When I set out my contract with the Brewers' Association, I made sure to specify that I owned any documents produced. This both ensured that they wouldn't seek to bury anything they didn't like, which I really doubt they'd ever have done, but more importantly that it would very well be seen to be the case that they could not.
Here's Appendix 1 to the RFP, as copied from the PDF emailed to me by a loyal reader with access to the GETS system. For those with access to the system, it is RFP RSC0203/13-14/03.
APPENDIX 1 – FORM OF CONTRACTThere could be good reasons for this. Suppose that folks previously contracted by the HPA had produced really terrible work that didn't pass internal peer review but that the supplier published it anyway, advertising it as an HPA-funded project. I have no clue whether this has ever happened as I know nothing about their internal review processes. Avoiding that kind of outcome seems a plausible good reason for gagging any contracted suppliers.
Government Model Contract (GMC) Form 2 SERVICES (2nd Edition)
HPA intends to include the following additional clauses to the Form of Contract:
Publication of Deliverables12.7 The Supplier will not publish the results of the Services undertaken pursuant to this Contract.
12.8 The Supplier acknowledges and agrees that the Buyer may publish information about this Contract, the Services, and the Supplier. The Buyer agrees to acknowledge the Supplier’s role in delivering the Services in any published information.
It remains the case that I have rather more academic freedom than those doing government-funded work.
