Openness, Secrecy, Authorship, and Intellectual Property

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Issues of openness, secrecy, authorship, and intellectual property remain of central concern in scientific and technical research. The current debate between the French and Americans over the discovery of the HIV virus or the criticism of classified CIA- supported research at the Rochester Institute of Technology are just two of many examples of conflicts that can arise concerning these issues. The creation of an office of scientific integrity at the NIH and an Inspector General's Office at NSF are manifestations of the importance government has attached to these questions. Yet these are not in any sense new problems. Under this grant, Dr. Long is continuing her investigation of the origins of beliefs and attitudes towards openness, secrecy, authorship and intellectual property in the period before the rise of modern science and technology in the scientific revolution. She argues that the most important sources for these attitudes and beliefs consist of practical, technical and military writings and craft guild documents. In this study, Dr. Long is evaluating the ways in which prior traditions of practical authorship influenced the development of an ideal of openness in the new experimental science. At the same time, however, she has found a rising interest in secrecy, priority, intellectual property, patents and privileges. She is examining the conflicts that emerged from these competing interests. Her study concludes with an analysis of the ways in which scientific methodology was influenced by such issues as they had been elaborated in prior practical traditions. This research promises to enrich our understanding of the bases for contemporary debate over these issues.