Reply
Fri 18 Mar, 2011 06:21 am
Context:
Harvard had been pummelled in the press for its reticence, but it is
common and sometimes necessary for universities to sit on the results
of internal misconduct investigations. This is particularly true when
the case is complex — as they often are — and the findings subject to
challenge, or when other researchers have been implicated. Indeed, the
US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which monitors investigations
of researchers who are funded by the National Institutes of Health, asks
institutions not to make their investigations public until the ORI has
completed its own assessment. This can delay a verdict for weeks or
even years after the university completes its own investigation.
@oristarA,
"sit on" = "not reveal publicly"
No. It means to not do anything with the results of the investigation, in this case until other investigations are concluded. You don't put it aside, you don't ignore it--you just don't act on it for awhile. You can, tho, sit on something forever. It can also have the connotation of hiding the subject, not letting any information leak out ever about it, like tobacco companies sat on the results of studies showing the harmful effects of cigarettes for decades. But this story has more the implication that when other bodies finish the results of their investigations everything will come out around the same time.
Engineer whipped in with a much more succinct summary, while I was still being verbose. He nailed it.
Thank you all.
But MontereyJack, what are you saying?
same thing as engineer, but with more words.