Mixing fact and fiction

would you set this out in a disclaimer instead of the ususl 'the events in this book are fiction ...'? Also, would you need to at least notify the actual scientists that you are using them in your book?

hammerklavier said:

I have this very brief prologue to open the story, where I have three quick blurbs of the three research experiments. Each mentions a science journal issue, researcher, university or laboratory, and the details of the experiment. In the first two blurbs all the information is factual. In the third only the name of the laboratory and a piece of equipment are factual.

Any issues here, ethical or otherwise?

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Well, it's a grand old tradition in science fiction & related genres to blur this line. From Isaac Asimov's Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline (1948) to [SIZE=-1]Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Diseases [/SIZE][SIZE=-1](eds. [/SIZE]Jeff VanderMeer & Mark Roberts), it's something that certainly happens. So I'm pretty sure that if there are issues you could find out pretty easily, and overcome them pretty easily too.

Mumut said:

would you set this out in a disclaimer instead of the ususl 'the events in this book are fiction ...'? Also, would you need to at least notify the actual scientists that you are using them in your book?

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I think people still use the normal disclaimer.

I'd guess that it would be nice to tell the scientists what you're doing, and they'd get a kick out of it; but if you're citing them accurately, the only group I'd think you'd need to warn would be the laboratory of your fictitious research.

Because after you become a bestseller, they will probably get emails asking for details on their research