Nottingham University goes 'kerplunk'!

I have posted previously about the embarrassment that has emanated from Nottingham University over recent weeks. The Nottingham saga related to a student who had in his possession a printout of terrorist material. The student was studying terrorism. The material was printed (and freely accessible) from a US government website.

Why discuss this on a scientific integrity blog?

It reflects the same system malfunction which leads lawyers and Vice Chancellors to make unprincipled anti-academic comments about the most basic safeguards of academia in science. Do I, as an academic, have the right to see, discuss, and properly assess data (mis)represented in my name by a commercial company? Are doctors prescribing drugs allowed to see and discuss the most fundamental aspects of science underlying that prescribing decision? Does an academic studying terrorism have the right to assess and to see (and even to possess) the information he is studying? What exactly are the roles and obligations of a University and of academic leadership?

Now we have this from the Times Higher Education Supplement (17 July 2008):

Researchers have no 'right' to study terrorist materials, By Melanie Newman

"Academics have no "right" to research terrorist materials and they risk being prosecuted for doing so, the vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham has told his staff."...

Mr Sabir's personal tutor Bettina Renz, a lecturer in international security, and his MA supervisor, Rod Thornton, a terrorism specialist and former soldier, have both said they told police that Mr Sabir's possession of the document was legitimate given his research interests....

[Despite this, the University in a new letter] "warned Mr Sabir that he risked re-arrest if found with the manual again" and added: "The university authorities have now made clear that possession of this material is not required for the purpose of your course of study nor do they consider it legitimate for you to possess it for research purposes."...

"Since his release without charge, Mr Sabir has been accepted to study for a PhD in radical Islam at Nottingham under Dr Thornton's supervision. His doctorate application proposes an analysis of Islamic terrorists' military and political strategy "based on primary documents, including reports published by think-tanks and research centres and documentation published or released by Islamist groups (strategic and political statements, military manuals, group manifestos and charters)"....

"Mr Sabir insisted to Times Higher Education that he had downloaded his version of the al-Qaeda manual from a US government website and that it was still freely available on the internet"....

"He said he was now unclear what he could and could not legitimately research for his PhD, given the police and the university's warning"....

"Vanessa Pupavac, lecturer in international relations at Nottingham, said: "The university suggests it is illegitimate to study the operational or the tactical as opposed to the political or strategic dimension of al-Qaeda." Scholars were interested in both dimensions, she argued."...

Oliver Blunt QC, of the Anti-Terrorism team at Furnival Chambers in London, said that academics do have a "right" to "access" terrorist materials, whether for research or otherwise, as long as they do not "possess" them. (!) He said: "Once the researcher knowingly downloads or saves the materials that he is accessing, then he is in 'possession' of terrorist materials.

On the internet, what exactly is the difference between "reading", "downloading" and "possessing"?

The Vice Chancellor at Nottingham is quoted as follows

"There is no 'right' to access and research terrorist materials. Those who do so run the risk of being investigated and prosecuted on terrorism charges. Equally, there is no 'prohibition' on accessing terrorist materials for the purpose of research. Those who do so are likely to be able to offer a defence to charges (although they may be held in custody for some time while the matter is investigated). This is the law and applies to all universities." --- Colin Campbell, Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham University (THE, 17 July 2008)

The following from Professor Scott Lucas (University of Birmigham), an open letter to the Vice Chancellor at Nottingham

The problem was never the type-set pages of Mein Kampf; rather, it was in the use of those pages to justify bigotry, racism, war, genocide. The problem was never Marx’s Das Kapital or Mao’s Little Red Book or Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations or the Koran or the Bible. It was, still is, and always will be the manipulation of those texts to justify the taking of lives.

Vice-Chancellor, do you think that --- through your denial of texts to us --- that you make us safer? Do you think that, by denying us our ability to think, consider, criticise that you shelter us from harm? Do you think that you protect us from ourselves, prevent us from becoming extremists? If you do, you are reducing your staff, your students, your administrators, your trustees to no more than children incapable of judgement? You go in one step from being a proud university to a fortress of ignorance.

“There is no 'prohibition' on accessing terrorist materials for the purpose of research. Those who do so are likely to be able to offer a defence to charges.” Thus we are allowed freedom of thought under the caution that we are guilty before being proven innocent. Perhaps you know, Vice Chancellor, of other societies in other times who have also maintained their standard. Perhaps you know where scholars, students, citizens have been advised that they may read their books and then, as those books are burned, explain why they have not committed a crime. Read on

What has become of us, and why do the leadership of other universities remain silent?



There are cogent comments from Edward Reid-Smith on the THES article

The situation seems to be that a small elite group is able to access and possess certain materials without being themselves "corrupted" or to be charged as terrorists .... Their decision is that others accessing and possessing the same materials will be "corrupted" or liable to be charged as "terrorists" whether or not they actually are terrorists. The 99.9% of the population not privileged will not be allowed to possess the material, and legislation will ensure that they are terrorised into not seeking knowledge about what "terrorists" actually think and do.....

The passing of legislation which leaves any community uncertain of exactly what is allowed and what is banned, presents an excellent tool for oligarchic dictatorship at whim. One may question whether non-specific legislation is the result of ineptitude, or because there is some strange pleasure to be gained from putting the populace in fear (i.e. terrorising?) seeking information.

Upper echelons of the university (businessmen) have decided that they know what constitutes "legitimate research material".

Certainly there are real and serious dangers in this world of ours. People who feel they have the right to blow other random individuals apart (or to act as apologists for others who do) are a part of that problem. Dealing with those dangers involves proper discussion as to what they are. That is what Universities are for.

A few other links about this story here, here, here. U-Tube video of Rizwaan Sabir here.

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Why it's bad to cheat

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The art of malfunction

Great fun. This new online tool enables you to take a chunk of text and generate a nice bit of artwork. Here for example is the 6 September 2005 letter suspending me from my post at the University of Sheffield.



Below is the joint mission statement of GlaxoSmithKline, the UK drugs "regulator" (the MHRA) and the General Medical Council (UK professional regulator)

• GSK: "We have a challenging and inspiring mission: to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer."
• MHRA: We enhance and safeguard the health of the public by ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. No product is risk-free. Underpinning all our work lie robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits to patients and the public justify the risks."
• GMC: "Regulating doctors - Ensuring good medical practice."

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Crooked academics and the Universities that shield them - more on Brown and Keller

It's all very well blaming pharmaceutical companies for the decrepit state of integrity in medicine.

The chief villians remain our academic institutions and medical leadership. They have colluded with and have acted as apologists for commercial scientific fraud. They have tolerated the telling of lies by senior academics. They have encouraged the prostitution of medicine. They have allowed abuse of the most fundamental safeguards of science. Most importantly, they have set terrible examples for our students.

Last week I posted a copy of my letter to the new Dean of Medicine at Brown University, Professor Ed Wing. The letter was about scientific integrity at Brown, the problem of Professor Martin Keller, and the silence over Brown's treatment of Professor David Kern.

I have not had a response.

A source now informs me that Brown has conducted a formal "investigation" into the activities of Professor Martin Keller. The prior probability that such an investigation would be anything other than a sham is pretty low (P<0.001), but the report is nevertheless "confidential". The trail of oddities involving Keller extends into the distant past. Now the US Senate Finance Committee is probing Keller's financial kickbacks.

It is hard to say this nicely. Based on the publicly available evidence, Professor Martin Keller is guilty of gross and obvious scientific deception and abuse of the scientific process. He has betrayed the trust of our patients. More about Keller here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

Brown University have continued to provide Keller with a shield of University respectibility. Since he remains in post, we can only guess the level of scientific deception that Brown administration deem to be acceptable.

Should you remain silent Professor Wing?

This is the guidance Brown University provides to it's students:

Principles of the Brown University Community

We, as members of the Brown University community – faculty, undergraduates, graduate and medical students, and staff – are dedicated to supporting and maintaining a scholarly community in which all share together in the common enterprise of learning. As a central aim, Brown University promotes intellectual inquiry through vigorous discourse, both oral and written. The fundamental principles that must necessarily undergird this aim include respect for the integrity of the academic process; individual integrity and self-respect; respect for the freedoms and privileges of others; and respect for University resources. In becoming a part of Brown University, we accept the rights and responsibilities of membership in the University’s academic and social community, and assume the responsibility to uphold the University’s principles.

Respect for the Integrity of the Academic Process

The rights and responsibilities that accompany academic freedom are at the heart of the intellectual purposes of the University. Our conduct as community members should protect and promote the University’s pursuit of its academic mission. We are all, therefore, expected to conduct ourselves with integrity in our learning, teaching, and research, and in the ways in which we support those endeavors.

Individual Integrity

In order to ensure that the University can dedicate itself fully to its academic and educational vision, it is expected that an individual’s personal integrity will be reflected not only in honest and responsible actions but also in a willingness to offer direction to others whose actions may be harmful to themselves or the community. The University expects that members of the Brown community will be truthful and forthright. The University also expects that community members will not engage in behavior that endangers their own sustained effectiveness or that has serious ramifications for their own or others’ safety, welfare, academic well-being, or professional obligations.

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A crooked scientist

There was a crooked man,
And he walked a crooked mile.
To confer with his crooked neighbor,
Who wore a crooked smile.
The crooked man's neighbor,
Lived in a crooked nook.
Both being crooked people,
They read a crooked book.
Inside were crooked tales,
Of other crooked men.
'Twas a crooked man's dream,
Shared with a crooked friend.

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The Osler Corner - On probability

"The problems of disease are more complicated and difficult than any others with which the trained mind has to grapple... Variability is the law of life. As no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals react alike and behave alike under the abnormal conditions which we know as disease. This is the fundamental difficulty in the education of the physician, and one which he or she may never grasp... probability is the guide of life".
Sir William Osler 1, 1921

Here lies the basis for clinical decision making and evidence based medicine. What is the probability that "Liver extract" will improve fatigue or that Astaxanthin (a carotenoid pigment) will solve male infertility? (more of these later)

For that matter, what is the probability that any given clinical trial sponsored and controlled by GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, or Procter and Gamble will be honest?

This quote appears on a few websites promoting magical medicine. However they routinely omit the last sentence of the quotation, reversing the essence of Osler's wisdom. Osler would not have liked magical medicine - of the "GlaxoSmithKline" variety or the "liver extract" variety.

Click here for collated posts from the Osler Corner

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Blogs versus power - Paul Blackburn of GSK resigns from Ofsted

Paul Blackburn, GSK Vice president has resigned from the Ofsted board in the last few hours over "the activities of his employer" (see background here)



See here

From: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk
To: fiddaman64
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:22 PM
Subject: Fw: Appointment of GSK Vice President to Ofsted

Dear Mr Fiddaman

Further to my email to you this morning, please be advised as follows:

Paul Blackburn resigned as a non executive member of the Ofsted Board on 5th July. His resignation follows public concerns about the activities of his employer GSK. Paul did not want any negative press interest to detract from the excellent work of Ofsted and therefore resigned. As far as Ofsted is concerned the matter is now concluded.

Should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Alan O'Neal
Customer Service Advisor
Ofsted - National Business Unit

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