Knowledge nation and security at risk

Ensuring the security of the United States’ intellectual investments in science and engineering has been a central focus of U.S. innovation policy for the last several years. Yet national security faces a different threat: the consolidation of vast amounts of data about American research and American researchers in the hands of a small number of for profit publishers increasingly tied to foreign data brokers. There is now a real and present danger of the sale of sensitive information to third parties and use of that data without the knowledge or consent of the U.S. government.

The danger has surfaced because of the steady acquisition by publishers of tools used by academic institutions for annual evaluations, hiring and promotion decisions and of library services. Universities are providing detailed information about all the scientific activities of their researchers to for profit publishers. Those publishers can move that information off American soil, use it to build a full picture of current and future American science, and repackage and resell it regardless of the potential threat to national security. 

Take the example of the 2022 purchase by Dutch based Elsevier of Interfolio, a faculty information tool that was owned by an American company. This tool is used by over 400 American academic institutions and over 700,000 researchers to collect and process detailed confidential data about scientific hiring, funding and promotion processes. It connects to university payroll and human resource records without the consent of the academic researchers. The resulting vast data repository thus reflects the often unpublished intellectual property and scientific collaborations of tens of thousands of American researchers and often their students. The data about researchers also includes information about which businesses, federal science or defense agencies funded their research and what additional positions they held. This connected — and verified — information can be used to characterize the emerging science and technology portfolio of the United States, identify the thought leaders and potentially be resold for profit.

Read more at NextGov/FCW