Open Letter
Rethinking the Status Quo: Scientific Recommendations for Equity and Transparency in Pathogen Data Research
March 2026
Signed by
9 Organizations
75 Individuals
From 50 Countries
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of strong international scientific collaboration and cross-border data sharing to support pandemic response and develop life-saving vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. However, it also revealed the limitations of the current global health system to fairly and equitably deliver these medical countermeasures. The current WHO negotiations to establish a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system could contribute to operationalizing meaningful change towards a more just system.
Together, data providers, database operators and data consumers can help enhance and improve the open science infrastructure that makes possible the knowledge-sharing and scientific collaboration so crucial to effective pandemic preparedness and response. Open science and the sharing of its benefits are not in opposition; rather, one supports and reinforces the other: more effective scientific research and innovation can generate greater benefits – both monetary and non-monetary. The open data infrastructure can also be used to monitor downstream scientific outcomes to support implementation and evaluation of the PABS system. How we structure benefit-sharing frameworks will determine fairness and justice; moves towards making research data and knowledge-sharing less open would simply reduce scientific productivity and monitoring capacity.
As members of the scientific research community, we support the need for fair and equitable sharing of benefits. By strengthening how contributions to research and development are recognized, how credit and co-authorship are managed, and how information on data flow is reported, data providers, database operators and data consumers can enhance benefit-sharing, while keeping the data-sharing infrastructure open, interoperable and fit for a rapid pandemic response. This will require a joint effort by multiple stakeholders, as no single group alone can develop and implement these measures.
1. Strengthen metadata requirements to support transparency and equity
Databases could develop and implement core metadata standards requested by PABS, and provide clear guidance to data providers so that they consistently report key fields, including originating laboratory/ institution and other provenance information.
- Metadata for pathogen sequences and materials can be incomplete or unstructured, with missing information on geography, institutions, principal investigators and funding.
- Poor metadata obscures where data originated from, limits transparency and understanding of equitable contributions to the global pathogen dataset, and weakens the ability to monitor whether contributors receive recognition and benefits.
2. Provide clear and visible guidance on attribution and citation
To improve visibility of contributions, data consumers could use standard dataset and material citation formats and suggested acknowledgement language provided by databases. Databases could offer exportable citation text on record pages, with journals and funders requiring that these standards are reflected in author and grantee guidance.
- Data users can lack simple, shared guidance on how to acknowledge data contributors, and many publications rely on generic database citations without the ability to credit contributors explicitly.
- Inconsistent or missing attribution weakens non-monetary benefit sharing, reduces recognition for those who generated the data and can deepen perceptions of unfairness in the system.
3. To build trust, offer a “delayed release” option for PABS data before feeding into the open system
Databases could offer data providers options for clearly defined embargo periods – for example a few days during an emergency, up to a maximum agreed duration outside of emergencies – after which records are automatically released into open repositories. Offering this option of “delayed release” could help build trust and find a balance between restricted access and full, immediate openness.
- While rapid sharing of data and information is key to emergency response, much research takes place outside of emergencies when data sharing could be delayed.
- Some researchers may be concerned about being overtaken by better-resourced groups and may avoid sharing as a result. Delayed open release of data could address this legitimate concern by giving resource-limited researchers more time to analyze their data before sharing it in a fully open way.
4. Use downstream data to generate reports on PABS data contributions, uses and outcomes
Research consortia and databases could support periodic reports on PABS materials and sequence information, for example using scientific publications, patents and market approvals to assess the effectiveness of the PABS system. This can help to inform a PABS review mechanism and increase transparency and accountability.
- Information on who contributes data and how attribution tools are applied is scattered and rarely synthesized, which limits the ability of scientific communities and policy makers to understand how benefits are shared.
- The absence of regular, accessible reporting makes it difficult to identify gaps, track progress on equity and transparency, and hold actors accountable for improving practices and sharing benefits.
5. Promote equitable co-authorship and collaboration norms in all projects that use shared data
Researchers and scientific institutions could endorse norms regarding co-authorship – such as recognizing direct data contributions as grounds for co-authorship, ask project leaders to describe plans for involving data generators, and encourage authors to document how data contributors have been acknowledged and included.
- Pathogen sequence data from open access databases are often used in later studies that lead to publications or products, without offering co-authorship or meaningful involvement to the people and institutions that generated the original data.
- When substantial work to generate data does not translate into authorship, recognition or collaboration opportunities, data contributors may see little benefit from sharing and trust can erode.
Signatories may choose to sign the Open Letter as an individual or on behalf of an organization.
Dr Javier Pizarro-Cerda
Institut Pasteur
France
Marianna Ventouratou
EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute
United Kingdom
Prof Ifeyinwa Aniebo
Institute of Genomics and Global Health
Nigeria
Dr Christine Prat
European Virus Archive
France
Dr Guilherme Oliveira
Instituto Tecnológico Vale
Brazil
Prof Michael Schloter
Technical University of Munich
Germany
Adv. Francis Osiemo Omesa
Independent Law and Policy Consultant
Kenya
Prof David Castle
University of Victoria
Canada
Dr Davide Faggionato
Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
Germany
Dr Jose Arturo Molina-Mora
University of Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Prof Elena Buzan
University of Primorska
Slovenia
Dr Anna Poetsch
Dresden University of Technology
Germany
Prof Richard Odame Phillips
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Ghana
Prof Elmostafa EL Fahime
National Center for Scientific and Technical Research
Morocco
Dr Erik Hjerde
The Arctic University of Norway
Norway
Prof Bartha Maria Knoppers
McGill University
Canada
Prof Bruno Coutard
Aix Marseille University
France
Dr Ashwin Budden
D'EVA Consulting
United States of America
Dr Diya Uberoi
Independent Researcher
Canada
Dr Estefania Rodriguez
Instituto de Salud Carlos III
Spain
Prof Dr Stephan Günther
Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
Germany
Prof Yonghong Xiao
Zhejiang University
China
Dr Michelle Rourke
Griffith University Law School
Australia
Prof Sikhulile Moyo
Botswana Harvard Health Partnership
Botswana
Philippe Lieutaud
European Virus Archive
France
Dr Ana Paula Schaan Silva
Kiel University
Germany
Dr Annika Engelhardt
Kiel University
Germany
Dr Erik Studer
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Switzerland
Dr Noriko Cassman
Friedrich Schiller University
Germany
Dr Aylin Haas
Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
Germany
Prof Dianne Nicol
University of Tasmania
Australia
Dr Amber Scholz
Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
Germany
Dr Gültekin Ünal
Ankara University
Türkiye
Dr Catherine Brooksbank
EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute
United Kingdom
Nishan Katuwal
Dhulikhel Hospital Kathmandu University Hospital
Nepal
Michelo Simuyandi
Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia
Zambia
Dr Korbinian Bösl
ELIXIR Norway & University of Bergen
Norway
Dr Fran Humphries
Griffith University
Australia
Prof Desiree M Hautea
University of the Philippines Los Baños
Philippines
Dr Dario A Lijtmaer
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales
Argentina
Dr Peter Maccallum
ELIXIR
United Kingdom
Dr Marisa Farber
National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET)
Argentina
Dr Guy Cochrane
EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute
United Kingdom
Dr Ontlametse Thato Choga
Botswana Harvard Health Partnership
Botswana
Dr Vurayai Ruhanya
University of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Dr Kgomotso Makhaola
African Society of Laboratory Medicine
Botswana
Dr Francis Zeukeng
The Biotechnology Centre, University of Yaoundé 1
Cameroon
Dr Nabisubi Patricia
Makerere University
Uganda
Dr Osasona Oluwadamilola Gideon
Redeemer's University
Nigeria
Dr Theo Sanderson
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
United Kingdom
Prof Sunday Ayuba Buru
Kaduna State University
Nigeria
Dr Vito Baraka
National Institute for Medical Research
Tanzania
Dr Tim Downing
Pirbright institute
United Kingdom
Dr Berhanu Yitayew
Armauer Hansen Research Institute
Ethiopia
Bruke Gezhagene Birhanu
Ethiopian Public Health Institute
Ethiopia
Dr Issiaka Soulama
Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS)
Burkina Faso
Prof Justen Manasa
University of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Dr Antoine Dara
University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako
Mali
Karthikeyan Govindan
Christian Medical College
India
Prof Xavier Casadevall i Solvas
KU Leuven
Belgium
Dr Tracey Calvert-Joshua
Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology
South Africa
Prof Martine Hossaert
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
France
Prof Adrian Turjanski
Universidad de Buenos Aires
Argentina
Dr Semeli Platsaki
European Viral Outbreak Response Alliance (EVORA)
France
Dr Thea Scantlebury-Manning
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
Barbados
Dr Sascha Trapp
National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE)
France
Prof Alejandro Reyes Muñoz
Universidad de los Andes
Colombia
Dr Johnson Chinedu Okolie
Institute of Genomics and Global Health
Nigeria
Dr Charles Guissou
Sya Innovation Center
Burkina Faso
Dr Moussa Savadogo
Independent - Regulatory Affairs
Burkina Faso
Dr Jeffrey W. Mecaskey
Britain Nepal Medical Trust & Infectious Disease Alliance
Germany
Dr Mélanie Courtot
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research & University of Toronto
Canada
Dr Felix Dube
University of Cape Town
South Africa
Prof Muhammad Imran Nisar
Aga Khan University
Pakistan
Prof Mahloro Hope Serepa-Dlamini
University of Johannesburg
South Africa