The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Office of Science and Information Management (OSIM) in the Office of Research and Development (ORD) is developing a policy framework and ultimately, a set of policies and related guidance for managing the scientific data created and used by ORD across the entire life cycle of the data (e.g., from initial planning stages, to data gathering, organization, and analysis, to data publishing, to data archiving, potential re-use, and destruction). Developing this comprehensive scientific data management (SDM) policy will involve a long-term (e.g., two years or more) effort requiring the assessment and resolution of many complex information management, information technology, and other issues, and resulting in a series of individual SDM policy statements and related guidance on how to implement these policies. This process will entail the following general approach: Develop a SDM policy framework and develop ORD SDM policies, guidance, and tools.