All science should inform policy and regulation

" A new standard currently proposed for the Environmental Protection Agency [7] aims to ban the use of scientific studies for regulatory purposes unless all their raw data are widely available in public and can be reproduced. If the proposed rule is approved, science will be practically eliminated from all decision-making processes. Regulation would then depend uniquely on opinion and whim....

In the USA and elsewhere, governments are major funders of research and their regulatory mandates provide powerful incentives for best science. Making widely applicable, reproducible research practices and sharing the default option for research (with sparse exceptions, when appropriately justified) will strengthen scientific investigation and maximize its benefits to society at large. Governments can bolster their legacy through such initiatives and scientists would be broadly supportive of such a transformative vision to promote a standard of openness in science.

The opposite scenario, of simply ignoring science that has not yet attained such standards, is a nightmare. On the one hand, we would see governments discarding science at massive scale because of perceived imperfections and impurities. Perhaps worse, we would see scientists respond by becoming politically entrenched dogmatic advocates, falsely believing that they defend science....