One nice thing about doing scientific work in academia is that competition is generally mature and cooperative; it serves to advance and expand the body of knowledge, which will eventually benefit everyone. Such an environment is less likely to be present in business, for example, where the tendency is to try to eliminate competitors and monopolize the market.
Like it or not, politics influences science in almost every country, under any political system, in developed and less-developed countries alike. An unpleasant reality is that scientists have to learn the art of maneuvering through local, national, and international regulations to get to do the science and yet maintain ethics and integrity. Scientists must not only navigate through the restrictions but move the science forward.
As a physicist from a less-developed country and a graduate of McGill University in Canada, I’ve witnessed the politics of science from vantage points in both countries. Working now in Iran, I find my personal challenge is to keep the slope of my scientific curve positive despite local and global obstacles. I deal with the politics of science every day in my lab and office when I try to buy equipment, submit papers, download articles and programs, request documents, or attend gatherings.
The really alarming danger is when those in countries not directly affected by the politics of science close their eyes to what is going on elsewhere. Such neglect may damage the integrity and unity of the scientific community as a whole. Someone who does not directly suffer under political sanctions can simply ignore the situation, justify it, or even make it worse by applying the rules in an overly restrictive way. Scientists who live in countries that are direct targets of restrictions and sanctions watch carefully and wait to see how their less-restricted colleagues react. A naive reaction—for example, ignoring the obstacles colleagues in sanctioned countries face just to get their work published—causes them to feel abandoned and therefore less motivated to connect with the broader community.
I have encountered a few difficulties myself. I cannot enter the website of one supplier of ordinary scientific tools, let alone order anything. A distributor of open-source programs that were written by volunteers around the world under General Public License recently banned access to its website from certain countries. The distributor does not even own the license, and the website is merely a sharing site that happens to be in the US.
Some publishers are, I believe, applying their own interpretations of government regulations so as to make it harder for residents of certain countries, Iran included, to submit and publish their work.
With so many obstacles, scientists need to think twice about where to buy the next piece of lab equipment, where to submit the next research paper, or how to distribute the nice software programs they have written so that others can use and develop them.
We scientists who work under sanctions and restrictions do not expect policymakers to make changes overnight that are favorable to us. We don’t expect our colleagues around the world to break the law either, of course, but we urge them to be aware of, and sensitive to, what is happening around them and to do what can be done in changing policy to better support the work of science.
The global scientific community is a single body that is healthy only when each of its members can function properly. If one group of scientists, large or small, is restricted, all of science and all scientists suffer the damage.
