In ORI's position paper #2 (March 1995), ten important issues raised
in the course of inquiries and investigations are discussed. One of
them is standard of proof: "The evidentiary burden of proof used in
investigating allegations of PHS scientific misconduct is a
'preponderance of the evidence,' which is the Federal government
standard for civil and administrative adjudications. While an
institution may choose another standard for its internal actions, ORI
cannot accept either a misconduct or no misconduct finding based on
any other standard. The preponderance of the evidence standard has
been adopted by the Department for scientific misconduct hearings and
debarment actions based on a finding of scientific misconduct. See
Section XI of the Hearing Procedures for Scientific Misconduct, 59
Fed. Reg. 29809, 29811, June 9, 1994; 45 CFR 76.313(c)(1) and (2).
Consequently, an instituion must use this standard for investigations
and findings forwarded to ORI."