Unleashing the Science: Interior Department Supports Scientific Integrity with Updated Policies

The Department of the Interior has taken a significant step to ensure the integrity of the science that underpins every decision at the Department through a new update to our scientific integrity policy.

As part of Secretary Deb Haaland's effort to "unleash the science," the updated scientific integrity policy aims to increase understanding among the American public of the impact and value of science, including the ways it is benefiting people, wildlife and ecosystems around the country and the world. This includes uplifting the impact and value of Indigenous Knowledge on public land management and other decisions.  

The update codifies requirements within the Department Manual for how scientific information is obtained, handled and used within the Department and how agency scientists carry out their work, free from political or special-interest interference. The updated policy also establishes expectations for how scientific and scholarly information considered in decision-making is handled and used, ensuring the information is robust, of the highest quality and the result of rigorous scientific and scholarly processes. This new directive also codifies existing requirements to ensure merit-based hiring and retention of scientists and contains updated procedures for both raising and investigating scientific integrity concerns.

This new guidance makes one thing clear: information and data must be trustworthy. This policy helps the Department achieve that standard.

Reflecting the Department's unique role with science at the heart of our mission, this policy is among the most extensive and comprehensive in the government. It builds upon the model scientific integrity policy being widely adopted by other departments and science agencies following the publication of the National Science and Technology Council's A Framework for Federal Scientific Integrity Policy and Practice. It is further strengthened by the Departmental Code of Scientific and Scholarly Conduct, which communicates expectations to senior management officials, supervisors and scientists.

To learn more about the Department's commitment to scientific integrity, visit the Department's Scientific Integrity webpage.