What Is Scientific Integrity—and How Does It Keep All of Us Safe

Science helps us understand the world around us, allowing us to accumulate knowledge, uncover evidence and make educated decisions.

To create a society in which each generation is better off than the last, policymakers must take into account the best available science. Science seeks to find truth. But when scientific findings run contrary to the policy preferences of elected leaders, policymakers, powerful industries and other political actors, it is not unusual to see these individuals attempt to hide the truth-by burying reports, disbanding scientific advisory committees, suppressing data, and censoring scientists. We saw this more than 200 times in the first Trump administration, and Project 2025 gives every indication we should expect more of the same.

Ensuring that science can be used to advance the health and safety of people and the environment we depend on requires that science is not censored, manipulated, or misrepresented by -serving politicians and corporate interests.

What is Scientific Integrity?

Scientific integrity protects transparent and reliable science by helping ensure it is free from political suppression or distortion. It seeks to create an environment where scientists can freely share their scientific findings with the world and where those findings are used to guide policy that is in the best interest of the public.

In January 2023, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) adopted a government-wide definition of scientific integrity:

"Scientific integrity is the adherence to professional practices, ethical behavior, and the principles of honesty and objectivity when conducting, managing, using the results of, and communicating about science and scientific activities. Inclusivity, transparency, and protection from inappropriate influence are hallmarks of scientific integrity"

What do Scientific Integrity policies in government do?

Scientific integrity policies limit censorship, intimidation and other forms of political interference in research. They achieve this in four ways.

• Keeping science independent

Scientific inquiry isn't conducted by a single person in a lab coat and then taken as gospel. No, scientific work starts with dozens if not hundreds of individuals working on answering important research questions through varied and rigorous investigatory methods. It also involves peer-review, in which scientists who are not part of a specific study and have no stake in it voluntarily provide critiques and feedback. That substantial feedback helps ensure scientific inquiry meets disciplinary standards of rigor. Feedback from those in the scientific community is often one of the largest hurdles in the scientific process, but it makes the science stronger and more rigorous. And critically, science should be free of conflicts of interests-it's aimed at finding truth, not reaching a pre-determined conclusion. Corporate or ideological bad actors have a long history of trying to undermine scientific independence through disinformation, diversion, inappropriate influence, and even harassment of scientists. The science that governments carry out on our behalf shouldn't be subject to that pressure.

• Making scientific evidence and research available to the public

In a democracy, policymakers are supposed to act in the best interest of the people they represent. To ensure the best public policy, the public must be allowed to examine what scientific evidence says and how it was used to form public policy decisions. This is how the public can hold their elected officials accountable. That means the scientific findings, assumption, methods and data sources all need to be disclosed. Without this transparency, politically motivated or self-interested forces can create public policy that is not based in solid and rigorous scientific findings and not in the best interest of the public.

Science is constantly evolving. Every day government scientists carry out new studies and publish research that builds upon and challenges existing understandings of the world. The public has a right to access these latest scientific findings on topics including air pollution, water quality and disease prevention, and scientists should be free to share the results of their research, no matter the findings.

• Using the best and most relevant science, without arbitrary political restrictions

The previous Trump administration exploited the idea of transparency to undermine science-based decisionmaking. EPA appointees and their allies in Congress made efforts to restrict the use of public health data in agency decision making. They claimed that agencies shouldn't use studies that rely on non-public data-but public health research is, by its nature, based on medical records that are private by law. These studies are absolutely vital for understanding and solving public health problems, and discarding their aggregate, anonymized data is a willful effort to ignore this science entirely, to protect favored industries from being held accountable for the harms they do. Allowing government scientists to publish and communicate the findings of their research without fear of reprisal.

• Encouraging decisionmakers to actively seek the best available science when crafting public policies

Public policy built on science has created a society in which diseases like polio and measles have been nearly eradicated, antibiotics are readily available and we all have access to electricity that keeps our homes lit and warm. . Science allows policymakers to make informed decisions.

Science isn't partisan. A hurricane doesn't care what political party you belong to. But if policymakers disregard the science saying when and where a hurricane will hit and how strong it will be, people are likely to get hurt. Policymakers should seek out the best available science so they can make informed decisions grounded in fact, rather than affirming their personal beliefs or pleasing self-interested political and corporate allies. Science isn't the only consideration that leaders use to set policy-science can't tell us what our values or priorities are-but these decisions should be grounded in reality and based on trustworthy evidence. If we ignore science, we simply can't understand problems or the best ways to solve them.

Threats to Scientific Integrity

Scientists work to protect people's health and safety and to increase our understanding of the world so we can develop a stronger society. However, sometimes science threatens the interests of people in power, so not everyone wants transparent, rigorous and reliable science to guide policy.

Over the next four years, calls to cast aside scientific integrity and ignore the science produced by rigorous research in exchange for fringe science or that funded by industries, corporations or the political elite are likely to grow. Just two weeks after the election, President-elect Trump's allies in congress sent a letter to scientific agencies taking aim at scientific integrity policies. Ideologically driven people will seek to ignore evidence produced by rigorous research. They will seek to misconstrue what scientific integrity - the protection of science from censorship and political influence - is. Scientific integrity protects scientists from political pressure to skew facts and fudge studies to align with political interests. Scientific integrity helps maintain the checks and balances in our society. Ultimately, scientific integrity helps maintain our democracy. We're committed to speaking up for science, the scientists who carry it out, and the people across the country who need evidence-based policies to keep them safe and healthy.

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