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Federal Agency Scientific Integrity Policies

In March 2009, the White House sent a memorandum to executive branch department and agency heads describing key elements of the Obama administration's plan to reform federal scientific integrity policy.

In December 2010, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a followup memorandum presenting more detailed guidelines for federal scientific integrity policies. Agencies and departments were told to submit draft policies to OSTP by the beginning of August, but as of August 15, only a few drafts had been made public, and OSTP had not yet articulated a process for moving forward.

UCS has played a leading role in pressing the administration to fulfill its commitment, meeting with agencies to provide input and share information, offering a suite of resources for scientific integrity policy developers, and tracking scientific integrity progress on our "Road to Independent Science" webpage.

Listed below are the scientific integrity policies, policy drafts, and progress reports or other interim documents that departments and agencies have released to date, with links to the documents themselves and to agency pages with instructions for public comments.

Agency		Date	Type of Document
	Department of the Interior	02/01/2011	Final policy
	Department of the Interior		—UCS line-by-line analysis
	National Aeronautics and Space Administration	04/18/2011	Initial response describing previous policy and planned updates
		08/05/2011	Updated response
		12/15/2011	Final policy and related commitments
	National Institute of Standards and Technology	05/26/2011	Summary of current policy
	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration	06/15/2011	Draft policy
			—UCS comments
			—UCS line-by-line analysis
		12/07/2011	Final policy, procedural handbook, and response to public comments
	National Science Foundation	07/29/2011	Draft policy
			—UCS comments
			—UCS line-by-line analysis
			Final policy
	Environmental Protection Agency	08/05/2011	Draft policy
			—UCS comments
			—UCS line-by-line analysis
		08/05/2011	Final policy
	Department of Agriculture	08/05/2011	Final policy
	Department of Agriculture		—UCS comments
	Department of Health and Human Services	12/19/2011	Final policy
	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention	2/16/12	Final policy
	Department of Commerce	12/16/2011	Final policy
	Food and Drug Administration	2/3/2012	Final policy
	Food and Drug Administration		—UCS line-by-line analysis
	Department of Education	3/30/2012	Draft policy
	Department of Education		—UCS analysis & comments
	Department of Veteran's Affairs	3/30/2012	Draft policy
	Department of Veteran's Affairs		—UCS analysis & comments
	United States Agency for International Development	3/30/2012	Final policy
	Department of Energy	3/30/2012	Policy statement on scientific integrity
	Department of Justice		Draft policy
	Department of Transportation		Draft policy
	Marine Mammal Commission	2/14/2012	Final policy
	Office of the Director of National Intelligence	5/13/2011	Final policy
	Department of Labor	4/16/2012	Draft policy
	Department of Labor		—UCS analysis & comments
	Department of State	4/16/2012	Final policy
	Department of Defense	7/26/2012	Final policy
	Department of Homeland Security	4/12/2012	Final policy
	Office of Science and Technology Policy	12/17/2010	Original memo
	Social Security Administration	No policy publicly released
	Office of Management and Budget	No policy publicly released