Information Quality - USGS Peer Review Agenda

(Updated July 2007)

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directive, Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review, dated December 15, 2004 (263 KB PDF), requires that there be a "systematic process of peer review planning" and access to a list of information products for official dissemination that will be peer reviewed as either influential scientific information or highly influential scientific assessments.

For those information products for official dissemination that will be peer reviewed as influential scientific information or highly influential scientific assessments, (as defined in the OMB directive), the USGS provides the following agenda of current peer review plan entries. The list of plans will be updated as new entries are posted. Links and information regarding access to the final published information products will be added as available. Plan entries will be removed when (1) the information products are published, or (2) the scope of the science project changes to the degree that the information products will not be published.

Questions and comments regarding entries may be directed to peer_review_agenda@usgs.gov.

Peer Review Plans

Influential Scientific Information

• A Preliminary Investigation of the Quantity, Quality, and Potential of the Coal Resources of Afghanistan (16.6 KB PDF)



• Investigation of the Correlation Between the Burning of Locally Mined Coal in Residential Stoves by Navajo People in New Mexico and Respiratory Disease (17.4 KB PDF)

Highly Influential Scientific Assessments

• Southeast Extension of the Southern Whidbey Island Fault, Washington: Implications for Earthquake Hazards (27 KB PDF)

Additional information

The USGS requires peer review for all of its information products that contain scientific and technical information, whether published by the USGS or an outside entity (see SM 502.3 and SM 502.4). The USGS has a vigorous program of publishing the results of its scientific investigations and research in its own information products (see SM 1100.3) as well as in scientific journals and other outside publishing venues (see SM 1100.4). The public may access information about USGS information products and may view and download many of them online through the Publications Warehouse at http://pubs.usgs.gov.

For more on information quality, refer to:

• Department of the Interior Information Quality Guidelines (155 KB PDF)
• USGS Information Quality Guidelines

(Note: Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader at the Adobe Web site to view portable document format (PDF) files. Go to http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/index.html for free tools that allow visually impaired users to read PDF files).