Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials

120 Pages·2003·4.86 MB·English

by  National Research Council, Committee on Responsibilities of Authorship in the Biological Sciences

Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
Committee on Responsibilities of Authorship in the Biological Sciences
Board on Life Sciences
Division on Earth and Life Studies
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing
Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of
the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the
Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were
chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract no. N01-OD-4-2139, Task Order #88 between
the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Health and Human Services/
the National Institutes of Health; Grant No. DBI-0127703 between the National
Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation; Agreement No. B2001-47
between the National Academy of Sciences and the Sloan Foundation; and the National
Research Council Fund. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations
expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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Cover: Details from the library ceiling of the National Academy of Sciences building
(Lee Lawrie, sculptor)
Front cover: Recording of discovery
Back cover: Reading of the record
Copyright 2003 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of
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The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in
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Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
COMMITTEE ON RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORSHIP IN
THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
THOMAS R. CECH (Chair), Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
Chevy Chase, Maryland
SEAN R. EDDY, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Washington
University, St. Louis, Missouri
DAVID EISENBERG, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; University
of California, Los Angeles
KAREN HERSEY, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
STEVEN H. HOLTZMAN, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Boston,
Massachusetts
GEORGE H. POSTE, Health Technology Networks, Gilbertsville,
Pennsylvania
NATASHA V. RAIKHEL, University of California, Riverside
RICHARD H. SCHELLER, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco,
California
DAVID B. SINGER, GeneSoft, Inc., South San Francisco, California
MARY C. WALTHAM, Independent Publishing Consultant,
Princeton, New Jersey
Project Staff
ROBIN A. SCHOEN, Study Director
BRIDGET K. B. AVILA, Senior Project Assistant
ELIA BEN-ARI, Science Writer
NORMAN GROSSBLATT, Editor
v
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
BOARD ON LIFE SCIENCES
COREY S. GOODMAN (Chair) University of California, Berkeley,
California
R. ALTA CHARO, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
JOANNE CHORY, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla,
California
DAVID J. GALAS, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Science,
Claremont, California
BARBARA GASTEL, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
JAMES M. GENTILE, Hope College, Holland, Michigan
LINDA GREER, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington,
District of Columbia
ED HARLOW, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
ELLIOT M. MEYEROWITZ, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, California
ROBERT T. PAINE, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
GREGORY A. PETSKO, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
STUART L. PIMM, Columbia University, New York, New York
JOAN B. ROSE, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida
GERALD M. RUBIN, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy
Chase, Maryland
BARBARA A. SCHAAL, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
RAYMOND L. WHITE, DNA Sciences, Inc., Fremont, California
Senior Staff
FRANCES SHARPLES, Director
vi
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
Preface
agreed to chair the National Research Council’s Committee
on Responsibilities of Authorship in the Biological Sciences
I because I thought the topic is central to the proper conduct of
research. And it is an important topic to revisit now because
genome databases and other large datasets have greatly ramped
up the value of “published materials” while the increasing
entanglement of academic and commercial research has
complicated the landscape on which science is pursued. I also
thought it would be a relatively easy task: after all, isn’t there a
consensus that publication-related data and materials need to
be freely shared?
Now, more than a year later, it is clear to me and the
committee that there is in fact a general consensus about
sharing published data and materials, but also wide variation
in how this implicit contract to share is implemented and in
whether individual scientists, companies, or editors exempt
themselves in particular circumstances. One hears academic
scientists explain, “We always send out our transgenic mice
after we publish . . . but of course we expect to be coauthors
on any publications that result.” One hears company scientists
proclaim adherence to the same principle of sharing, “but of
course you first need to sign an agreement granting us an
exclusive license to commercialize any discovery made with
our database or materials.” Thus, as in many human activities,
the devil is in the details. As a result, the committee ended up
vii
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
SHARING PUBLICATION-RELATED DATA AND MATERIALS
not simply recording the community standards as they are practiced, but
gleaning from them principles and recommendations that we think are
worth adopting generally.
The process the committee traversed in its deliberations is prescribed
by the National Research Council to maximize fairness. There was even
a meeting in which the Committee was asked whether it had broad
enough representation; we decided we did not, and additional industrial
representatives were recruited. A public meeting held at the National
Academy of Sciences drew a large and diverse audience whose opinions
were taken into account. As drafts of the report were written, the
committee’s deliberations intensified. I had anticipated that there would
sometimes be differences of opinion between academic and industrial
members; to my surprise, there was no such divide: everyone on the
committee felt strongly that once they publish, academic and company
scientists take on the same responsibilities to share and should enjoy the
same benefits of receiving published materials, data, and software.
Finally, detailed anonymous critiques from a diverse group of reviewers
led to useful modifications and inclusion of more examples in the report.
The question the committee heard over and over again was,
“Shouldn’t there be exceptions to the general responsibility to share?”
We therefore devote an entire chapter to analysis of such questions.
While there are some obvious justifications for exceptions—for example,
if it is illegal for a scientist from a particular country to send out a par-
ticular type of material—in general, the committee held to a uniform
principle for sharing integral data and materials expeditiously, or UPSIDE.
The upside of UPSIDE is two-fold: it keeps science honest, and it
fosters the progress of science. Both are worth nurturing and protecting.
Thomas R. Cech
Chairman
viii
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
his report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals
chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in
T accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report
Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review
is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the
institution in making its published report as sound as possible
and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for
objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge.
The review comments and draft manuscript remain confiden-
tial to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We
wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this
report:
Paul Evans, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Journal
of Money, Credit, and Banking, Columbus, Ohio
Philip Campbell, Nature, London, England, United Kingdom
Kevin Davies, Bio-IT World, Framingham, Massachusetts
Maria Friere, The Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Drug
Development, New York, New York
W.R. “Reg” Gomes, Division of Agriculture and Natural
Resources, University of California, Oakland, California
Donald Kennedy, Stanford University, Stanford, California;
Science Magazine, Washington, D.C.
David Korn, Association of American Medical Colleges,
Washington, D.C.
ix
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10613.html
SHARING PUBLICATION-RELATED DATA AND MATERIALS
Tom E. Lovejoy, H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and
the Environment, Washington, D.C.
Andrew Neighbour, University of California, Los Angeles, California
Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri
Joseph V. Smith, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Oliver Smithies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North
Carolina
Philip P. Green, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle,
Washington
Randy Scott, Genomic Health, Inc., Redwood City, California
Lincoln Stein, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, New York
Although the reviewers listed above have provided constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclu-
sions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report
before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Gilbert S.
Omenn of the University of Michigan and C. H. “Herb” Ward of Rice
University. Appointed by the National Research Council, they were
responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this
report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and
that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for
the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring com-
mittee and the institution.
x
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