Gold Standard Science at USDA

Since its inception, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been called upon to serve the American people, including a strong commitment to ensuring the highest level of integrity in all aspects of the Department’s engagement in scientific and technological activities and the use of scientific information in policy making. This commitment is critical to maintaining the trust of the American people and instilling confidence in government decisions.

On May 23, 2025, President Trump issued a new Executive Order No. 14303, “Restoring Gold Standard Science.” This Executive Order is “committed to restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and that Federal decisions are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available.”

Gold Standard Science is:

-Reproducible
-Transparent
-Communicative of error and uncertainty
-Collaborative and interdisciplinary
-Skeptical of its findings and assumptions
-Structured for falsifiability of hypothesis
-Subject to unbiased peer review
-Accepting of negative results as positive outcomes
-Without conflicts of interest

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a GSS guidance memorandum “Agency Guidance for Implementing Gold Standard Science in the Conduct & Management of Scientific Activities” on June 23, 2025, to clarify the requirements of the EO 14303.

Secretary’s Memorandum SM-1078-13 (PDF, 173 KB), issued on June 30, 2025, entitled “RESPONDING TO AND IMPLEMENTING GOLD STANDARD SCIENCE AT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE”, provides guidance to the Department on Section 4 of the EO regarding Improving the Use, Interpretation, and Communication of Scientific Data to support our commitment to this gold standard.

The OSTP GSS guidance memorandum directs the departments and agencies to issue a report outlining the department’s implementation plans for GSS. This report will be followed by future annual reports on progress in the implementation of GSS.

USDA Annual Reporting

The USDA 2025 Implementation Plan:

The USDA 2025 Implementation Plan (PDF, 226 KB)