Along these lines…it really doesn't matter if you send reprints out or not. The motivated individual will eventually find the article, or at least a summary of it.
In 1997 I had a paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science: Influences of Testosterone and Serotonin in Aggression and Dominance: Convergence with Social Psychology. The key point of my paper was to show that the physiological findings were in a high level of agreement with the modified Frustration Aggression Hypothesis. That was it, I thought. But, for people with a purpose and money, that is not it. They can use it to push an agenda and there is not a thing you can do about it. I received an unsolicited newsletter named Crime Times in the mail one day not long after the publication of the article. It still exists and here is a link to their brief summary of my article: http://www.crimetimes.org/98b/w98bp8.htm The shaping of what I describe to support their goals is bothersome, yes. But, there is nothing to be done. The current masthead of Crime Times is: Crime Times is a quarterly publication of The Wacker Foundation concentrating on the links between brain dysfunction and disordered/ criminal/ psychopathic behavior. But, at the time of the publication of that paper copy of the newsletter, it read thusly: Research Reviews and Information on Biological Causes of Criminal, Violent, and Psychopathic Behavior. Cause. The implication is that everything in the newsletter is representing causal links between biology and behavior, true experiment or not. It is nice to see that they've changed to the word 'links' because that is much more reasonable. At that time I was writing an infrequent column, Being Human, for an online mental health newsletter (early days for such things) named Perspectives run by John Grohol (he now has a HuffPo blog. I wrote one about about this dilemma of doing research that might be misused by others and how it can't be controlled, drawing an analogy of releasing a child out of our control, telling a story my father would tell about spotting me at age 5 sitting on the players bench at half time of an LSU football game. Here is that column: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=347 So, is really worth all that worry to think about what others might do with our research if we send it to them? They have their agendas and will create support for their view whether the data exists or not. I believe it is better to know facts and deal with that reality than allow others to create unchallenged myths. Paul On Feb 9, 2013, at 10:20 AM, Wuensch, Karl L wrote: You never know to what nefarious use uninstitutionalized individuals might put the knowledge gleaned from the typical report of psychological research. For all we know, they could be terrorists and insurgents, intent on using cell phones to recruit suicide bombers from the ranks of American teenagers. Cheers, <image001.jpg><http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/klw.htm> From: Pollak, Edward (Retired) [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 10:56 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re:[tips] Disseminating your published work? As someone who has dabbled (more or less seriously) in herpetology, I can tell you that I know many amateur herpetologists & herpetoculturists who routinely request reprints from academics. Many of these amateurs are highly accomplished. Some have undergraduate degrees, some graduate degrees, and some only high school diplomas but most are highly experienced & competent in the field and I would be honored to send them reprints despite a lack of an academic affiliation. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/ Husband, father, grandfather, bluegrass fiddler, banjoist & biopsychologist............... in approximate order of importance --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=23576 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-23576-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-23576-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@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=23584 or send a blank email to leave-23584-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
