Obama administration issues guidelines designed to ensure 'scientific integrity'

By Rob Stein and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 17, 2010

The Obama administration Friday issued long-awaited guidelines designed to protect federal scientists from political interference - the first time the federal government has had an explicit government-wide policy of this kind.

The four-page memorandum "describes the minimum standards expected as departments and agencies craft scientific integrity rules appropriate for their particular missions and cultures, including a clear prohibition on political interference in scientific processes and expanded assurances of transparencies," wrote John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a blog post accompanying the memo's release.

Among the new guidelines is a prohibition against government public affairs officers asking or directing federal scientists to alter scientific findings. The guidelines also require that appointments are made based primarily on the applicants' "scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, experience and integrity" and that "data and research used to support policy decisions undergo independent peer review by qualified experts."

The guidelines call for agencies to develop public communications policies that promote openness and transparency "while ensuring full compliance with limits on disclosure of classified information." The directive did not cover all of the difficult questions surrounding scientific policy, such as how to treat government whistleblowers.

(More here.)