Declaration To Defend Research against Censorship in the United States

The current United States administration has proposed or enacted several orders that threaten to restrict funding for independent research and censor the publication of research outcomes. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have removed information from their website that contains “forbidden terms” related to sex or gender, based on an executive order on supposed “gender ideology extremism”.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has blocked funding and temporarily frozen and vetted existing grants on a variety of topics the administration could deem to be related to said “gender ideology” or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA)-related fields—based on keywords such as “socioeconomic”, “marginalized”, “equity”, or “women”. The same executive orders have also led to the removal of information on important health-related topics, such as HIV/AIDS, contraception, or mental health issues.

Aiming to promote resistance against these and similar threats to free research and the academic freedom of speech, Lisa Schiff and Catherine Mitchell, California Digital Library at the University of California, Sara Rouhi, AIP Publishing, Peter Suber, Harvard Library at Harvard University, and Alice Meadows, MoreBrains Cooperative, have initiated a “Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship” that is open for signatories, both for individuals and organizations worldwide.

The Declaration calls on members of the worldwide scholarly community, including researchers, policy-makers, scholarly societies, libraries, universities and research institutions, publishers, and funders to publicly condemn and resist the censorship of academic research. Signatories also commit to acting on at least one of the following four recommendations:

Support instances of resistance to U.S. government censorship
Promote venues for scholars to share, safeguard, and preserve their work, beyond the reach of censorship
Participate in efforts to track and record instances of U.S. government censorship
Share the Declaration broadly and encourage individuals and organizations in the signatory’s communities to sign and support it

The team behind the Declaration proposes using the hashtag #DefendResearch as part of this commitment.