On January 27, 2025, the authors of a journal article on scientific integrity announced that the article would not be published as planned, pending a review by the Trump administration. The article, which was co-authored by Director of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Research Integrity (ORI) Sheila Garrity, was set to be published in May in a special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
Holly Fernandez Lynch, a coeditor of the forthcoming journal issue and an associate professor of law and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, was notified by ORI’s communications director that the article would need to be reviewed by the Trump administration to “ensure it aligns with HHS’ priorities moving forward.” When Lynch asked her co-authors for clarification, she was informed that the hold was due to the new administration’s dictate that any publications must “undergo review irrespective of what happened before [Trump’s] inauguration.”