The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China (2019-nCoV) represents a significant and urgent threat to global health.
We call on researchers, journals and funders to ensure that research findings and data relevant to this outbreak are shared rapidly and openly to inform the public health response and help save lives.
We affirm the commitment to the principles set out in the 2016 Statement on data sharing in public health emergencies, and will seek to ensure that the World Health Organization has rapid access to emerging findings that could aid the global response.
Specifically, we commit to work together to help ensure:
• all peer-reviewed research publications relevant to the outbreak are made immediately open access, or freely available at least for the duration of the outbreak
• research findings relevant to the outbreak are shared immediately with the WHO upon journal submission, by the journal and with author knowledge
• research findings are made available via preprint servers before journal publication, or via platforms that make papers openly accessible before peer review, with clear statements regarding the availability of underlying data
• researchers share interim and final research data relating to the outbreak, together with protocols and standards used to collect the data, as rapidly and widely as possible - including with public health and research communities and the WHO
• authors are clear that data or preprints shared ahead of submission will not pre-empt its publication in these journals
We intend to apply the principles of this statement to similar outbreaks in the future where there is a significant public health benefit to ensuring data is shared widely and rapidly.
We urge others to make the same commitments. If your organisation is committed to supporting these principles, please contact us (d.carr@wellcome.ac.uk) and we will add your organisation to the list of signatories
SIGNATORIES
- Academy of Medical Sciences, UK
- African Academy of Sciences
- Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response / Biodefense Advanced Research and Development Authority, USA
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
- Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM)
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Biochemical Society & Portland Press
- BioRxiv
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization
- The British Medical Journal (BMJ)
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – Gulbenkian Science Institute
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Cell Press
- Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), USA
- Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
- Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India
- The Department for International Development (DFID), UK
- Dutch Research Council (NWO)
- eLife
- EcoHealth Alliance
- Elsevier
- EMBO
- EMBO Press
- Epicentre – MSF
- European Commission
- European Respiratory Journal
- ERJ Open Research
- F1000 Research Limited
- Fondation Merieux
- Food & Drug Administration, USA
- French National Research Agency (ANR)
- The Global Health Network
- Global Virus Network
- GLOPID-R
- Healthcare Infection Society
- Inserm (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale), France
- The Institut Pasteur
- International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC)
- International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID)
- The JAMA Network
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)
- Johnson & Johnson
- The Lancet
- Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
- Medical Research Council (UK)
- Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
- MedRxiv
- Merck Research Laboratories
- Microbide Limited
- National Academy of Medicine, USA
- National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA
- National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italy
- New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
- Office of Global Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, USA
- PLOS
- The Research Council of Norway
- The Royal Society
- Science Europe
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Science Journals
- ScienceOpen
- South African Medical Research Council
- Springer Nature
- Takeda
- Taylor & Francis
- Wellcome Trust
- ZonMW – The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development