The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has provided comments to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in response to a request for information on improving federal scientific integrity policies.
The comments read, in part: “In order to be effective in their jobs, it is important for federal scientists be able to communicate freely about their work with peers, journalists, and the public. It is critical for OSTP to ensure that each agency develops a public communications policy that promotes and maximizes openness and transparency. Such a policy should include a provision to allow agency scientists to speak freely to the media and the public, including on social media, about scientific and technological matters based on their official work without the need for approval or clearance by the agency. Additionally, we encourage OSTP to ensure that government scientists are allowed to present viewpoints publicly that extend beyond their scientific findings, for example about policy or management matters, so long as they make clear that they are presenting their individual opinions and not speaking on behalf of the agency.”
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