Jane Lubchenco's Legacy at NOAA

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco has announced that she will leave her post at the end of February. Her letter to NOAA employees, reprinted in the Washington Post, cites the difficulty of maintaining a bi-coastal family life. Dr. Lubchenco, a distinguished marine biologist, has put in four years at the helm of NOAA, as much time as reasonably could be expected. She was one of President Obama's earliest nominees, named before his inauguration as part of a "dream team" of distinguished research scientists he brought into high-level government service in partial fulfillment of his inaugural promise to restore science to its rightful place. While that promise remains, in my view, unfulfilled, it hasn't been for lack of trying on Lubchenco's part. Of NOAA's accomplishments during her tenure, the one I attribute most directly to her influence is adoption of a strong scientific integrity policy. The White House mandated that federal agencies develop scientific integrity policies, but provided precious little guidance or leadership. Most agencies simply imported research misconduct policies, essentially putting the entire onus of ensuring scientific integrity in the regulatory arena on career scientific staff. As I've explained in some detail in this article, that approach misses the point. The so-called scientific integrity problem has a lot more to do with the relationship between political appointees and the career scientists they oversee than with deliberate falsification by those scientists. If you don't believe that, take a quick look at the Department of Interior Inspector General's reports on the Julie MacDonald affair, here and here. NOAA's policy, alone among those I've looked at, takes on that relationship. It includes a "Code of Ethics for Science Supervision and Management" which, among other things, expressly forbids intimidating employees into altering or censoring scientific findings. You wouldn't think that was necessary, but look again at the MacDonald report. Then ask yourself why the Department of Interior hasn't put even that minimal limit on managers in its scientific integrity policy.