as I *always* >respond to reprint requests, credentialed or not: "Thanks for your >interest! pdf attached." Because yeah, that's kinda why science is >publicly funded. I just want to point out that not all science is publicly funded. I know the work that David does is publicly funded and some of the research that I have been involved has been funded by the U.S. government (Thanks NSF, NIMH, NIDA!) but a lot of psychological research does not get funded and less research will be funded in the future, if current trends continue. Having grant funding is great because it allows one cover costs of disseminating materials; in the past, sending out paper reprints, today, paying for publication in certain journals (I'm looking at you PNAS and PLoS) and other things. However, my own training as an experimental psychologist was that one should be able to conduct meaningful research at reasonable costs -- I refer to this as "doing research for under 10 bucks" (though the amount has changed over time). For people doing traditional human learning and memory research, stimulus materials in the form of word norms and equipment for presentation (from slide projectors to specialized software to using Powerpoint) allows one to do a variety of interesting studies of the "small science" variety. It does, however, require the researcher to think deeply and creatively about the research question and what is the best way to go about doing it. Sometimes using a old technique can provide spectacularly influential results as shown by Roediger and McDermott use of Deese's procedure to induce false memories in the lab. It's great to get grant money for such research but stop and consider: how much does it cost to do the basic DRM task? Unfortunately, the pressure to bring in grant money and the "big science" approach to psychology (e.g., you can't do good cognitive psychology unless you use an fMRI) has made more researchers dependent on federal money (and the universities that love those indirect costs) which has sometimes resulted in research that has been done because one has to use the new neuroimaging system that the university has invested in instead of other, perhaps more creative research. Getting back to the original point, whether one should provide someone without any apparent need published articles, it should be remembered that being able to do so has only become relatively cheap in recent years. And given copyright considerations, unless that author owns the copyright, one might be cautious about how freely one gives out published materials (just in case the "independent researcher" is studying how many researchers engage in copyright violations). Public funding of one's research might lead one to think that means that anyone who asks for it, should get our research products -- if so, I'd like to get folk's research data so that I analyze it and generate publications without having to do research myself (this, of course, is the nightmare many publicly funded researchers have and which has made them reluctant to make their data public). So, if you received any public funding for your research please send me your research data because as a U.S. taxpayer I OWN YOUR DATA. ;-) Hey, if I can get enough data, I might become an "independent researcher" myself. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Anyone hit by the blizzard "Nemo" yet? NYU is open as are other colleges but Teachers College at Columbia is closed. I think that maybe TC is a little premature but we'll see. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=23559 or send a blank email to leave-23559-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=23560 or send a blank email to leave-23560-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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