On Tuesday the Research Subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee held a hearing on scientific integrity and transparency (You can watch the hearing online). Based on the opening statement of the Subcommittee Chair, Representative Buschon of Indiana, at least some of the motivation for this hearing are the persistent accounts of poor data quality in many fields. He specifically cited a March 2012 Nature editorial over sloppy research data, and linked these concerns to the recent Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo intended to increase public access to data. Ranking Member of the subcommittee, Representative Lipinski of Illinois, characterized the problem as not misconduct so much as poor methodology and bad analyses – problems that can be just as difficult to uncover as misconduct. This theme was re-emphasized by witnesses and subcommittee members throughout the hearing.
The hearing charter was more explicit in stating that the concerns of this hearing were focused on access to research data supported by federal dollars. The Oversight and Investigations subcommittee held a hearing on open access to publications in March 2012. (I think the reference in this committee press release to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (non)sharing of data adds additional issues that were not addressed during the hearing.)
The hearing witnesses were:
- Dr. Bruce Alberts, former President of the National Academy of Sciences and current editor-in-chief of Science magazine.
- Dr. Victoria Stodden, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Columbia University
- Dr. Stanley Young, Assistant Director for Bioinformatics, National Institutes of Statistical Sciences
- Mr. Sayeed Choudhury, Associate Dean for Research Data, Management at Johns Hopkins University and Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center
Pasco Phronesis 