Nature opinion: Jackson Laboratory represents best practices in sharing research materials

Date: September 10, 2009

Sharing knowledge is essential for the progress of science, but researchers don't always release data and research materials, even after publication of work. In May, representatives of biomedical research institutions, funding agencies and journals from around the world gathered in Rome to tackle the barriers to more effective sharing of data and research resources, particularly mouse strains and embryonic stem cells.

These representatives, including David Einhorn, house counsel of The Jackson Laboratory, have published an opinion article in the top journal Nature, setting out an agenda for the worldwide scientific community to follow. The Jackson Laboratory's commitment to distributing research resources to the worldwide scientific community was cited as "an example of good practice" of sharing resources.

"When it comes to resource sharing," the authors state, "the two greatest impediments to fully exploiting global research using the mouse as a model organism are the barriers created by material transfer agreements and the underutilization of public mouse repositories" such as Jackson's.

The "Rome Agenda" sets out a list of principles for researchers, funding agencies and journals to follow to speed the post-publication release of data and research materials to the scientific community. Guidelines for licensing and patenting, for instance, urge that "agreements for sharing materials between academic and not-for-profit institutions should be avoided or simplified," which, the authors note, has been standard practice at The Jackson Laboratory for decades.

The opinion piece, published in the Sept. 10 issue of Nature, is also freely available on the journal's website.

The Jackson Laboratory is a nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine. Its mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human diseases, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community.

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