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Showing posts from August, 2013

Who owns the Data? Sharing and knowledge in the social sciences

Early in my academic career, as a fresh assistant professor who had the privilege to be introduced to strong networks of industry professionals by my Professors, I once found myself in the midst of an ethical quandary. I had worked with a private organisation and worked through a nationally robust dataset to arrive at what I felt some pretty interesting conclusions: That mainstream health campaigns often reach out to those that are already healthy was one of the conclusions of this work. Therefore, I concluded, large numbers of health campaigns, with an information-driven focus and with emphasis on information-based channels, are often likely to reach out to those that are already healthy. It is somewhat the problem of preaching to the choir. Now, I thought these conclusions were novel and was truly excited about them. What followed after the piece was published however was something I didn't expect. My research contact at the organisation wrote a  stern email to me, perhaps f