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• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	n-p-0386

i	\ Office of Inspector General	July 22 2011
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At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA),
Office of Inspector General,
initiated this review to
determine the process EPA
uses to address
scientific/research misconduct.
Specifically, we sought to
determine whether EPA's
Office of Research and
Development (ORD) has
controls to address scientific
integrity and research
misconduct, and whether those
controls are effective.
Background
Since 2000, a number of
federal and EPA policies on
ensuring the integrity of
government science have been
issued. ORD is EPA's lead
office for integrating science
into environmental protection
policies. EPA Order 3120.5
implements the federal policy
on research misconduct, and
ORD and others formulated the
Principles of Scientific Integrity
and the Principles of Scientific
Integrity E-Training to further
highlight professional ethics for
EPA scientists.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2011/
20110722-11 -P-0386.pdf
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Research and Development Should Increase
Awareness of Scientific Integrity Policies
What We Found
ORD has internal controls that include policies, procedures, training, and peer
review. However, ORD should improve how it evaluates the effectiveness of its
policies and procedures for scientific integrity and research misconduct.
Currently, ORD does not test its policies and procedures because ORD asserts
that few reported instances of misconduct means that it generally does not occur.
However, few identified instances of research misconduct could signal that staff
lacks awareness of key criteria and reporting requirements necessary to identify
and report misconduct.
We issued an electronic survey to 1,371 ORD science staff and received 488
responses. We found that 65 percent of respondents were unaware of EPA
Order 3120.5, and 32 percent were unaware of EPA's Principles of Scientific
Integrity. We also found that ORD has not updated the Principles of Scientific
Integrity E-Training since June 2005. The existing e-training is not mandatory
for ORD staff and does not include actual examples to aid understanding by
training participants. Those who have not completed the training may be
unaware of key criteria regarding scientific integrity. To facilitate reporting of
research misconduct, ORD should increase awareness of the process. Without
these additional internal control efforts, ORD risks having its science called into
question, potentially lessening the credibility of its work.
What We Recommend
We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development
periodically test the effectiveness of controls in place to address scientific
integrity and research misconduct. We also recommend that ORD work with
EPA offices to initiate outreach on EPA Order 3120.5 to raise awareness on
roles/responsibilities and reporting steps, and to identify EPA staff and managers
who should complete the Principles of Scientific Integrity E-Training. Lastly, we
recommend that ORD continue to work with unions to update and implement
e-training. Such updates should include making the e-training mandatory for all
ORD staff, ensuring that the updated course contains actual examples, and
creating a system for maintaining current contact information for reporting
instances of scientific integrity and research misconduct. ORD agreed with our
recommendations and subsequently followed up with its corrective action plan.
We have reviewed the corrective action plan and milestone dates, and found
them acceptable. As such, we are closing this report upon issuance, and no
further response is required.

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