Scientific Research: from Freedom to Deontology.

It is traditional to consider that scientific research should be free. During the past, it has been affected by material and intellectual constraints; these constraints have evolved but exist still today. Because of the unity of the ocean, researchers, and especially oceanographers, claim a scientific immunity for their work. Because of the resources of the oceans, governments explicitly or implicitly consider freedom of scientific research as an application of the doctrine of economic liberalism, with its advantages and its disadvantages. Be that as it may, scientific research is absolutely necessary. To make compatible the demands of researchers and governments, freedom may become deontology. Researchers receive from authorities the largest rights of circulation applying to individuals, to materials, and to ideas. Researchers have, in counterpart, the duty to protect, to develop and to share the knowledge resulting from their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]