Do Not Disregard


When noteworthy past citations are not mentioned in published articles, the disregard syndrome is considered by some to be the result of inadequate literature reviews causing editorial annoyances. It also has been noted to be a serious transgression of bibliographic negligence1 and a menace to honest science.2 Its occurrence as a failure to record previous citations of discovery in the issuing of patents has important legal concerns over ownership of intellectual property and economic compensation.

The definition of the disregard syndrome can be conceptually extended to include society's disregard of published paradigm-challenging theories that disrupt society's authoritarian and economic statuses. Society responds to threatening concepts by initiating survival behaviors of either passive obliviousness or active rejection policies that include nonsupport of perceived disruptive research. The disregarding of new ideas has very serious consequences for society in that: (a) the benefits from application of overlooked creative...

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