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The Forum > Article Comments > When academics don’t like the results of good research > Comments

When academics don’t like the results of good research : Comments

By John Fleming and Selena Ewing, published 25/5/2005

John Fleming and Selena Ewing reply to Eva Cox’s article criticising their research into Australians' attitude to abortion.

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John,

I respect your responsibility. I have difficulty understanding why someone should reserve judgement when you have not reserved verdict.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, especially on topics as personal and emotive as abortion.

In my experience, cautioning someone without foundation is just as pointless as schooling someone without foundation.

Truly though, I see your point but in a secular society rationale rules.
Posted by martin callinan, Friday, 27 May 2005 12:44:50 PM
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I would have junked it too Graham. All sounds a bit weasel-word to me.

John - I would expect any "reasonable" academic to be nice enough to check my questions out before I did anything with the survey or the results so that I could avoid the torture of having alot of "un-reasonable" academics rip me up into little bits and junk my reputation when I finally released the method. And frankly, if I'd followed the path you so vigorously defend, I'd probably deserve the shredding.
Posted by Audrey, Friday, 27 May 2005 1:08:43 PM
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John Fleming
If the funders have had nothing to do with the abortion survey and the Research company who conducted the survey has had no contact with the funders, where does the Bioethics Institute fit in - what has been the bioethics institute role in all this for you to claim the survey as your work.
Also for the record - if the second survey produced conflicting data then you have not validated the first survey
Posted by Manz, Sunday, 29 May 2005 12:53:30 AM
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John Fleming wrote:

"Don't you just love it when Rainier, with all his academic pretensions and candid admissions of academic malfeasance resorts to "in other words" to misrepresent."

Is this different from your use of "in other words":

When asked if they supported abortion on demand, 62% said yes. This in principke support softens when particular circumstances are considered. Nearly half the population (45%) are 'moderate' in their attitude to abortion in that they somewhat agree or somewhat disagree or are neutral in their attitude to abortion on demand. Put another way, 63% of Australians either oppose or are not strongly supportive of abortion on demand.

You can't expect people to take your survey seriously if you are so flippant about distorting your own results.
Posted by Amanda, Monday, 30 May 2005 6:12:30 PM
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By the way everyone,

Do women love abortion?
No.

Do unborn babies love abortion?
No, they writhe in agony until they die an untimely death. Have you ever wondered what they would do if they could fight back against the doctors of death?

Do uncaring, callous, irresponsible men love abortion?
Yes.

Case closed.
Posted by mykah, Monday, 30 May 2005 9:05:48 PM
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Yes Amanda it is different. If you read the report you will see that this is a perfectly valid way of representing the results. So do read it Amanda.

As I have said many times, the questions will all be published when the entire work is complete. And thn everyone can make up their minds on the basis of all the checks and balances in the research.

And to answer an earlier question (read the Report), the principal researchers briefed Sexton Marketing and Sexton drafted the questions. We wanted to avoid questions which are tendentious and so the subcontracting of Sexton. Where Sweeney was coincerned we had no direct meeting with them allowing them complete freedom to explore the issues according to the brief asd outlined in the Report. Selena and I take complete responsibility for the research, its aims, and the way it was carried out including the scrupulous attempts on our part to minimise subjective bias.
Posted by John I Fleming, Monday, 30 May 2005 9:17:24 PM
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