Discussion · bonfire.cafe

@petersuber@fediscience.org · 6 months ago

Update. "Trump’s #DOJ Sends Intimidating Letters to Medical #Journals for Supposedly Being ‘Partisan’ "
https://gizmodo.com/trumps-doj-sends-intimidating-letters-to-medical-journals-for-supposedly-being-partisan-2000591550

"The U.S. Department of Justice has sent letters to medical journals for supposedly being “partisan,” heavily suggesting that they’re spreading misinformation and are influenced by “funders” rather than medical science. Gizmodo has confirmed that the journal CHEST, a peer-reviewed publication on pulmonary care published by the American College of Chest Physicians, received a letter this week. And MedPage Today reports that at least two other journals have received similar intimidating letters."

PS: The letter to Harvard shows that the Trump admin wants to control what universities teach. These letters show that it also wants to control what scholarly journals publish.

#AcademicFreedom #Censorship #DefendResearch #Medicine #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber

@petersuber@fediscience.org replied · 6 months ago

Update. "Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More"
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-data-collection-hhs-epa-cdc-maternal-mortality

"The data collection efforts that have been shut down or are at risk of being curtailed are staggering in their breadth. In some cases, datasets from past years now sit orphaned, their caretakers banished and their future uncertain; in others, past data has vanished for the time being, and it’s unclear if and when it will reappear. Here are just a few examples."

PS: What follows is one of the best lists of deleted or endangered datasets so far published.

#Censorship #DefendResearch #OpenData #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

ProPublica

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More

By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.

petersuber

@petersuber@fediscience.org replied · 6 months ago

Update. "Trump team freezes new NSF awards — and could soon axe hundreds of grants"
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01263-0

"All new research grants have been frozen at the US National Science Foundation ( #NSF) — an action apparently ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency ( #DOGE)… Documents seen by Nature show that two members of DOGE…have been given access to grant management systems and used that access to prevent grants from receiving funding that were already approved but awaiting finalization. 'That, of course, raises the hairs on the back of our neck in a worrisome way,' an NSF programme officer says."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber

@petersuber@fediscience.org replied · 6 months ago

Update. "U.S. climate data websites go dark"
https://www.science.org/content/article/us-climate-data-websites-go-dark

"U.S. scientists, state policymakers, farmers, and others who depend on up-to-date #climate data on Thursday confronted an information blackout from federal regional climate centers across much of the country. “Unfortunately, all data and services offered under the base contract, including this website, will be unavailable unless and until funding is resumed,” a statement on the Southern Regional Climate Center’s website read…The disruption appears to be a temporary paperwork bottleneck within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( #NOAA), rather than a policy decision by agency leadership, officials at several of the centers say. The centers are managed by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. But they are housed chiefly at #universities operating under 5-year agreements. The contracts for payment are approved each year. The last annual cycle ended on 16 April."

#Climate #DefendResearch #Funding #OpenData #Takedowns #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber

@petersuber@fediscience.org replied · 6 months ago

PS: The letter to Harvard shows that the Trump admin wants to control what universities teach. These letters show that it also wants to control what scholarly journals publish.

#AcademicFreedom #Censorship #DefendResearch #Medicine #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

petersuber

@petersuber@fediscience.org replied · 6 months ago

Update. " #NIH freezes funds to #Harvard and four other universities, but can’t tell them."
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-freezes-funds-harvard-and-four-other-universities-can-t-tell-them
( #paywalled)

"After freezing all grants to #Columbia University last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now stopping grant and contract payments to Harvard University and four other universities [ #Brown, #Northwestern, #Cornell, #WeillCornell Medical School]…The move will both block new funding and halt payments to investigators currently working on NIH projects…The Department of Health and Human Services ( #HHS)…instructed NIH staff not to provide any communication to these institutions or to Columbia about whether the funds are frozen or why, according to the email."

#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

petersuber

@petersuber@fediscience.org replied · 6 months ago

Update. "Over 150 US university presidents sign letter decrying #Trump administration"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/21/us-university-presidents-trump-administration

"More than 150 presidents of US colleges and universities have signed a statement denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with higher education – the strongest sign yet that US educational institutions are forming a unified front against the government’s extraordinary attack on their independence. The statement, published early on Tuesday by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, comes weeks into the administration’s mounting campaign against higher education, and hours after Harvard University became the first school to sue the government over threats to its funding."

The letter itself:
https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement

EDIT. As of April 24, 2025, the tally of signatures is up to 425.

EDIT. As of August 1, 2025, the tally of signatures is up to 660.

#AACU #Academia #DefendResearch #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

AAC&U

A Call for Constructive Engagement | AAC&U

A Call for Constructive Engagement

the Guardian

Over 150 US university presidents sign letter decrying Trump administration

Statement signed by Harvard, Princeton and Brown leaders denounces White House’s ‘undue government intrusion’

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