An official website of the United States government.
IWGSC Blue Report, 2023
The "Unique Role of Federal Scientific Collections” report provides an updated assessment of the importance of scientific collections within the U.S. economy’s research and development infrastructure.
IWGSC Economic Study Report, 2020
The “Economic Analyses of Federal Scientific Collections” report develops standard methods for estimating the costs and benefits associated with U.S. Federal scientific collections.
IWGSC Green Report, 2009
The "Scientific Collections: Mission-Critical Infrastructure for Federal Science Agencies" report describes why collections are vital to scientific research in the United States and what the IWGSC is doing to preserve them.
IWGSC Charters
- Original Charter, 2006
- Renewed Charter, 2010
- Renewed Charter, 2016
- Charter Establishing the Committee on Science and Technology Enterprise where IWGSC is a Subcommittee, 2018
OSTP Memos
- FY 2007 Memo, 2005
- Implementation of IWGSC Recommendations Memo, 2010
- Federal Collections Policy Mandate Memo, 2014
Task Group Reports
Select Literature and Publications
- Interagency Working Group on Open Data Sharing Policy. 2017. Principles for Promoting Access to Federal Government-Supported Scientific Data and Research Findings Through International Scientific Cooperation.
- Sheehan, J., Schindel, D.E., Miller, S. and Bartuska, A. 2016. Finding Felderal Scientific Collections Just Got a Whole Lot Easier. Obama White House Blog, 16 Dec 2016.
- Deng, B. 2015. Plant collections get pruned back: North America's herbaria wilt under budget pressure. Nature 523: 16.
- Bradley, R.D., et al. 2014. Assessing the Value of Natural History Collections and Addressing Issues Regarding Long-Term Growth and Care. BioScience 64(12): 1150-1158.
- German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. 2014. Challenges and Opportunities of Integrative Taxonomy for Research and Society – Taxonomic Research in the Era of OMICS Technologies. Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina e.V. Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften (German National Academy of Sciences). Halle/Saale, 54 pages.
- Rocha, L.A., et al. 2014. Specimen collection: An essential tool. Science 344(6186): 814-815.