Scientists Worry Journals May Aid Terrorists

NICHOLAS WADE / NY Times 26jul02

The leader of a national scientific organization has sought the advice of the National Academy of Sciences on whether scientific journals should withhold information that may aid bioterrorists or countries contemplating biological warfare.

In a letter to the academy, Dr. Ronald Atlas, president of the American Society for Microbiology, wrote, "We are now being asked to allow authors to withhold critical information because of concern that significant data could be misappropriated or abused."

The issue is a hard one for scientific journals; many of them insist that scientific articles must include the information necessary for others to reproduce the findings.

The request to withhold information, Dr. Atlas said, has come from individual scientists submitting articles for publication in the 11 journals published by the American Society for Microbiology.

Though some of the scientists work for government laboratories, the requests were all made on the basis of individual judgment, so far as he is aware, Dr. Atlas said.

Several requests, he said, concerned DNA primers, the snippets of DNA used to extract specific genes from an organism. One application of primers is in sensors designed to quickly detect microbes in a biological attack. An adversary's genetic engineers could foil the sensors if they knew what primers were used.

But Dr. Atlas said he feared that if authors were allowed to withhold information, the journals might find themselves publishing papers that could not be reproduced. He said he was leaning against the proposal but felt it was important enough to bring to the academy, asking that it convene a conference of journal editors.

Dr. Eileen Choffnes, the academy staff member who is planning the conference, noted a precedent in the concern by physicists in the late 1930's over articles about uranium. In June 1940, she said, the academy secured the cooperation of 237 journals in withholding papers on uranium and related matters, resulting in "the almost total cessation of publication on nuclear physics."

The academy, however, circulated the articles privately among American physicists.

Dr. Donald Kennedy, the editor of the journal Science, said he doubted if a conference of journal editors would include the necessary expertise on national security to decide what should or should not be published.

He noted that the government could require prepublication review of any federally financed research that might raise concerns, and universities could then decide if they wished to accept such grants.