Higher education in the United States is locked in an existential battle with the federal government. The Trump administration is attempting to dismantle our national research infrastructure through widespread censorship of federal agency-supported research, crippling budget cuts, grant terminations, the firing of federal employees who administer those grants and conduct research, and legal and financial attacks on universities and colleges. All of this, combined with the concerning silence of higher education leadership – apart from the inspiring statements made by the leaders of Princeton, Brown, Wesleyan, Mount Holyoke College and Harvard – has placed scholars across all disciplines in an unprecedented space of uncertainty and vulnerability.
Despite this maelstrom, action is not only possible but necessary if we are to defend ourselves and the shared public benefits that higher education and national research infrastructures provide to all. Below are some suggested steps that individual scholars, including emeriti, can take to protect their own work and, by extension, the US higher education system overall.
Understand your options as a US academic
First, get clear on what your rights and options are, as an individual academic, with these simple steps:
1. Ask your campus leadership – your departmental chair, your dean, your academic senate, your chancellor – what they are doing to protect scholars.
2. Contact your scholarly society and find out what their positions and guidance are, and what kinds of resources they are offering members.
3. Ask someone at your campus library – ideally a scholarly communications librarian – for guidance about protecting already published work and future publications.
4. Email the journal and press editors where you have already published or where you are considering submitting manuscripts and ask them how they are protecting authors and the integrity of the publishing process.
5. Look at the policies, locations and ownership of the journals and presses you are submitting to and determine who is empowered to make decisions – scholars or institutions? Consider whether the publication is located in the US and may therefore be more vulnerable to US government restrictions. Prioritise scholar-owned publications and consider submitting to those based outside the US.
- Spotlight guide: Teaching and researching across borders
- Teaching critical thinking
- THE podcast: how to achieve research excellence – and protect it
Safeguard your academic work
Ensure ongoing access to and preservation of scholarly work in progress or already published. Your scholarly communications librarian can suggest options for your specific field.
1. Protect work in progress by submitting a preprint to your institutional repository, a disciplinary preprint server, or a general repository, like Zenodo.
2. Secure already published works:
- Submit a version of your work to your campus’ institutional repository. That version could be either the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or the final publication, depending on whether your institution has an open access policy and its scope, and if not, then the publisher’s policy.
- Deposit a copy of your publication to a repository outside the US, such as Zenodo.
- Save a copy in the Wayback machine.
3. Protect underlying research data:
- Deposit in a safe and independent data repository such as Dataverse, Dryad, your institutional repository, or a general repository like Zenodo.
- Consult with the DataRescue Project to see if your data are at risk and how they can assist if necessary.
4. Ensure ongoing access to digital humanities and non-traditional research expressions:
- Submit multimedia or complex website publications to the Wayback machine.
Diversify research funding support
Federal funding will be impossible to completely replace, but private philanthropists are beginning to speak out and some have created new funds – see E4A, for example. Now is the time to begin investigating alternatives to support your work.
Engage with governance structures
Faculty, students and staff have, to date, been the most vocal in this fight. We must demand more from the leaders of higher education institutions and elected officials.
1. Ask your scholarly society to 1) make and join public statements, such as this statement coordinated by the American Psychological Association and this letter coordinated by the Union of Concerned Scientists, denouncing the government’s attack on research and higher education and 2) commit to supporting threatened scholars.
2. Let your institutional leaders know that you expect them to resist any demands from the Trump administration – following the examples of Brown, Princeton, Mt Holyoke, Wesleyan and Harvard – that threaten freedom of speech, academic freedom and research.
3. Demand that your elected officials intervene. Contact representatives at all levels, from state houses to the Senate, using toolkits from places like the Union of Concerned Scientists and 5calls.org. Convey with tangible evidence how your specific story helps make clear what is at stake in this fight.
Build solidarity networks
Get involved in the many ways academics are standing together to support each other and make the larger public aware of the seriousness of the situation.
1. Speak out against censorship and the destruction of higher education. Add your name to the thousands who have already signed the Declaration to Defend Research Against US Government Censorship. Contribute a testimonial about the impact of censorship on your work and the broader public. Add your name to other statements.
2. If you have lost a federal grant, register it in one of the tracking databases so that this harm can be recorded and publicised.
3. Support colleagues who are threatened by joining or starting a mutual aid effort like the one issued by Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) faculty.
4. Safeguard your students; do everything you can to protect them from government officials.
Talk about your academic work
Your research is and always has been important. Don’t self-censor, don’t silence your voice; now more than ever is the time to take and make opportunities to talk about what you do and why it matters. Describe your work and the work of colleagues, across all disciplines, and – critically – the benefits of that work for the wider public. Remember to include not just your research, but also your contributions as a teacher and a mentor helping the next generation of leaders and citizens navigate an increasingly complex world.
Care for yourself
Finally, ending this assault and rebuilding afterwards will not be quick or easy work; everyone is needed for this effort, which means each of us must also take seriously the responsibility to care for ourselves along the way. Make the time to rest and renew, to be your whole person, so that you can be ready to fight for our collective future tomorrow and the next day.
Lisa Schiff is a co-author of the Declaration to Defend Research Against US Government Censorship. This was undertaken in a personal capacity as a private citizen. She is also the associate director for the publishing, archives, and digitization group at the California Digital Library at the University of California. The thoughts and perspectives shared above reflect her own views and are not meant to represent those of her institution.
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