Email 1899, Aug 2009, Harold Ambler schools Phil Jones: "If you wanted to "defeat" [McIntyre] in intellectual battle, as you naturally would, the best way to do so is not to hide data and maintain that you are not hiding data."

Email 1899

I do not share the view that the days when amateurs contributed meaningfully to the development of science have come to an end. If you have studied the history of science, particularly that of your own great country, then you already know that non-academic, frequently self-taught individuals have changed the scientific debate permanently in a given field because of their own (frequently scoffed-at) work. Your somewhat condescending position toward "non-scientists" is in keeping with Royal Society snobbery of the 19th century, and I would ask you to consider the possibility that, like those of the society, your efforts to keep the barbarians at the gate will be shown in the end to be a waste of time.

3. You write, "Our ftp site has had some data deleted from it. It is a site we use when working with other scientists around the world. The datasets were not explained.It seemed easier to stop people wasting their time trying to determine what it was."

I admit that this does not seem as straightforward as, again, one might expect from a public servant. The decision to delete data was made during a white-hot dispute with a little-liked and extremely dogged and intelligent statistician by the name of Steve McIntyre. Whether or not you view Mr. McIntyre as the kind of figure whom the Royal Society fought to keep on the margins of scientific inquiry (or farther out than that), he is exactly such a figure.

If you wanted to "defeat" him in intellectual battle, as you naturally would, the best way to do so is not to hide data and maintain that you are not hiding data.

The data should be restored to the website, ASAP. Mr. McIntyre should be allowed to "audit" your methodology. If your intellectual position is truly superior to his, then the "schooling" that you give to him in response will be of note to many.