DNA and RNA datasets in public repositories are expanding at an unprecedented pace, creating a global atlas of microbial diversity. While open access continues to drive research forward, it also presents a dilemma: painstakingly collected data are often made available worldwide before the researchers who generated them can publish their own findings. In response, an international consortium of more than 230 scientists, led by Professor Alexander Probst of the University of Duisburg-Essen, has published a roadmap in Nature Microbiology to promote fairer handling of public sequence data.

“Open data are the fuel of modern science – especially in the era of Big Data and data mining,” says Professor Alexander Probst, Professor of Environmental Metagenomics at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Research Center One Health Ruhr. “But collecting, processing and analysing samples often takes months of work. That contribution must not go unrecognised.”

The Fort Lauderdale Agreement of 2003 already required DNA and RNA sequence data to be made publicly available within 24 hours of generation. At the time, volumes were still manageable, and open access quickly became a driver of scientific progress.

Today, however, high-throughput sequencing produces volumes so vast that they can fill entire server farms. In microbiology, this has enabled the creation of digital atlases of diversity – built from samples often collected during arduous expeditions and through meticulous laboratory work, frequently carried out by early-career researchers. Once uploaded, these data are immediately accessible worldwide – often long before the original collectors have had the chance to publish their own results.

To ease this tension, the authorship team has developed a roadmap that seeks to balance openness with fairness in the data-intensive life sciences. Open access remains the guiding principle, but it is now complemented by a code of honour that sets clearer rules for reuse.

At the heart of the recommendations is the introduction of a “Data Reuse Information (DRI) Tag” for datasets, linked to the ORCID digital researcher identifier, which unambiguously attributes contributions to one or more individuals. Researchers who provide their identifier are effectively signalling: please get in touch before reusing these data. If the identifier is absent, the data are considered freely reusable. For material not accompanied by a formal publication, the original data collectors should be actively involved.

“Open access remains essential,” emphasises Probst. “The value of having data immediately available is particularly evident in times of a pandemic. Without it, the rapid global development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 would hardly have been possible. Our aim now is to establish fairer day-to-day practices that ensure those who collect the data are recognised and included in new projects”.

The roadmap is the result of wide-ranging discussions with several hundred researchers worldwide. Among the foundations was an international survey supported by Professor Anke Heyder (Ruhr University Bochum). The study was coordinated by Professor Alexander Probst together with Dr Christina Moraru and Dr André Soares (both University of Duisburg-Essen), Professor Folker Meyer (Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine/University Hospital Essen), Professor Laura A. Hug (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Professor Roland Hatzenpichler (Montana State University, USA).

Within the Collaborative Research Centre RESIST (SFB 1439, https://sfb-resist.de/), which supported the initiative, the water research team at the University of Duisburg-Essen will be the first to implement the roadmap.

“Here we study how rivers respond to stress factors such as pollutants or invasive species. We have already collected more than 34 terabytes of sequence data – not only for individual organisms, but for entire communities. With this level of data density, RESIST is the perfect testbed to establish the new routine in handling research data,” says Probst.

Source – University of Duisburg-Essen