Information on individual participants is surely protected by the personal data and confidentiality exemptions. Researchers competing for data to publish first? By definition, future publication. A ‘strong implication’ that the Commissioner would be asked? So what? That’s what he’s there for and he’s very likely to support a good case for the exemptions cited. In fact, the more decisions we have the more confident we can be in making exemption arguments. Having to prove commercial interests and public interest against disclosure? Yes, as with other organisations, there is a need to consider genuine public interest where it exists.”A lot of this data is commercially sensitive and can even have security implications for the people supplying it.” Yes, and there are exemptions for both of those.

It’s worth remembering that the Scottish research exemption is balanced by a limit on the pre-publication exemption in general – 12 weeks under FOISA as opposed to no set period in FOIA.

Animal research? I’ve seen this subject come up in Scotland and the research exemption was not the one called upon. As in other parts of the UK, health and safety of researchers, personal data and commercial interests are the exemptions likely to be involved, and properly so. But again, the Commissioner has to balance the genuine public interest in knowing that research does not involve unnecessary suffering to animals.

Climate change research? Here is the best example of why FOIA and FOISA should not be resisted. Both in the UEA example which later led to ‘Climategate’ and in QUB (tree rings) the academic response to scrutiny was defensive: circle the waggons and hide behind the traditional secrecy. And in each case, the result was lose-lose: the information came out anyway and left the Universities looking like they had something to hide. The reality is that the world has changed and that sort of approach is simply unacceptable. The way to cope with concerns that uniformed or malicious requesters will misuse the information – a concern shared by many other organisations facing FOI requests – is to be proactive, embrace the need for transparency, and take the initiative on promoting public understanding of the issue – something which climate change researchers have generally been poor at.

Let us know what you think.

Perhaps more ‘sponsorship’ schemes by companies and organisations that would then benefit the newly qualified graduates and not leave them in limbo with no income.