A Biden administration official whose job is to ensure the “integrity” of government science has an integrity problem of her own. Last month the National Academy of Sciences suspended environmental scientist Jane Lubchenco for violating basic principles of research integrity. Despite this disciplinary action from one of the most prestigious science organizations in the world—and her own admission of fault—Ms. Lubchenco continues to lead the White House’s Scientific Integrity Task Force.

The Biden administration created the task force to “conduct a thorough review of the effectiveness of Federal agency scientific-integrity policies, with the aim of ensuring a trustworthy science system.” If this vitally important mission is to be taken seriously, the task force must be worthy of the public’s trust. That means holding itself to the same standards that apply to ordinary research scientists.

Ms. Lubchenco was penalized after she edited a paper for a scientific journal even though its co-authors were her research collaborators. One of them was even her brother-in-law, who was also her former doctoral student. This violated the National Academy’s code of conduct and the journal’s editorial policies. “I accept these sanctions for my error in judgment in editing a paper authored by some of my research collaborators—an error for which I have publicly stated my regret,” Ms. Lubchenco said in a statement.

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.