Leading global health bodies including academic journals, NGOs, research funders and institutes,have committed to sharing data and results relevant to the current Zika crisis and future publichealth emergencies as rapidly and openly as possible.
Organisations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières, the USNational Institute of Health and the Wellcome Trust, along with leading academic journals includingNature, Science and the New England Journal of Medicine, have signed a joint declaration and hopethat other bodies will come on board in the coming weeks.
The statement is intended to ensure that any information that might have value in combatting theZika outbreak is made available to the international community, free of charge, as soon as is feasiblypossible. Journal signatories provide assurance that doing so will not preclude researchers fromsubsequently publishing papers in their titles.
It follows a consensus statement arising from a WHO consultation in September 2015, in whichleading international stakeholders from multiple sectors affirmed that timely and transparent prepublicationsharing of data and results during public health emergencies must become the globalnorm.
Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust and a signatory of the statement, said: "Research isan essential part of the response to any global health emergency. This is particularly true for Zika,where so much is still unknown about the virus, how it is spread and the possible link withmicrocephaly.
"It's critical that as results become available they are shared rapidly in a way that is equitable, ethicaland transparent. This will ensure that the knowledge gained is turned quickly into healthinterventions that can have an impact on the epidemic.
"It's extremely heartening to see so many leading international organisations united in thisunprecedented commitment to open science, reinforcing the decision by the WHO to declare Zika aPublic Health Emergency of International Concern."
The full text of the joint declaration follows, along with a list of signatories.
Statement on Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies
The arguments for sharing data, and the consequences of not doing so, have been thrown into starkrelief by the Ebola and Zika outbreaks.
In the context of a public health emergency of international concern, there is an imperative on allparties to make any information available that might have value in combatting the crisis.
We are committed to working in partnership to ensure that the global response to public healthemergencies is informed by the best available research evidence and data, as such:
- Journal signatories will make all content concerning the Zika virus free to access. Anydata or preprint deposited for unrestricted dissemination ahead of submission of anypaper will not pre-empt its publication in these journals.
- Funder signatories will require researchers undertaking work relevant to public healthemergencies to set in place mechanisms to share quality-assured interim and final dataas rapidly and widely as possible, including with public health and research communitiesand the World Health Organisation.
We urge other organisations to make the same commitments.
This commitment is in line with the consensus statement agreed at a WHO expert consultation ondata sharing last year whereby researchers are expected to share data at the earliest opportunity,once they are adequately controlled for release and subject to any safeguards required to protectresearch participants and patients.
Signatories to the Statement
Academy of Medical Sciences, UKBill and Melinda Gates FoundationBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Bulletin of the World Health OrganizationCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchThe Centers for Disease Control and PreventionChinese Academy of SciencesChinese Centre for Disease Control and PreventionThe Department of Biotechnology, Government of IndiaThe Department for International Development (DFID)Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)eLifeF1000Fondation MérieuxFundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz)The Institut PasteurJapan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)The JAMA NetworkThe LancetMédecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)National Academy of MedicineNational Institutes of Health, USANational Science FoundationThe New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)PLOSScience JournalsSouth African Medical Research CouncilSpringer NatureUK Medical Research CouncilWellcome TrustZonMw - The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development
Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science