In 1996, at a meeting in Bermuda, researchers participating in the Human Genome Project opened the floodgates of DNA data by agreeing to release sequence information daily into a public database....In 2003, the genome-sequencing community reiterated this pledge at a follow-up meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and came up with guidelines on how prepublication data should be used.
Now pressure is mounting to extend the Bermuda Principles to a broad range of publicly funded projects that go beyond sequencing. They include whole-genome association studies, microarray surveys, epigenomics scans, protein structures, large-scale screening of small molecules for biological activity, and functional genomics data, only some of which are now covered by prepublication data-release policies....Last week, at the International Data Release Workshop held in Toronto, about 100 researchers, ethicists, and funding agency representatives began to hammer out guidelines for such efforts....
At the meeting, participants debated how to ensure that researchers who release data early get credit for the work and a chance to publish their analyses first....
[Another] issue is how to permit access to the data while protecting privacy — a task complicated by the fact that some databases contain information from multiple countries that vary in their patient-protection rules....
In the next several months, a final report —and, it is hoped, a publication on the topic— should help spell out how to extend prepublication data release beyond the sequencing community and further the discussion on controlled-access databases....
PS: I can't find a web site for last week's data-release workshop in Toronto where the new guidelines were taking shape. If anyone can help, please drop me a line and I'll update this post.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/26/2009 12:47:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
