NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20550 
COPY 
October 25, 1978 
Dr. Joseph G. Perpich 
Office of the Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 20014 
Dear Joe: 
During our telephone conversation earlier this week 1 made the 
point that the proposed revised guidelines were written primarily 
with NIH supported research in mind which prompted you to ask. 
what specific statements the NSF had problems with. 
I realize that extensive rewriting at this time Is not desirable, 
so I have annotated the enclosed eight pages of the proposed 
revision in a manner that will require a minimum of rewriting. 
In fact, except for the short substitution statement (P. 33086: 
IV-B-l-a) , the suggestions can be incorporated into the revised 
guidelines with a footnote or two. If the guidelines are silent 
on the phrases struck out in blue ink on P. 33086, no principles 
are violated but desired flexibility Is added. 
If these suggestions are accepted it will make NSF implementation 
of the revised guidelines simpler to announce and do much to reduce 
potential confusion In the scientific conmunity. I cannot emphasize 
too strongly how seriously the NSF feels its responsibility to the 
research it supports, including resistance to even the appearance 
of regulation by another agency in the guise of guidelines. 
Sincerely yours. 
Herman W. Lewis 
Senior Scientist for 
Recombinant DNA 
Enclosure 
cc: Dr. Fredrickson 
Dr . Omen 
[A-439] 
