2020 Annual Report on Scientific Integrity
This annual report serves to highlight the status of scientific integrity within EPA at the end of fiscal year 2020, including scientific integrity accomplishments, new initiatives, and areas for future investment.
2020 Annual Report Sections
Highlights of Annual Scientific Integrity Activities (pdf)
Scientific Integrity Concerns (pdf)
Comprehensive List of Scientific Integrity Activities (pdf)
Overview
When EPA upholds a culture of scientific integrity:
- Our scientists are able to do their best work;
- Scientific findings and information are generated, reviewed and disseminated in a timely and transparent manner;
- The work of EPA is informed by robust independent science; and
- We increase public trust in our science.
EPA released its Scientific Integrity Policy (the Policy) in February 2012. The Policy has provided both a vision and a roadmap for ensuring scientific integrity at the Agency. This report documents the investments made across EPA in fiscal year (FY) 2020 and identifies areas of focus for future initiatives. The Scientific Integrity Policy builds upon existing Agency and government-wide policies and guidance documents to enhance EPA’s overall commitment to scientific integrity.
The Policy applies to all EPA employees including scientists, managers, and political appointees. Beginning in FY 2019, if a grantee is engaged in conducting science, supervising science, communicating science, or using or applying the results of science, the recipient and the project team must review the Policy and comply with its requirements as part of their agreement with EPA (EPA General Terms and Conditions). Contractors, collaborators, and volunteers are also expected to uphold the standards established by this Policy and may be required to do so as part of their respective agreements with EPA (Environmental Protection Agency Acquisition Regulation (EPAAR); Scientific Integrity). At the end of each fiscal year, EPA reviews the scientific integrity activities at the Agency during that year and this report covers FY 2020.
Scientific integrity is the compass that guides EPA in its mission to protect human health and the environment. Scientific integrity ensures that the science that is conducted and utilized at EPA is objective and of the highest quality. Scientific integrity prevents conflicts of interest or policy implications from interfering with or influencing scientific results. Scientific integrity encourages robust scientific discourse, welcomes differing scientific opinions, and supports the professional development of EPA scientists. Scientific integrity requires that others are acknowledged for their intellectual contributions. Scientific integrity ensures that science is communicated openly, transparently, and in a timely manner. Together, each of these elements create a culture of scientific integrity at EPA that inspires public trust in the Agency and ensures that EPA achieves its mission of protecting human health and the environment.
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Executive Summary
The Scientific Integrity Annual Report chronicles the implementation of EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy (the Policy) in FY 2020. This annual report details several highlights from the last year and looks forward to future areas for improvement. The Scientific Integrity Program (the Program) continued initiatives across the Agency that strengthened EPA’s culture of scientific integrity. These initiatives include our annual requirements: convening the Scientific Integrity Committee (see here for the 2020 Scientific Integrity Committee Members (pdf) )
for quarterly meetings; producing the annual report; holding the Annual Agency-Wide Scientific Integrity Meeting; providing scientific integrity onboard training and coordinating with the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The Program identified its 2020 EPA National Honor Award for Scientific Integrity, recognizing achievements that have significantly advanced the culture of scientific integrity at EPA. The Program conducted Management Dialogues on scientific integrity, through which EPA leaders had open conversations with the Scientific Integrity Official about their experiences in scientific integrity and learned more about their critical roles and contributions to the Agency’s culture of scientific integrity. General training for staff was conducted at two EPA regional offices: two EPA laboratories and one EPA headquarters office throughout FY 2020. The Program provides mandatory online scientific integrity training for new EPA employees. Through FY2012 to the end of FY 2020, 71% or 1,564 of 2,204 EPA employees enrolled in the training course have successfully completed the onboarding training.
The Program also continued its work on developing new guidance and policies. The Scientific Integrity Committee Charter was completed and signed by the EPA Science Advisor in FY 2020. Significant progress was made on the forthcoming Approaches for Expressing and Resolving Differing Scientific Opinions which will recommend a progression of approaches for managers and employees to use to encourage the expression and resolution of differing scientific opinions.
The Scientific Integrity Official continued to assist employees who had scientific integrity questions or concerns. Many issues were resolved informally, preventing the need to report the issues as allegations of violations of the Scientific Integrity Policy. During FY 2020, EPA’s Scientific Integrity Program received 56 requests for advice and 17 new allegations of lapses of scientific integrity. Additionally, five allegations were closed during FY 2020.
On May 20, 2020 EPA’s OIG issued the report #20-P-01734, "Further Efforts Needed to Uphold Scientific Integrity Policy at EPA.", which examined whether the EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy was being implemented as intended to assure scientific integrity throughout the EPA. The report produced twelve recommendations for improvement; EPA completed three in FY 2020.
Further progress must be made to fully ensure a robust culture of scientific integrity at EPA. Looking forward, the Program will implement a plagiarism software tool; release the Approaches for Expressing and Resolving Differing Scientific Opinions document; release the scientific integrity language for contracts; finalize US EPA Procedures for Addressing Scientific Integrity Concerns; improve the Program’s websites; and continue to address the OIG audit recommendations.
The Program will focus on four key mechanisms for improving, protecting, and maintaining scientific integrity:
- Increasing the visibility of scientific integrity at EPA.
- Embracing and modeling scientific integrity across EPA.
- Protecting and maintaining EPA’s culture of scientific integrity.
- Maintaining and producing tools to assess our progress.