Good afternoon and apologies for cross-posting,  

Today, I am excited to announce the release of results from the Union of Concerned Scientists’ 2018 Federal Scientist Survey. In February and March, we administered the survey to over 63,000 federal employees across 16 federal agencies, the largest survey that our team has done to date. The survey shows that federal scientists and their work are being hampered by political interference, workforce reductions, censorship, and other issues. However, it’s not all bad news, the survey shows that the federal scientific workforce is remarkably resilient and continuing to stand up for the use of science in policy-making decisions.

This is the first survey to gauge the state of science under the Trump administration. The results of this years’ survey are detailed in a mini-report that focuses on results across all agencies, as well as nine fact sheets that hone in on results within agencies.

Here are some of the major take-aways from this years’ survey:

• 50 percent of respondents (1947 respondents) reported that the level of consideration of political interests has hindered the ability of their agencies to make science-based decisions.
• Nearly 80 percent of respondents reported that they have noticed workforce reductions over the past year (3,266 respondents), and nearly 90 percent of those respondents (2,852 respondents) reported that such reductions make it difficult for their agencies to fulfill their science-based missions.
• Over 1,000 responding scientists and scientific experts reported that they have been asked or told to omit certain words in their scientific work because they are viewed as politically contentious. Over 600 responding scientists and scientific experts said they have been asked or told to omit the phrase “climate change” from their work.
• A majority of respondents (64%; 2452 respondents in total) reported that their agencies are adhering to their scientific integrity policies and that they are receiving adequate training on them.

These results just skim the surface, you can find more results detailed in the mini-report and agency fact sheets at www.ucsusa.org/2018survey, as well as our methodology, raw frequency data, and full access to all open-ended responses from federal scientists.  

We would really appreciate any amplification of this work today and in the coming days– attached to this email you will find a social media package that includes sample tweets, Facebook posts, graphics, and memes. Also, feel free to share this blog that discusses major results from this years’ survey.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Best,

Yogin

Yogin Kothari

Senior Washington Representative, Center for Science and Democracy

Union of Concerned Scientists

desk: 202-331-5665 | cell: 714-906-9916

@YoginUCS