2018 ASHS Annual Conference

At the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the chief in-house scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), our job is finding solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. To meet this mission, we have 2,000 scientists and post docs and 6,000 other employees who support 690 ARS research projects at more than 90 research locations across the United States and overseas. This work is funded by an annual appropriated budget of around $1 billion.

Research by ARS scientists ensures the production of high-quality, nutritious, and safe food, as well as other agricultural products and co-products. Their work helps to protect and enhance our natural resources and the environment. Just as important, their findings help support a competitive agricultural economy, and create economic opportunities in rural communities and other markets.

The 1998 Farm Bill called for USDA to establish procedures to perform scientific peer reviews of all ARS research projects to verify that its investigations have scientific merit and programmatic relevance. This review process is required at least once every 5 years, and uses a panel of external reviewers to assess the projects prior to implementation. To meet this mandate, ARS created the Office of Scientific Quality Review (OSQR) to manage and facilitate the ARS peer review process. This presentation will discuss how the OSQR process works, and how the peer-review process fits into the 5-year cycle of an ARS research project.