OTTAWA — The Harper government is getting an earful from an influential scientific journal over its decision to scrap the mandatory long-form census.

An editorial in the Aug. 26 issue of the journal "Nature" says what the Conservatives are doing is part of a global attack on census-taking.

"Census-taking around the world is under assault, thanks to concerns about privacy, cost and response rates," write Stephen Fienberg and Kenneth Prewitt, former director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

"Most scientists and policy-makers worldwide fail to appreciate what is at stake until it is too late to repair the damage of short-sighted decisions."

They say government statistics are the backbone of an array of policy decisions and research studies.

"This decision will lower the quality and raise the cost of information on nearly every issue before Canada's government," the editorial says.

The census has become an unlikely political flashpoint this summer since the Tories decided to end the mandatory long form in favour of a voluntary survey.

The former head of Statistics Canada, Munir Sheikh, quit last month after advising the government a voluntary survey would not be as useful as the mandatory form.

The Conservatives have defended their decision to scrap the mandatory census, arguing that no one should face jail for refusing to answer intrusive questions.

But provinces and municipalities, business and religious groups, charities and social scientists which rely on detailed census data to plan for the future have all come out against the move.