Thumbs up for the authors, but you overlooked ...

Kristina Spiller   (2011-08-04 12:16)  Gruner+Jahr AG

...there is actually already one such data sharing model, known as GISAID (www.gisaid.org). It successfully addresses all the principles & procedures suggested here. Based on a collaboration of bonafide researchers from various disciplines and coordinated/backed by the vision of an influential media executive, the most significant influenza sharing platform proves fittingly the viability of all 7 principles prescribed by the authors. Now hosted by the federal office for agriculture & food in Germany it has emerged into a public-private partnership supported by international cooperation. We need more of these examples to move science forward. The days of public-domain databases as we know them, and their failure to provide transparency of access and usage and accountability are indeed numbered. Harvard's Winhide succinctly summed it up in October 2010: http://winhide.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/a-right-to-access-and-a-duty-to-reciprocity-gisaid-sets-the-paradigm

Competing interests

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