How Scientists Are Using This Public Records Request To See Their Competitors’ Research

When Susan Sherman, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University, was notified by her school in March 2013 that someone had used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request her scientific grant proposal, she was worried. Sherman had a two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), worth almost $236,000, to study the health risks faced by sex workers and exotic dancers in Baltimore. She was concerned she might have been targeted by conservative activists intent on sabotaging her research.