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Suppose, a researcher is very interested and enthusiastic about a controversial topic. If he works on that topic and publishes papers, he may be in political trouble from his government or another government.

Think about an Armenian researcher who wants to prove that the said genocide of Armenians in the hands of Ottomans was not as true as Armenians say. Or, think about a Turkish researcher who wants to prove that Turkey actually did the atrocities on Armenians.

How do researchers deal with this dilemma? How do they cope with the political backlash?

GoodDeeds
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user366312
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    You might want to add which countries you are interested about. In some, you either publish what the government wants or go to prison. – user111388 Sep 20 '20 at 14:43
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    This is probably too broad as asked; there are dozens of sub-questions that could be asked here (depending on the type of politics, the research subject and the level of influence of the opposition in your location; e.g., a Western Twitter mob is different from a raging Middle Eastern autocrat). In your example, I suspect most researchers will either avoid the subject or avoid Turkey. – darij grinberg Sep 20 '20 at 15:10
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    Christians got fed to lions for their belief - what more do you want? So many examples over time... – Solar Mike Sep 20 '20 at 15:29
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    Even today, they might die. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi – Buffy Sep 20 '20 at 15:57

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