Neuroscientist Ogi Ogas (ogi_ogas, working with Sai Gaddam/saigaddam) posts a survey about slash fic as part of a project (a book, actually, though they don't bother to mention that), because "We're deeply interested in broad-based behavioral data that involves romantic or erotic cognition and evinces a clear distinction between men and women. Fan fiction matches this criteria perfectly" (link to FAQ). It's advertised on crack_van.

They have an open discussion post for the survey. People bring up the many issues they have with the questions (and eruthros, who mods kink_bingo on DW, posts their interaction with the researchers, who approached them about participating. This is where we find out they're working on a book.). (ETA: Ogas has also set up this post to discuss individual questions.)

It's not wanky, just very, very unfunny. If you want to read the questions, someone on the Doctor Who anonmeme copied them: 1-30, 31-70. If you read them, though: be warned: one of the questions (#61) can be considered triggery.

ETA2: Ogas has posted each question individually in this post. The potentially triggering question still appears on page 3 of comments, though they have since replaced the question within the survey with a totally different one.

ETA3: Ogas has taken down the survey (and changed the body of all journal entries) to "digest all this great feedback." It looks like he has stopped responding to comments, including those with legitimate questions like "Did you get IRB approval for this?"

From notjo: "jonquil's post on the subject talks about the ethics of human research, as well as pointing out that a book due out in 2010 is probably already written."

shaggirl (who pimped the survey on crack_van) pimps on her personal journal here with some oh-so-charming quotes from Ogas (thanks, lady_ganesh!).

ETA4: shaggirl defends Ogi and Sai and will continue to let them use crack_van to promote their survey if that's what they want. She also defends her decision to pimp it on the comm: "I spend an average of 10-12 hours per month maintaining the comm, and have done for the past 6+ years. It is a labor of love, not because I get a great deal out of it personally (since the first few months of its existence I could count the number of fics I've read off it on two hands with fingers to spare), but because I wish to give something nice to fandom. If once every few years I feel like taking a little something back, by promoting something of interest to myself and fandom, then I am not going to apologize for that."
(I tried to summarize it, but it's wanky enough on its own. She at least admits it's wanky, though.)

ETA5: fridgepunk has written Ogi Ogas/Sai Gaddam and posted it here (in Ogas's journal). Insert Rule 34 joke here.

ETA6: Ogas continues to prove himself to be mind-numbingly stupid with such gems as:

"Well, slash is kind of the female equivalent of the straight male interest in transsexuals." (full thread here)

And this thread, with moar fail. Pro: he apologizes for using the word "tranny." Con: he says he thought it was okay for him to use it because it's "the term they use for themselves."

He also, curiously, continues to evade the question "Do you have IRB approval for this?"

ETA7: deadlychameleon called BU and found out that Ogas is not affiliated with the institution in any way and has been asked to stop using his BU website and email. (As Chameleon notes, though, this also means that their "research" has no supervision.) (thank you, lydiabell!)

Meanwhile, Ogas has posted in his journal yet again with the subject line How is straight female interest in slash fiction like straight male interest in "shemales"? And why in the world does this matter? He's even included stuff from the Wikipedia article! (Except for the part where it notes that "shemale" is an offensive word "in LGBT communities" and "amongst transgender individuals" [quote marks because I lifted from Wikipedia directly]).

Comments so far include variations of "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?" and macros.

ETA8: Ogi's journal has gone into lockdown. But he apparently is unfamiliar with another law of fandom: You can't escape the screencaps. (others here, here, here, and I am sure a whole lot of other places. If there are important caps that aren't covered in these links, let me know) (ETA8.5: More here. Thanks, selene_avis!)

shaggirl says "I was wrong" and provides further evidence that these guys are assholes.

ETA9: Ogas apologizes. Interpret as you see fit.

ETA10: Ogas bahleetes his journal. Whether or not Gaddam follows suit remains to be seen.

btw, as of today (September 6), FanHistory's page on Ogas is the fifth result in Google, a post from jonquil is tenth, and this post is fourteenth. The post on Ogas's journal with the RPS fic is nineteenth (and accessible via Google Cache!). /random info gleaned by Googling.