NB: As of 16 August 2023, this position statement has been superseded by Position statement – Freedom and responsibility of science.

The Australian Academy of Science (the Academy) holds that all scientists should be free to go about their work, and to promote and disseminate the peer-reviewed results of their work in appropriate fora without fear of intimidation or violence from groups or individuals who hold contrary ideologies or views.

The Academy also strongly supports the International Council for Science (ICSU) Statute 5 on the Principle of universality (freedom and responsibility) of science which states:

The free and responsible practice of science is fundamental to scientific advancement and human and environmental well-being. Such practice, in all its aspects, requires freedom of movement, association, expression and communication for scientists, as well as equitable access to data, information, and other resources for research. It requires responsibility at all levels to carry out and communicate scientific work with integrity, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, and transparency, recognising its benefits and possible harms.

While the Academy does not suggest that scientific input into public debate should be privileged over consideration of cultural, societal, financial or other factors, the scientists who produce and disseminate the results of their work should be given the freedom and the protection to do so without fear of intimidation or violence.

The Academy strongly encourages society to respect the role of scientists in developing and promoting independent evidence-based advice, and denounces any instance of intimidation, threatened or actual violence towards scientists.

The Australian Academy of Science was established by Royal Charter in 1954 and has an elected Fellowship of over 500 leading Australian scientists. The Academy celebrates and supports excellence in Australian science, promotes international scientific engagement, builds public awareness and understanding of science and provides independent, authoritative and influential scientific advice.

The Australian Academy of Science comprises 550 Fellows whose common link is their exceptional scientific achievement. Through the Fellowship, the Academy has unparalleled access to scientific expertise and to the Australian science community. The Academy is able to use this knowledge base to provide advice on policy-related matters. 

Principles for policy advice 

All advice provided by the Academy will be dispassionate, disinterested apolitical and founded in expertise, according to the following standards: 

1. Excellence. The Academy will draw on the expertise of its distinguished Fellowship, and on other relevant experts.
2. Quality. All advice is subject to internal and external review, in part to ensure content is appropriate and in part to ensure any advice is compliant with Academy policies and principles.
3. Independence. The Academy is independent. Its advice is driven by evidence and will not be influenced by political interference in its drafting or its conclusions.
4. Transparency. A normal condition of Academy advice is that it is made public. It will be written to be accessible to a non-specialist audience. 

The Academy supports the development of an open science strategy for Australia. Such a strategy needs to address open access, open methods, open peer review and Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data.

Statement of principle 

The Australian Academy of Science maintains that the advancement of scientific knowledge is best served through the free, open, and accessibly distribution of high-quality peer-reviewed research. The Academy supports continuing efforts to ensure publicly funded research is freely available and without restriction. The benefits of open science are considerable and worth pursuing. The transition to open science will require government, funding councils, research councils, learned societies, universities, researchers, librarians, and publishers to collaborate to develop such a sustainable, transparent, cost-effective and high-quality open science environment.

The Academy’s position 

Excellence is central to the scientific mission. Scientists seek to understand nature, people, and society and communicate that understanding for the common good. Nation-states fund science to contribute to knowledge, national prosperity, societal well-being and to manage global risks like pandemics or climate change. 

The practice of open science is central to the mission of the scientific enterprise. Publication of scientific theories – and experimental and observational data – allows other scientists to identify errors, support, reject or refine methods, and reuse data for further understanding and knowledge. Science’s capacity for self-correction comes from this openness to scrutiny and challenge. 

The digitalisation of science and society has changed research and offers opportunities to enhance trust in science and scientists. But equally, digitalisation has in part given rise to a tendency to “cherry-pick”, dismiss, misrepresent, or obscure scientific evidence or smear individual scientists. This tendency can be resisted by embracing an open research culture. 

Open science requires unhindered access to scientific articles, access to data from public research, and collaborative research. Broadening access to scientific publications and data is at the heart of open science so that research outputs are in the hands of as many as possible, and potential benefits are spread as widely as possible. 

The hallmarks of good science are demonstrated expertise, accurate and unbiased reporting, and a commitment to opening one’s work to the scrutiny of peers and the public. For this reason, scientists are more inclined to trust research that appears in peer-reviewed literature and is open to examination and critique. This openness builds trust, and this trust allows scientists to expand their thinking and hypotheses, leading to a deeper understanding of the world. 

In recent centuries, the growth of this understanding is due to such open practices, open communication and deliberation that sits at the heart of the scientific method. However, many scientific inputs and outputs remain locked behind paywalls. The Australian Academy of Science maintains that the advancement of scientific knowledge is best served through the free, open, and accessibly distribution of high-quality peer-reviewed research. The Academy supports continuing efforts to ensure publicly funded research is freely available and without restriction.

The Academy is a signatory to the Declaration on research assessment (2012), the Beijing statement on research data (2019) and the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) access policy statement (2017). 

General principles 

Following are general principles offered by the Australian Academy of Science to inform consideration about the transition to open science.

1. The Academy supports the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) policy statement and calls on government to develop a national strategy for its implementation.
2. Government, other researchers, and the wider community must have unimpeded access to the research findings and data that result from publicly funded research. The curation of such data, which must be machine-readable, should be covered by research funders. Publicly funded research findings should be disseminated as broadly as possible and immediately upon publication.
3. Universities and research institutes should support an open science culture by recognising data communication by their researchers as an essential criterion for career progression and reward; developing a data strategy and their collective capacity to curate their knowledge resources and support the data needs of researchers; having open data as a default position.
4. Research findings must not be delayed or prevented from being made available in an Open Access journal or repository by publishing, financial, copyright or other barriers.
5. A flexible and planned approach from funding providers will be necessary to help researchers transition to an open science culture and practices and implement the FAIR statement. There will need to be allowances, especially regarding access to health and other personal data. These exceptions should be limited to as few as possible.
6. The quality and integrity of scholarly publishing must be maintained through the continued use of the peer review process in both pre- and post-publication.
7. Assessment of university research should reward the development of open data on a comparable scale as journal articles and other publications and should include measures that reward collaborative ways of working.
8. As a condition of publication, the Academy calls upon scientific journals to require that data is accessible, usable, reproducible and traceable.   

Statement of authorisation 

This position paper was subject to expert review by the Australian Academy of Science and authorised by the Academy Council at its meeting of 24 June 2021. 

Modern science is built on partnerships and collaborations surpassing national borders, in pursuit of innovative solutions to pressing global challenges. The pan-national research effort in response to the COVID-19 challenge demonstrates the power of science, to which international collaboration is indispensable. This pandemic has seen an unprecedented level of international scientific cooperation and good will to combat the impact of the virus on the world, including international groups working rapidly to find a vaccine for COVID-19. 

Maintaining support for international research collaborations allows scientists to exchange ideas and engage in productive scientific progress that build on synergies to the benefit of the host nation as well as its partners. These interactions create shared interests, providing a basis for diplomatic engagement that can be valuable in promoting harmonious international relations and building strategic partnerships that are fundamental to scientific advancement and human and environmental well-being. Science has time and time again proven itself to be an effective and powerful soft power asset playing an important role in building strategic partnerships between countries. 

The last 50 years have seen dramatic changes in science and technology. To continue advancing the frontiers of human knowledge, scientific infrastructure has grown even more sophisticated and technologically advanced. Interdisciplinary science has grown, and new disciplines have emerged. Technological advances have increased the capacity and speed of research. The exponential increase in computational capacities, for example, has enabled significant quantities of data to be collected and analysed. Modern communication and the abundance of data have led to an increasing pace of the exchange of ideas and rate of international collaboration between researchers. 

These developments mean that science has become more and more complex. Science and technology have come a long way from the days when our geographical isolation drove Australia’s innovation. Now, no single scientist can understand all, no single institution can afford all the facilities required to do leading-edge science, and no single country can alone address the big scientific challenges of our time. 

For the size of our population, Australia is particularly productive in a range of scientific fields. Nevertheless, more than 96 per cent of global science takes place beyond our borders. 

Australia has always recognised the benefit we derive from collaboration with other nations in science. From everything from the Human Genome Project, the international search for gravitational waves, the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, and the crusade to develop and manufacture a vaccine(s) and treatments for COVID-19. 

The Academy recognises the need for the nation to maintain robust national security protections. In evolving these protections to safeguard Australian science, such regulation must be evidence-based, proportional and designed to encourage the continuation of productive international scientific engagement, rather than hinder it. There will be severe negative implications for the quality of Australian science and knock-on consequences for economic productivity from any unnecessary restrictions of international research collaboration. 

The Academy holds that all scientists should be free to go about their work, promote their research in appropriate fora without fear of intimidation or violence from individuals, groups or governments. 

Consistent with the International Science Council’s Principle of Freedom and Responsibility in Science (Statute 7), the Academy reiterates its belief that scientist-to-scientist engagement should transcend racial, cultural, political and religious beliefs, and provide a continuing opportunity for nations to engage in harmonious dialogue and co-existence. 

NB: As of 16 August 2023, this position statement has been superseded by Position statement – Freedom and responsibility of science.

In light of the Executive Order in the United States of America, Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States, the Australian Academy of Science (the Academy) reiterates its belief that scientist-to-scientist engagement should transcend racial, cultural, political and religious beliefs, and provide continuing opportunity for nations to engage in harmonious dialogue and co-existence.

Maintaining free movement of scientists promotes active international research collaborations and productive scientific output that is beneficial to any host nation and science as a whole. Such interactions provide an opportunity for diplomatic engagement that can be valuable in promoting harmonious international relations.

The Academy strongly supports the International Council for Science (ICSU) Statute 5 on the principle of universality (freedom and responsibility) of science which states:

The Principle of Universality (freedom and responsibility) of Science: the free and responsible practice of science is fundamental to scientific advancement and human and environmental well-being. Such practice, in all its aspects, requires freedom of movement, association, expression and communication for scientists, as well as equitable access to data, information, and other resources for research. It requires responsibility at all levels to carry out and communicate scientific work with integrity, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, and transparency, recognising its benefits and possible harms.

In advocating the free and responsible practice of science, ICSU promotes equitable opportunities for access to science and its benefits, and opposes discrimination based on such factors as ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or age.

Purpose

This position statement consolidates the Academy’s three previous statements on freedoms of scientists and is updated to reflect the International Science Council (ISC)’s Principle of Freedom and Responsibility in Science.

Statement of principle

The right to share in and benefit from scientific advancement is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as is the right to engage in scientific enquiry, to communicate knowledge, and to associate freely in such activities.

With these rights comes responsibilities, both for scientists and the society within which they work.

Scientists and scientific organisations have a responsibility to conduct their scientific work to agreed ethical standards, with integrity, respect, fairness, transparency, and trustworthiness, and to consider the implications of new knowledge for society.

The Academy defends the important and respected role of scientists in society in developing and promoting independent, evidence-based advice. 

Policymakers, acting on behalf of the community they serve, have a responsibility to listen to expertise and to make reasoned, evidence-based judgements drawing on science as appropriate.

Policymakers and scientists also set boundaries around the scientific endeavour, which properly reflect the expectations of the community. These boundaries must balance the benefits of scientific practice with its risks and costs. They should not stifle imagination and progress but encourage growth and accessibility for the maximum possible benefit. 

The Academy’s position

The Academy supports the ISC’s 'Principle of freedom and responsibility in science' (Article 7):

The free and responsible practice of science is fundamental to scientific advancement and human and environmental well-being. Such practice, in all its aspects, requires freedom of movement, association, expression and communication for scientists, as well as equitable access to data, information and other resources for research. It requires responsibility at all levels to carry out and communicate scientific work with integrity, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, and transparency, recognizing its benefits and possible harms.

In advocating the free and responsible practice of science, the Council promotes equitable opportunities for access to science and its benefits, and opposes discrimination based on such factors as ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age.

Science and society

The Academy recognises that science is not practised in a vacuum. Science is practised within society by members of society, and society sets the rules for what is acceptable and what is not.

Society’s expectations, standards, and moral judgements set the boundaries of the science that is practised in its name. Science’s continued acceptance – the ‘social licence’ – requires transparency and accountability from the scientific research community, in return for society’s confidence and ultimately their support.  

The requirements for maintaining the social licence are not static. As new knowledge emerges, society’s expectations, standards and moral judgements change. The practices of scientists also change to reflect these new expectations, standards and judgements.

Securing an appropriate balance between the freedoms and limits of science includes reasonable regulations and constraints placed on scientists. For instance, there are controls on animal and human experimentation, regulation of gene technologies and radiochemicals, and restrictions on issues of national security.

We must be sensitive to the inherent risks of scientific research, but also the risks of over-regulation. Undue restriction on science carries significant opportunity costs in unrealised scientific benefits. Getting the balance right is critical; getting it wrong could be disastrous.

Freedom and responsibility of science

The Academy holds that the interests of the community and the advancement of knowledge are best served when scientists respect the social licence and can go about their work, move, collaborate, put forward views, and present data for discussion and scrutiny without undue interference.

The Australian and international community expects that science agencies, institutions, businesses, and individuals apply the highest ethical and professional standards to their work and conduct.

The Academy endorses the Australian code for the responsible conduct of research, the key principles of which are: honesty, rigour, transparency, fairness, respect, recognition of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, accountability and promotion of responsible research practices.

The Academy also supports the Singapore statement on research integrity, developed as part of the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity (2010), which is a global guide to the responsible conduct of research and includes principles of honesty, accountability, professional courtesy and fairness, and good stewardship of research.

Statement of authorisation

This statement was endorsed by the Academy’s Council on 16 August 2023.

This position statement supersedes the following statements:

• Scientists’ freedom to work (2011)
• Protection of scientists from violence and intimidation (2016)
• Scientists' freedom of movement (2017)

External links

The Early- and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) Forum puts forward its recommendations and shared commitments to support STEM professionals in Australia ahead of the 2019 federal election.

1. Our shared commitment – The EMCR Forum will endeavour to provide advice on policy that impacts EMCRs in the STEM sector – based on trust, respect and mutual obligation – for the benefit of the greater Australian community.
2. Support for STEM to benefit Australia – Australians have a right to expect that the nation will draw value from its investment in science, including return for the investment in training EMCRs by supporting sustainable research and research careers.
3. National capacity builing in STEM through support for EMCRs – Australia’s capacity in STEM requires breadth and depth to enable Australians to make rational decisions, and to make a valuable contribution in the search for effective solutions to society’s great global challenges. 

Summary of position

“Intelligent design” and other forms of creationism should not be taught in a scientific context.

The theory of evolution has been extensively tested, and represents our best current understanding of the development of biodiversity around the globe. Intelligent design, and other forms of creationism that rely on supernatural explanations, are not scientific ideas.

Statement of context

One of the fiercest societal debates witnessed in Europe in the second half of the 19th century was raised by the theory of evolution of species, expressed by Charles Darwin in his work On the Origin of Species (1859). By suggesting Homo sapiens arose not by special creation but by evolutionary development from simpler forms of life, and evolution was the product of rules which govern the inheritance and persistence of physical characteristics, the theory of evolution seemed to question traditional notions about divine guidance and whether Homo sapiens holds a supreme place in nature. Because the rules governing evolution were not seen as having any moral content, the theory of evolution did not acknowledge a moral component to the pattern of life.

The Academy’s position

The value of science is in its capacity to explain and understand observable reality. The explanatory power of the theory of evolution is recognised by all biologists, and has been substantially expanded and developed since Darwin’s publication in 1859. In Australia, as in all developed countries, the theory of evolution has for many years been taught as the most powerful theory available of the origins of biodiversity and how organisms respond to ongoing environmental change.

The theory of evolution is still the subject of study and modification. This affirms that the theory is part of science. Many attempts to modify and expand the theory have been successful, showing (since Darwin's day) that genes in DNA are the basis of inheritance, that only parts of the genome are strongly influenced by natural selection (the rest evolves neutrally, through genetic drift), and so on. Many challenges to the fundamentals of the theory have failed empirical test. The theory has attracted enormous empirical testing and remains one of the most powerful of scientific ideas.

Creationist accounts of the origin of life are human cultural concepts and can have relevance in that context. However, creationism is not a scientific concept, in that it is not open to empirical test. The creationist account of the origin of life is not, therefore, appropriate to a course in the science of biology, and the claim that it is a viable scientific explanation of the diversity of life does not warrant support.

Statement of authorisation

This position paper has been approved by the Council of the Australian Academy of Science.

Relevant links

Interacademy Partnership Statement on the teaching of evolution (2006)

Science, Evolution and Creationism (National Academies Press, 2008)

On 23 June, 2016 a majority voted in favour of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. This withdrawal is likely to cause disruption to international collaborative scientific programs involving the UK, some of which may need to be renegotiated or reconsidered, depending on the nature and timing of the UK’s exit from the EU.

To the extent that Australian scientists engage in research with UK and other European collaborators, it is expected that Australia will experience some impacts as well.

However, there are strong natural links between Australia and the UK that form a solid base for continued scientific engagement and collaboration between the two countries. Australian researchers will continue to work closely with collaborators in the UK, the rest of Europe and other countries, and the Australian Academy of Science remains committed to building and strengthening its relationships with scientific societies and organisations in the UK and other parts of Europe.

The Australian Academy of Science was established by Royal Charter in 1954 and has an elected Fellowship of over 500 leading Australian scientists. The Academy celebrates and supports excellence in Australian science, promotes international scientific engagement, builds public awareness and understanding of science and provides independent, authoritative and influential scientific advice. Through its National Committees for Science, the Academy also acts as the auspicing body for Australia’s membership of many international scientific unions and societies, and engages in and facilitates bilateral and multilateral international scientific engagement programs in its own right and on behalf of the Australian government.

The Australian Academy of Science holds that all scientists should be free to go about their work, promote their research in appropriate fora, and travel without restrictions and without fear of intimidation or violence from individuals, groups or governments. 

The Academy strongly supports the International Council for Science (ICSU) Statute 5 on the Principle of Universality (freedom and responsibility) of science which states:

The free and responsible practice of science is fundamental to scientific advancement and human and environmental well-being. Such practice, in all its aspects, requires freedom of movement, association, expression and communication for scientists, as well as equitable access to data, information, and other resources for research. It requires responsibility at all levels to carry out and communicate scientific work with integrity, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, and transparency, recognising its benefits and possible harms.

The Academy joins ICSU and the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) in expressing its concern at recent developments in Turkey where many scientists and academics have been dismissed or suspended in haste. It urges Turkey to exercise restraint and apply the rule of law in the aftermath of the recent coup attempt.

The Academy conveys its support to the scientific and academic community of Turkey.

The Australian Academy of Science was established by Royal Charter in 1954 and has an elected Fellowship of over 500 leading Australian scientists. The Academy celebrates and supports excellence in Australian science, promotes international scientific engagement, builds public awareness and understanding of science and provides independent, authoritative and influential scientific advice.