Washington, D.C.-ASM has joined a coalition of scientific societies to launch the Trust Seal, a community-led initiative organized by BioCore: A Scholarly Publishing Consortium (BioCore) that brings together organizations across the research ecosystem to strengthen trust in science.
The Trust Seal is intended to provide greater confidence in publications that have adopted community-led best practices for trustworthy science. As concerns around research integrity, reproducibility and scientific misconduct continue to grow, there is an urgent need for clear trust indicators that are visible to humans and recognizable within emerging AI-driven research and discovery tools. Participating organizations recognize that strengthening trust in science is an ongoing process grounded in continuous improvement and are committed to evolving their own processes. The Trust Seal is designed to complement and strengthen existing efforts by helping to align, recognize and support best practices across scientific publishing.
"Microbiology and infectious disease research have a direct impact on public health and people's daily lives, making trust, transparency and scientific rigor essential," said Amy Kullas, Ph.D., Director of Ethics at ASM. "As science becomes increasingly collaborative and global, initiatives like the Trust Seal create important opportunities for the scientific community to strengthen research integrity standards and reinforce confidence in published research worldwide."
As a Trust Seal Supporting Member, ASM will contribute to the development, governance and advancement of the Trust Seal framework, helping shape its standards, evaluation and long-term direction. Drawing on its leadership in scientific publishing and its global microbiology community, ASM will work to ensure the Trust Seal reflects practical, meaningful and broadly applicable best practices across the sciences.
This initiative was launched at the end of May, and the development of the Trust Seal framework and governance model is currently underway. A pilot evaluation program is anticipated to open in late 2026, with the first Trust Seals expected to be awarded in early 2027.
