A paper by Reiner Grundmann used a limited account of the events to discuss norms of scientific practice in relation to two science ethics approaches, the Mertonian norms as of Robert K. Merton, and Roger Pielke Jr.'s concept of honest brokering in science policy interactions. Sources for the paper were chosen for accessibility, emphasising "critical accounts".Reiner Grundmann. "'Climategate' and The Scientific Ethos", published online before print 23 April 2012, . Science, Technology, & Human Values. January 2013, vol. 38, no. 1, p. 67–93, Climategate and The Scientific Ethos , ResearchGate, "Downloaded from sth.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on April 8, 2013." Footnote 3, p. 88–89, "The story presented here does not attempt to provide an in-depth account of the climategate affair. It is based on a limited number of textual sources (such as Montford 2010; Pearce 2010, blog content, commentary, reports from official inquiries, and a subset of released climate emails). These limitations in the data need to be noted. The paper raises the question of how to assess knowledge production in a highly politicized context. Sources were selected on accessibility criteria with a special emphasis on critical accounts. The aim of the paper is not to adjudicate who was right and who was wrong about the science, but to discuss norms of scientific practice in the light of two theoretical frameworks." Footnote 5 cites "Wikipedia entry on 'Climatic Research Unit E-mail Controversy'".
