Favouring the sharing of samples and data in research. Crediting and Rewarding

Abstract : The immunogenetics community is characterised by a widespread international collaboration between laboratories with exchange of biological samples and data. However, the researchers who are involved in building and curating bioresources do not always get the credit they deserve and this is an obstacle for sharing practices. Several international initiatives have been taken in order to promote sharing of samples and data. BRIF (Bioresource Research Impact Factor) was initiated in 2003 and intended to develop a framework to enable crediting bioresources that were uniquely and persistently identified. The way of citing bioresources was standardised according to a guideline called CoBRA (Citation of BioResources in journal Articles), published in 2015. This guideline was recommended by the Equator network as well as by other organisations such as GA4GH (Global Alliance for Genomics and Health) and BBMRIERIC, the European infrastructure consortium of biobanking and biomolecular resources. In collaboration with Ubiquity press, the Open Journal of Bioresources (OJB) was created. It is a peer-reviewed open access journal with short papers describing bioresources dedicated to human biomedical research, providing them with a citable reference. However, as the problem of sharing data and resources and the recognition of such activities in research goes beyond biomedical research, we joined the Research Data Alliance (RDA), creating an interest group called ShaRC (Sharing Rewards and Credits) in 2017. This interest group works with use cases from different research areas. The ongoing work concerns operationalisation and evaluation of the sharing activity complying with the so-called FAIR principles, which mean Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The amount of data published in research in all areas is becoming bigger and bigger and it is important that all sorts of data can be reanalysed and possibly be co-analysed with other data by researchers that are not necessarily those who produced the original data. A grid of evaluation is being built by the ShaRC IG and will benefit from inputs at the next RDA meeting in Philadelphia (April 2019). Some of the results could be of particular interest for the Immunogenetics community and the grid will be updated to be presented at EFI.