Integrity, of the Scientific Variety

Last week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco announced NOAA's new Scientific Integrity Policy, which was prompted largely by some of the recent climate data scandals and President Obama's statements directing agencies to develop official guidelines for protecting science from distortion or suppression.  Several years in the making, NOAA's policy is being received well among other agencies and policy experts.  While this might be seen as yet another bureaucratic document collecting dust on the shelf, this type of high-level statement should not be under-appreciated or taken lightly.

From SeaMonster and Bloomberg

How do you develop a policy that stands up for the rights of data and scientists?  How do you delineate the line between significance and non-significance?  Correlation and causation?  Advocacy and outreach?  Researchers face these sticky issues every time a journalist calls for information on their findings, where truths often get muddled in the process.  The purpose of the new policy is to allow NOAA scientists to speak openly about their work and promote transparency within the scientific community.  Clauses for protecting whistleblowers also encourage everyone to play a role in asking intelligent questions about the data we gather and synthesize.  A humorous reminder of what can go wrong when statistics go awry can be found on SeaMonster.