AGU serves as a pathway for scientists to disseminate their research to colleagues and the public through publications, conferences, and collaborations with communities, universities, and NGOs throughout the globe. Our 24 top quality research journals, including Geophysical Research Letters and Earth’s Future and the dedicated professionals who sustain them play a vital role in ensuring high-quality peer review leading to cutting edge research. Our scientific conferences, including the world’s largest annual gathering of Earth and space scientists, enable scientists to share methods and early results, to collaborate on new proposal ideas, to mentor and find employment. And by connecting scientists with policymakers, educators, and the public, AGU has helped ensure that innovations in fields like satellite observation, atmospheric modeling, and computer science reach the people and institutions who can put them to use—strengthening public safety, economic resilience, and scientific literacy nationwide.

For over a century, AGU has helped translate scientific discovery into public benefit across the United States. AGU journals have informed early warning systems for hurricanes and wildfires, guided water resource management in drought-prone regions, and advanced our understanding of climate risks facing coastal communities and infrastructure. AGU published findings have also been instrumental in sharing space science research, publishing discoveries that have deepened our understanding of planetary formation, space weather, and the solar system — knowledge that supports the U.S. space exploration enterprise.

These practices are real life demonstrations of “gold standard science.” Unfortunately, the OMB’s proposed rule to revise Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance, while expressing commitment to a vague notion of gold standard science, would prove extremely harmful for the scientific enterprise and its concomitant benefits for America.

Read AGU’s full comment to OMB.