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Science 11 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5711, p. 854
DOI: 10.1126/science.1107576
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Policy Forum

ETHICS:
Forbidden Knowledge

Joanna Kempner,1 Clifford S. Perlis,2 Jon F. Merz3*

This Policy Forum provides an empirical assessment of the nature and occurrence of "forbidden knowledge,"-philosophical shorthand for the censorship of knowledge that is controversial, taboo, or politically sensitive. Kempner et al. interviewed 41 scientists about experiences or knowledge with science that had been suppressed. Although science is shaped by formal regulations and policies, the authors found that most constraints described by respondents are informal or are self-imposed, reflecting social, political, and cultural pressures on what is studied, how studies are performed, how data are interpreted, and how results are disseminated.

1School of Public Health, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA. 2Department of Dermatology, Brown University Medical School, Providence, RI 02903, USA. 3Department of Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA.

*Author for correspondence. E-mail: merz{at}mail: med.upenn.edu

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