Hence, the remarks of caution that I will give should not be equated with constructing barriers to effective public access to scientific research. However, the sweeping language of the statute fires grave concerns among our academic researchers about the need to balance the integrity of the scientific process and inquiry, as well as public accountability. The generation of new knowledge is a delicate but rigorous process. What we remember about the essence of science and how we learned the scientific method underlie the issues that we will raise about the integrity of the process. Because this is so critical to us, both as scientists and in our duty as educators to foster the public understanding of science, including measures that safeguard the integrity of the process, it may be useful to restate those fundamentals.
Scientific research is hard work.
The interpretation of results is an evolutionary process. It does not happen just once and then disappear. Let us not be confused. The storage of data, access to stored data, and understanding of that data are not fungible. Data alone are not science.