May 15th, 2013
This week, the National Research Council is holding public comment meetings on increasing public access to federally funded research—both access to the data and publications. We encouraged the UCS Science Network to weigh in with their own ideas on how the government can increase public access to its science. After all, this is the science that we all pay for through our tax dollars. Read More
May 9th, 2013
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday aired a short talk from author and critic Margaret Atwood on two critical issues: the muzzling of Canadian government scientists and the importance of collecting adequate scientific information about threats to public health and safety. It is well worth four minutes of your day to listen in, and I’ve transcribed her remarks below. Read More
April 29th, 2013
This Wednesday, I’ll be speaking at the inaugural event of ScienceOnlineDC about the recent UCS report I co-authored, Grading Government Transparency: Scientists’ Freedom to Speak (and Tweet) at Federal Agencies. ScienceOnlineDC is a newly formed Washington, DC satellite of ScienceOnline, a nonprofit organization that facilitates conversations, community, and collaborations at the intersection of science and the Web. Read More
March 15th, 2013
UPDATE Monday March 18 3:00PM (see below):
Who ever said the federal government can’t work fast?
This morning, UCS released a report analyzing how federal government agencies and departments allow their scientists to communicate with the public. We found that while many agencies have better policies since 2008, there are still improvements to be made. Read More
March 14th, 2013
Social media can transform debates, inform discussions and, as we saw with the Arab spring, help spread democracy. And information and science have a key role to play in democracy (hence the new Center for Science and Democracy here at UCS). Scientists working for government agencies such as NASA, NOAA, the EPA, and the FDA have a lot to contribute to discussions about the science-based challenges we face. Unfortunately, agency policies combined with a culture of timidity are often constraining individual government scientists from jumping into social media. Read More
March 14th, 2013
You have likely heard that science journalism is in decline. No surprises there – one after another we have watched newspapers reduce the number of science beat reporters or announce the closing of their science desks altogether. We have also heard a great deal of debate over what the new on-line sources of information mean for how science is understood. Read More
July 6th, 2012
In keeping with its commitment to improving its scientific integrity standards, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has updated its public communication and media policy—for the first time in two decades (to put that in perspective, that’s before the vast majority of us used the Internet). The policy is a marked improvement from the agency’s previous policy and succeeds by clarifying the roles and responsibilities of Service employees and public affairs officials in the communication of scientific information. But despite these improvements, the agency is not out of the woods quite yet. Read More
December 7th, 2011
The scientific integrity policy released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes today a great day for science at the agency—but it also signals that the White House and Congress must do more to address bigger, government-wide scientific integrity challenges. Read More
© 2013
