Dear Dr. Ogi Ogas and Dr. Sai Gaddam,

I am writing you to withdraw my consent for you to use the information you gathered on me in your work. The material I am withdrawing includes, but is not limited to:
- my responses to your survey.
- the comments and entries I made on livejournal.com under this account or any other account and on any other website discussing this survey or other topics related to fandom, fanfiction, scientific method, research, gender, sexuality, drug use, pornography, erotica, gender studies, and women’s studies or any other topic of conversation brought up in my community via your survey.
-my ip address(s).
-this email.
-any other information you may have collected about me.
You may not use any information about me in your current work, in your upcoming book, or in any future work.

I am withdrawing my consent based on the many and varied flaws in your stated research aims and the methods you proposed to use, on reports of conversations several of my colleagues have had with the Boston University IRB, and the discussion of your work within the community.
1. You have misrepresented your affiliation with BU (and continue to do so via Dr. Ogas using his BU email address on his Livejournal profile page as his contact information as of 9/3/09) to gain credibility.
2. You have misrepresented your research aims.
3. You do not have the necessary background to properly perform a study on the topics you claim to be researching.
4. You have failed to take the necessary precautions and protections for the participants in your study by submitting your study to review by an IRB or other ethics board.
5. You failed to disclose that the research was conducted in the interests of personal profit for a non-peer-reviewed ‘popular science’ book (titled "Rule 34: What Netporn Teaches Us About The Brain" now shortened on your agent's site to "Rule 34") for which you already had a contract.
6. You included no measure to prevent minors from or (obtain their parental consent) for taking a survey containing questions about sexual activity and illegal drug use.

Beyond your ethical lapses, you have given every appearance of engaging in highly suspect, statistically dubious, and logically flawed research. I want no part in your

Given your demonstrated cavalier attitude toward the above issues and criticisms, I trust you will understand why I have chosen to withdraw my consent as publicly as possible. Despite Dr. Ogas’s opinion of “anonymous, purported academics”, I trust you will show the same understanding for my decision to remain pseudonymous instead of signing my legal name and academic affiliation, given the stated privacy concerns.

I would appreciate a response from both of you acknowledging the receipt of this email and confirming that you will respect my wishes regarding the use of my data.

Sincerely,
fail_machine

Dear Dr. Ogi Ogas and Dr. Sai Gaddam,

I am writing you to withdraw my consent for you to use the information you gathered on me in your work. The material I am withdrawing includes, but is not limited to: my responses to your survey, the comments and entries I made on livejournal.com under this account or any other account and on any other website discussing this survey or other topics related to fandom, fanfiction, scientific method, research, gender, sexuality, drug use, gender studies, and women’s studies, my ip address, this email, and any other information you may have collected about me. You may not use any information about me in your current work, in your upcoming book, or in any future work.

I am withdrawing my consent based on the many and varied flaws in your stated research aims and the methods you proposed to use. Based on reports of conversations several of my colleagues have had with the Boston University IRB and within the community, you have misrepresented your affiliation with BU (and continue to do so via Dr. Ogas using his BU email address on his Livejournal profile page as his contact information as of 9/3/09) to gain credibility, you have misrepresented your research aims, you do not have the necessary background to properly perform a study on the topics you claim to be researching, you have failed to take the necessary precautions and protections for the participants in your study by submitting your study to review by an IRB or other ethics board, you failed to disclose that the research was conducted in the interests of personal profit for a non-peer-reviewed ‘popular science’ book (titled "Rule 34: What Netporn Teaches Us About The Brain" now shortened on your agent's site to "Rule 34") for which you already had a contract, and you included no measure to prevent minors from or obtain parental consent for taking a survey containing questions about sexual activity and illegal drug use.

Given your demonstrated cavalier attitude toward the above issues and criticisms, I trust you will understand why I have chosen to withdraw my consent as publicly as possible. Despite Dr. Ogas’s opinion of “anonymous, purported academics”, I trust you will show the same understanding for my decision to remain pseudonymous instead of signing my legal name and academic affiliation, given the stated privacy concerns.

I would appreciate a response from both of you acknowledging the receipt of this email and confirming that you will respect my wishes regarding the use of my data.

Sincerely,
fail_machine


(I am giving blanket permission for people to link back to this post, to quote it in its entirety, and to plagiarize at will for your own letters of complaint and/or consent withdrawal.

Suggestions on content, wording, or errors greatly appreciated)

Second draft here.

ETA: This letter will be emailed to both the good doctors, their associated department colleagues at BU, the Ethics committee at BU, the IRB at BU, their agents and their publisher(s). I am currently pondering the viability/cruelty/effectiveness of adding random members of the cognitive neuroscience community, journal editors and the like. A very large part of me wants these clowns to go DOWN.

emails here: http://bossymarmalade.dreamwidth.org/481642.html