Fighting for our right to debate

PhD student Jay Stone (UCL MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology) discusses the implications for science of the current inequities in British libel law. In science, healthy debate and discussion of each other's work is crucial. We all read papers and discuss what we think about them; whether we agree with their controls, their statistical analysis, whether we would have drawn the same conclusions. It is what drives our work forward. We put so much emphasis on having a fresh pair of eyes on our work that we have even designed the peer review system around it. Science is meant to be open for all to see, warts and all. So what if your work showed a company's medical claims to be flawed or misleading' This information is important but the company probably wouldn?t be keen on you announcing it to everyone.