Controlling Research and its Findings

One of the cornerstones behind our belief in science is that the research is independent - free from any taint of manipulation by those companies or individuals who have a vested interest in the results. We also assume that when the findings are published - they are presented in recognized journals after having been reviewed by competent, non-involved peers. While far less discussed, I think that the majority of Canadians make the assumption that the research is available to the public.

Unfortunately, very little of the above appears to be always true. Most people are aware of how flawed the research was on smoking and cancer. We are all aware that doctors and other scientist were paid, by tobacco companies, to say things that they knew not to be true. Certainly, the more current debate on what to believe in terms of climate change has been fraught with competing information, some of it provided by coal and oil companies. But somehow we have hung on to the belief that most of the time we can trust most of the information that scientists produce. It may be less true than ever before.

Two stories have been quietly circulating somewhere off of the front page of major media outlets that suggest that we may need to re-visit how we see scientific research. The first story is that when Health Canada was determining as to whether or not the use of Monsanto's Roundup would be allowed, they reviewed numerous pieces of research. Some of those reports were, at the very least, indirectly paid for and edited by Monsanto. Which in itself does not prove that the findings that glyphosate was not dangerous were wrong, but given the millions of dollars involved - it should make one suspicious as to how neutral were some of the researchers.

It would perhaps make things more transparent if anyone could access the information and perhaps even more importantly who funded the research. I might not be able to understand complicated try. The second story that I suspect that has drifted well under the radar of most Canadians is the fact that access to academic research, research that is frequently wholly or partially funded through the Canadian taxpayer is not available to most Canadians. In fact, accessing it may be becoming too expensive for some universities.

The present system is that all research that is published by recognized journals is only available if an university purchases on an annual basis a licence from the publishing company. Canadian universities paid out over $300 million last year for the right to have professors and students have access to a variety of academic journals. The journals are published online, the papers are written and reviewed at no cost to the publishers. The general public can purchase a subscription but the cost can be up to $3,000-$5,000 for a single year. They can also purchase a single article. Again the costs can be prohibitive if one is just curious.

So - we can't be sure whether or not the research that is presented to government agencies is valid, free from inappropriate influence and we do not have easy, affordable access to the same research that the government has to make the decisions for ourselves. The only access we have to information is what the companies or their shills give us or else the information from organizations who are perhaps equally as biased from another perspective.

It is not surprising that so many of us do not have a clue as to who to believe anymore. We are prevented from collect the information to make our own decisions.