HONEST Act answers science’s call for transparency - Why is it getting a bad rap? | TheHill

lterrat's bookmarks 2017-04-08

Summary:

"Last week, the House of Representatives passed the 'HONEST Act,' which prohibits low-quality research from influencing the health and environmental policies of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By most measures of recent media coverage, you would think the scientific community stands monolithically against it.

It’s an odd position, considering the bill requires the EPA to employ only 'the best available science' when informing future regulatory actions. Eligible studies would be limited to those with publicly available data published in a manner 'sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results.' The bill improves upon earlier versions by exempting personally identifiable information and trade secrets from the transparency requirement.

 

At its most fundamental level, the HONEST Act aims to address the “reproducibility crisis” currently plaguing professional research.

Reproducibility, or the ability to duplicate an experiment and achieve similar results, lends validity to the scientific process. To paraphrase science reporter Trevor Butterworth, we can be certain our cars will start every morning because the laws of internal combustion are unchanging observations of the natural world.

By current estimates, somewhere between 65 and 90 percent of academic literature does not meet this standard. And some argue that the science underpinning EPA policy is so invalid, the agency’s car no longer starts 

The HONEST Act echoes the scientific community’s call for open access. The most prestigious academic journals lock research findings behind expensive paywalls, and virtually none publish the accompanying raw data. The current climate makes it exceedingly difficult for one laboratory to confirm or disprove the findings of another."

Link:

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/327833-honest-act-answers-sciences-call-for-transparency-why-is-it

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » lterrat's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.stem

Date tagged:

04/08/2017, 21:04

Date published:

04/08/2017, 17:04