Scientific freedom and responsibility

Abstract

AbstractIn July 1975, ASIS President Dale Baker asked the ASIS Professional Enhancement Committee to react to the report of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. The AAAS report surveyed the principal contemporary conflicts that have arisen involving scientific freedom and responsible scientific conduct. The members of the AAAS Committee were asked “to recommend mechanisms to enable the Association to review specific instances in which scientific freedom is alleged to have been abridged or otherwise endangered, or responsible scientific conduct is alleged to have been violated.” According to William D. Carey, AAAS Executive Officer, “a historic and fundamental issue is implicit in this charge, namely: can the scientific community voluntarily develop suitable arrangements to insure that the freedom enjoyed and the responsibilities assumed by its members are consistent with the high ideals it has set for itself?” AAAS formally requested ASIS to carefully study its report and to comment on strategies through which AAAS can join with its affiliated societies to implement the recommendations made by the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. The following report was submitted to President Baker in October 1975 by the ASIS Professional Enhancement Committee (Erwin W. Bedarf, H.W. Jones, Harry H. Pritchett, Maryeva W. Terry, and James M. Cretsos, Chairman).