Scientific Integrity Plans Make Headway

All federal agencies have submitted, or will soon submit, new scientific integrity policies in final or draft form, reports the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. OSTP received policies from 19 agencies by the Aug. 5 deadline, with three pending, says senior policy analyst Rick Weiss. The White House requested the policies in an effort to instill a culture of scientific integrity across the government. OSTP Director John P. Holdren issued the call for the policies in December 2010 in response to a 2009 presidential memorandum that put forth the principles of integrity expected for all federal agencies (C&EN, Jan. 10, page 28). Some government watchdog organizations, however, have trouble with the submitted policies. The group OMB Watch, for example, says that the process is haphazard and that OSTP still has not set a deadline for agencies to finalize their policies. OMB Watch also is critical of the agencies for not soliciting public comment on their policies.