From the link below:

The world’s largest database on [scientific field], containing citations with abstracts to scientific articles, reports, books, and unpublished reports ... has been changed so that one can no longer search the term [XXX] ... As the representative from [the database] states, “As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.”
See this link (or these earlier ones) for details. And don't tell me I'm censoring anything for leaving out those details here: I've left out the key words describing exactly who at Hopkins runs this database and what they censored, deliberately, not as a matter of censorship but because I think this is appalling no matter the field and I'd prefer to focus more on issues of academic freedom and less on any emotional reactions people might have to the specific topic. It's a term that is relevant and likely to be searched within this field of scientific inquiry. It's still present in its uncensored glory if you follow the link.

ETA: Wired, /., BB; C+L update, NYT, JHU.




Comments:

leonardo_m:
2008-04-04T19:27:00Z
This is silly. It sounds like censoring the word 'evolution' from a biology database, or the word 'clitoris' from a sexual education book meant for children readers.
None:
2008-04-04T20:13:20Z
Completely the wrong response. The right response is that when you search for XXX what you get is equivalent for searching for the word genocide. All searches for genocide should be mapped to searches for XXX. All searches for "federal funded research" should yield all results of searching for the phrase "middle ages".
11011110:
2008-04-04T20:16:16Z
I suppose it should also map "war" to "peace", "freedom" to "slavery", and "ignorance" to "strength".
None:
2008-04-05T00:58:44Z

Problem fixed: see here.

In a statement, Dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says, "I could not disagree more strongly with this decision [to block abortion searches], and I have directed that the Popline administrators restore 'abortion' as a search term immediately."

11011110:
2008-04-05T01:43:37Z
Thanks for the excellent news.