I am a wholehearted supporter of freedom of information laws and rules that provide insight into the workings of public institutions. There are occasions, however, when people make requests for information with a goal of frustrating effective public administration. In these cases, the aim is not accountability and transparency, but rather to use these laws to stop researchers from doing their job. I propose that the biomedical research community should ask legislators to give us the ability reject requests for public information where it is clear that requestor is making a frivolous and vexatious request. Read more