AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS (triple A-S), founded in September 1848, began as an organization to establish a national identity and forum for U.S. scientists. It has become the largest federation of scientific societies in the world, with more than 250 affiliated institutions and 130,000 individual members. AAAS publishes the peer reviewed journal Science, and sponsors programs that include collaborations with organizations representing scientists and non-scientists throughout the world.

Science in Service of Society

Throughout its history, AAAS has addressed issues at the intersection of science and society. During World War I, as advances in science and technology created public expectations for progress, AAAS committed itself to "the use of science for public good" (Benson and Maienschein 1999, p. 3). In 1946, AAAS affirmed a commitment to bridging science and society by revising its Constitution to include objectives "to improve the effectiveness of science in the promotion of human welfare, and increase public understanding and appreciation of the importance and promise of the methods of science in human progress" (AAAS Constitution 1946).

The 1950s brought concerns due to increasing government secrecy restrictions, growing controversies over nuclear weapons, and anti-communist suppression of dissenting views. In 1958 the AAAS Board created the Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare to recommend responses to the issues that concerned society. The Committee urged AAAS and the scientific community to fulfill "an obligation to call to public attention those issues of public policy which relate to science, and to provide for the general public the facts and estimates of alternative policies which the citizen must have ... to participate intelligently in the solution of these problems" (AAAS Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare 1960, p. 71).

Scientists' Rights and Responsibilities

Social unrest in the 1960s and 1970s, fueled by anti-nuclear, environmental, and anti-Vietnam War movements, which argued that science was complicit in creating national problems rather than in solving them, led to public demands for greater accountability by scientists. In response AAAS created an ad hoc committee in 1970 to report on the "conditions required for scientific freedom and responsibility" (Edsall 1975, p. v). In its report the committee recommended that AAAS establish a more permanent committee to reassess boundaries of scientific freedom and responsibility in a world where science is increasingly "inextricably intertwined with major political, social, and economic problems" (Edsall 1975, p. ix).

As a result, the Association created a new standing Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility in 1976 to "encourage and assist the AAAS ... and other scientific groups to develop statements of principles governing professional conduct, and to ... encourage scientists to accept their professional responsibilities both with regard to safeguarding the integrity of science and with regard to the application of science in the promotion of human rights and general welfare" (AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Internet site). In 1977 AAAS amended its Constitution to include "to foster scientific freedom and responsibility" in its mission and, in 1981, established the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award to "honor scientists and engineers whose exemplary actions have served to foster scientific freedom and responsibility."

Since the founding of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, AAAS ethics activities have focused on human rights and on the ethics associated with scientific research and the impacts of science and technology. The science and human rights activities of AAAS were initially influential in the 1970s and 1980s in defense of scientists, engineers, and health care professionals whose rights were violated by their governments. Collaborating with human rights groups, AAAS has helped to secure the freedom of scientists in the former Soviet Union as well as in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. These efforts have not been without risk, or setbacks. Committee members and staff have been harassed, even in one case arrested, while working on behalf of scientists in their home countries and accused of meddling in countries' sovereign political affairs.

In 1990 the Association established a Science and Human Rights Program that directed resources and expertise to use science to help bring notorious abusers of human rights to justice. AAAS pioneered the application of forensic science, genetics, and statistics to human rights investigations. Its work helped to unite families in Argentina, and identify victims of mass executions in Guatemala; in 2002 results of Program investigations were presented as evidence in the international war crimes trial of former Yugoslavian president, Slobodan Milosevic. The Program's work has made it a frequent technical consultant to truth commissions in many countries, including Haiti, Peru, and South Africa.

In 1991 AAAS reorganized its other ethics activities into a Program on Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law, which focuses on the ethics associated with the conduct of science as well as on the uses and impacts of advances in science and technology. AAAS has been in the vanguard of scientific societies in developing "a knowledge base to deal intelligently with misconduct" (Johnson 1999, p. 51) in science, in providing educational resources for scientists and administrators responsible for preserving the integrity of research, and in advocating a prominent role for scientific societies in promoting research integrity. Through a series of practicums begun in 1992, AAAS has helped prepare institutional officials for investigating allegations of research misconduct under federal regulations. A set of videos, produced by AAAS in 1996 and used to educate students and researchers in the ethics of conducting and reporting research, is a popular resource in hundreds of colleges and universities.

Engaging the Larger Public

To complement its work in human rights and ethics, in 1995 AAAS established the program of dialogue on science, ethics, and religion to promote scholarship on the religious implications of advances in science and technology and to facilitate communication between the scientific and religious communities. Through its programs, AAAS has recognized that the consequences of science and technology often challenge public and expert sensibilities about what is ethically acceptable, and has highlighted the issues that may cause tension between the freedom of scientists and their social responsibilities. AAAS works to provide timely, credible, and balanced information to policy debates by bringing multidisciplinary analysis to bear on complex issues, and by brokering among a wide range of stakeholders to promote broad public dialogue on such matters as stem cell research, genetic modification, and human cloning. AAAS has used the knowledge and insights gained through these studies to brief the media, to provide testimony at legislative and administrative hearings, and to develop educational materials. It has also taken public positions on highly controversial issues, including the use of animals in research, the conduct of stem cell research, the prospects of human cloning, and post-9/11 debates over the impact of national security policies on the freedom of scientific inquiry. Although it is difficult to trace the precise influence that these efforts have had, it is testimony to AAAS's credibility that other scientific organizations, public interest groups, and government officials call on the organization for assistance (Teich 2002).

In 2002 under new executive leadership, AAAS revisited its historic mission and reinforced its commitment to "advance science and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people," and the priority to be accorded to the "responsible conduct and use of science and technology" (AAAS Mission 2002). As ethical issues associated with scientific research and technology continue to challenge public beliefs and attitudes, the professional responsibilities of scientists, and the capacity of public and private institutions to anticipate and respond effectively, AAAS has repositioned itself to be a more visible voice in science policy and reaffirmed its commitment to advancing science and serving society.

MARK S. FRANKEL

SEE ALSO Federation of American Scientists;Nongovernmental Organizations;Profession and Professionalism;Royal Society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare. (1960). "Science and Human Welfare." Science 132: 68–73.

Benson, Keith, and Jane Maienschein. (1999). "Introduction: AAAS Narrative History." In The Establishment of Science in America, eds. Sally Gregory Kohlstedt; Michael M. Sokol; and Bruce V. Lewenstein. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. This well-documented history covers AAAS's first 150 years, and in the process connects the actions of the association with significant events related to the role of scientists in the United States and the changing relationship between science and American society.

Chalk, Rosemary, ed. (1988). Science, Technology, and Society: Emerging Relationships. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science. This anthology includes eighty-five articles, editorials, and letters published in the journal Science, from 1949 until early 1988. Among the topics covered are science and responsibility, science and freedom, scientists and citizens, science and risk, and science and national security.

Edsall, John, ed. (1975). Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. (A Report of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility.) Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science. This foundational document led AAAS to establish the committee on scientific freedom and responsibility. It maps the boundaries of scientific freedom and responsibility, prescribes criteria and procedures for the study of those boundaries, and recommends a role for AAAS in preserving the freedom of scientists and in encouraging scientists to address the broad social implications of their work.

Johnson, David. (1999). "From Denial to Action: Academic and Scientific Societies Grapple with Misconduct." In Perspectives on Scholarly Misconduct in the Sciences, ed. John M. Braxton. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Teich, Albert H. (2002). "AAAS and Public Policy: Speaking Softly and Carrying a Medium-Sized Stick." Technology in Society 24: 167–178.

INTERNET RESOURCES

American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1946). AAAS Constitution. Available from http://archives.aaas.org/docs/documents.php?doc_id=406.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. (2002). Mission. Available from http://www.aaas.org/about.

American Association for the Advancement of Science Archives. Available from http://archives.aaas.org.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. Available from http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/committees/csfr.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion. Available from http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Science and Human Rights Program. Available from http://shr.aaas.org.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award. Available from http://www.aaas.org/about/awards/Freedom.shtml.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program. Available from http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl.