Pseudonyms to protect authors of controversial articles
by Martin Rosenbaum, BBC:
Academics who are frightened to explore controversial topics, in case it provokes a backlash, will soon have a safer route to publish such work.
An international group of university researchers is planning a new journal which will allow articles on sensitive debates to be written under pseudonyms.
They feel free intellectual discussion on tough issues is being hampered by a culture of fear and self-censorship.
The Journal of Controversial Ideas will be launched early next year.
Jeff McMahan, professor of moral philosophy at University of Oxford, and one of the organisers, said: “It would enable people whose ideas might get them in trouble either with the left or with the right or with their own university administration, to publish under a pseudonym.”
He revealed plans for the publication on University Unchallenged, a BBC Radio 4 documentary about viewpoint diversity in academia.
Speaking on the programme, he explained the motive: “The need for more open discussion is really very acute. There’s greater inhibition on university campuses about taking certain positions for fear of what will happen.
“The fear comes from opposition both on the left and the right. The threats from outside the university tend to be more from the right. The threats to free speech and academic freedom that come from within the university tend to be more from the left.”
See also: Queering science, by Mark Regnerus, First Things
The voice of the ‘intellectual dark web’, by Amelia Lester, Politico
Dartmouth nightmare – it’s worse than you might think, by David Horowitz, Frontpage Magazine
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