Research & Conduct Policies
The DOE Office of Science (SC) is fully committed to fostering safe, diverse, equitable, and inclusive work, research, and funding environments that value mutual respect and personal integrity. The Office of Science expects the members of the scientific communities engaged in SC-sponsored activities to conduct themselves in a manner that is respectful, ethical, and professional. SC has established the DOE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies site to make DOE and SC policies and procedures more readily accessible to the scientific communities and the institutions receiving DOE SC funding, and to clearly communicate the SC’s commitment. As SC identifies opportunities to improve its policies, practices, and communications to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, new and updated information will be posted on our site.
The cornerstone of DOE’s Scientific Integrity Policy is that all scientists, engineers, or others supported by the DOE are free and encouraged to share their scientific findings and views. The DOE Scientific Integrity Policy is intended to ensure a culture of scientific integrity; strengthen the actual and perceived credibility of the federal government and federally sponsored sponsored research; facilitate the free flow of scientific and technical information consistent with applicable laws, regulations, and DOE Orders and Policies; and establish principles for conveying scientific and technological information to the public.
Likewise, recipients of DOE funding are responsible for maintaining the integrity of research, including the prevention, detection, and remediation of research misconduct, and the conduct of inquiries, investigations, and adjudication of allegations of research misconduct. Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. Additional information about DOE’s policies and regulations in research misconduct can be found on our Grants and Contracts Support site.
DOE is responsible for making DOE-funded scholarly publications and digital data more open and available to the public through DOE’s Public Access Policy. Central to being good stewards of federally-funded research is the management of digital research data, including the sharing and preservation of data resulting from that research. The DOE Office of Science Statement on Digital Data Management establishes the principles related to the management of digital research data as well as the requirements for applicants for DOE SC research funds.
The DOE’s Public Access to Publications Policy outlines the Department’s approach to implementing public access to scholarly publications resulting from DOE-funded research. All researchers receiving DOE funding are required to submit metadata and a link to the full-text accepted manuscript (or the full text itself) to DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) for all publications of research results arising from complete or partial DOE funding, unless otherwise prohibited by law, regulation, or policy. The DOE Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science (DOE PAGES) is the DOE search tool that makes scholarly scientific publications resulting from DOE research funding publicly accessible and searchable at no charge to users.
