2016 Annual Report on Scientific Integrity
In FY 2016, the Scientific Integrity Committee implemented numerous scientific integrity initiatives across the Agency. This year, whiteboard training videos were created and shown during Scientific Integrity Training to over 3,500 employees, with more to come in FY 2017. The half-hour training familiarizes employees and others with the EPA Scientific Integrity Policy.
The Scientific Integrity Best Practices for Designating Authorship was released, which lists the criteria for attributing credit and accountability to individuals and groups who contribute to EPA work products that designate authorship. This best practices document can be used as a tool to prevent and/or resolve authorship issues.
The Scientific Integrity Committee distributed an Agency-wide survey as part of a broader effort to formally evaluate the Scientific Integrity Policy and also to assess the current culture of scientific integrity within EPA.
During FY 2016, EPA programs and regional offices made significant strides to enhance the culture of scientific integrity at EPA. They distributed outreach materials, conducted and received training, and developed and updated QA procedures. They also pushed for public release of data sets and developed dashboards to help users explore the data to increase transparency within the Agency.
Scientific integrity is a continual priority at EPA, and we must keep building on our successes to further promote our culture of scientific integrity.