Content created by Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
Scientific integrity plays a vital role in the mission of HHS. Ensuring integrity in science throughout the Department allows HHS to produce high-quality science, communicate effectively with the public, and base critical policy decisions on trustworthy and rigorous scientific findings.
In response to the Presidential Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-based Policymaking, HHS is developing an updated Scientific Integrity Policy. This draft policy is based on the National Science and Technology Council Framework for Federal Scientific Integrity Policy and Practice - PDF and includes specific provisions prohibiting political interference, ensuring independent review of scientific activities, facilitating the free flow of scientific information, prohibiting suppression or delay of scientific findings for non-scientific reasons, forbidding censorship or alteration of scientific findings, and protecting against retaliation. The draft policy also establishes clear procedures for reporting and handling allegations of scientific integrity violations, including those involving alleged political interference. This draft policy updates and formalizes HHS’s 2012 Policies and Principles for Assuring Scientific Integrity.
Public comment on the draft HHS Scientific Integrity Policy closed on September 1, 2023. A final version of the policy will be published to the HHS scientific integrity web page in early 2024.