Why honoring anonymity in scientific communication is important...

This is just tragic. All due to a selfish and spiteful lapse in professionalism on the part of an individual with a prestigious position at a prestigious journal who should have known better.Dr. Isis writes,"I’ve always gotten sporadic hate mail as random people find me, but this sent up the bat signal and brought a level of vitriol to my email box, blog comments, and even phone that was far more personal and in excess of anything I’ve ever received. And, of course, the way to silence a woman is to intimate or threaten her with a particular type of violence."This is just tragic. It's tragic because being anybody intimidated into silence is tragic. It's tragic because the individuals doing the intimidating are not likely from among the usual trolling detritus of the internet - unshaven, undesired, and angry - but among us, the professional community of scientific researchers, health professionals, educators and communicators (outside of this community, science bloggers have few followers).  Finally, it's tragic because you can be damned sure that the individuals exploiting the outing of an anonymous blogger's identity in this callous manner are hurling their threats of rape and murder from behind the safe, warm security of their own anonymity.[Also see...]

Source: Across the Bilayer - February 7, 2014 Category: Medical Scientists Source Type: blogs