Hopefully you all had a happy Halloween, filled with more treats than tricks. Although we’re past October 31, that doesn’t mean that the scares have stopped, at least not in the US, where Election Day looms next week, Tuesday, November 5. As this blog is a collective effort and there is no singular viewpoint, it is not possible for us to offer an official “endorsement”, which I suppose puts us in the esteemed company of Jeff Bezos. But I, personally, would feel derelict in my duties to the scholarly community if I didn’t offer a reminder that one campaign is said to intend to turn over public health oversight (including the HHS, NIH, USDA, FDA and CDC) to a science denialist who, among other conspiracy theories, believes that vaccines cause autism, despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary.

For those not in the US, please be aware of the upcoming election, its aftermath, and the accompanying anxiety that it is likely to prevent many of your US colleagues from concentrating on much of anything for the following week.

For me, music is a way to self-soothe, and so I’ll leave you with “The New World” by X (the band, not the platform), which has long colored the way I view elections in America. It was always better before they voted for “what’s-his-name.”

Please Vote!
David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

5 Thoughts on "Halloween Over, Still Scary Times — Please Vote!"

Thank you, David. We’re all in this together. Here’s hoping our fellow countrymen and women understand the assignment. 🙂

Appreciate this post so much! Thank you, David! And since, as you observe, we may not offer endorsements, very clever of you to couch this plea (to vote) in the context of outcomes for public health. For the sake of herstory, let’s do this 🙂

I’m sorry you feel that way. We write about science and science policy all the time here. Expect more in the future.

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