Abstract
BackgroundEfforts to improve research outcomes have resulted in genomic researchers being confronted with complex and seemingly contradictory instructions about how to perform their tasks. Over the past decade, there has been increasing pressure on university researchers to commercialize their work. Concurrently, they are encouraged to collaborate, share data and disseminate new knowledge quickly (that is, to adopt an open science model) in order to foster scientific progress, meet humanitarian goals, and to maximize the impact of their research.DiscussionWe present selected guidelines from three countries (Canada, United States, and United Kingdom) situated at the forefront of genomics to illustrate this potential policy conflict. Examining the innovation ecosystem and the messages conveyed by the different policies surveyed, we further investigate the inconsistencies between open science and commercialization policies.SummaryCommercialization and open science are not necessarily irreconcilable and could instead be envisioned as complementary elements of a more holistic innovation framework. Given the exploratory nature of our study, we wish to point out the need to gather additional evidence on the coexistence of open science and commercialization policies and on its impact, both positive and negative, on genomics academic research.
Highlights
Efforts to improve research outcomes have resulted in genomic researchers being confronted with complex and seemingly contradictory instructions about how to perform their tasks
Given the exploratory nature of our study, we wish to point out the need to gather additional evidence on the coexistence of open science and commercialization policies and on its impact, both positive and negative, on genomics academic research
Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949), Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), and Article 15 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) all articulate the obligation to share scientific knowledge and the right to share in the benefits of scientific knowledge
Summary
Commercialize and translate While there are numerous social and political forces at work in generating the above-noted pressure to commercialize research, two in particular are noteworthy. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, while expecting an investigator’s host institution to commercialize research outputs, has a Sharing of Publication-related Materials, Data and Software policy [61], which states its mission supports broad dissemination of research tools, and requires databases that are too large to be included in a publication (but which are integral to the publication) be made freely available by other means (for example, on-line at no cost, with no restriction on research use, and in a highly accessible manner [61]) This open scientific collaboration philosophy has resulted in the creation of a range of open access journals, publicly accessible biobanks, and more.
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