Mapping the complexities of science and politics

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Title:	Mapping the complexities of science and politics
Authors:	謝英恒
Contributors:	公共衛生學院公共衛生學系
Date:	2005-11
Issue Date:	2009-08-19 16:48:05 (UTC+8)
Abstract:	Your Editorial (Nature 436, 152; 2005) related the story of how Nature had to carry out the painstaking task of rounding up and destroying several thousand copies of last November's supplement "China voices II" containing a map of China without Taiwan, then reprinting it with no map. You assured readers that "whether Taiwan is an independent country ... is not an issue on which Nature takes a stand". Science recently made a similar clarification — that it has no policy on the Taiwan question — in a published apology by editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy (Science 309, 1677; 2005), following that journal's publication in July of a map of China that included Mongolia but not Hainan and Taiwan. It is a sad reality that people in some quarters in China might still believe that this omission by two leading science journals represent elements of a concerted move with hidden political motivation, no matter what actions were taken by each journal to claim otherwise. On the other hand, declaring whether to take a stand on a political issue that has nothing to do with science is a significant political statement in itself, especially when it comes from journals with the stature of Nature and Science. It is a sad day for science and scientists everywhere when these journals are compelled to explain themselves by making declarations of this kind.
Relation:	NATURE (438):24~24
Appears in Collections:	[Department of Public Health] Journal articles

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