Report Lays Out Plan for Strengthening Scientific Integrity at Federal Agencies

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released a new report, Strengthening Scientific Integrity at Federal Agencies: Recommendations for 2021 and Beyond, which outlines a road map for the next Administration to enhance scientific integrity across federal agencies. “Independent science is under attack in government decisionmaking and its integrity must be restored,” states the report. “Government decisions affect our public health and safety and must be rooted in strong, independent science,” argues the report. “But the safeguards protecting government science have broken down significantly, with the Trump administration in particular laying bare the inherent weaknesses in existing scientific integrity standards, policies, and practices.” The document cites multiple instances since 2017 in which political appointees “stalled scientific research, rolled back science-based public protections and policies, retaliated against government scientists, weakened and disbanded science advisory committees, failed to fill a large number of critical scientific positions, and undermined career staff.” The report graded current scientific integrity policies across the federal government and found that the protections available to federal scientists and their work varied widely by agency. The analysis found, for example, that the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) media and social media policies are missing, with previous links ...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news