Open science practices and risks arising from misuse of biological research

Abstract

The proliferation of open science may inadvertently increase the chance of deliberate or accidental misuse of research. Here, we examine the interaction between open science practices and biosecurity and biosafety to identify risks and opportunities for risk mitigation. We argue that open data, code, and materials may increase risks from research with misuse potential, despite their general importance. For instance, increased access to protocols, datasets, and computational methods for viral engineering may increase the risk of release of enhanced pathogens. For this dangerous subset of research, both open science and biosecurity goals may be achieved by using access-controlled repositories or application programming interfaces. The increased use of preprints could challenge any strategy for risk mitigation that relies on assessment at the publication stage, emphasising the need for earlier oversight in the research lifecycle. Preregistration of research, a practice promoted by the open science community, provides an opportunity for achieving biosecurity risk assessment at the conception of research. Open science and biosecurity experts have an important role to play in enabling responsible research with maximal societal benefit.

Bad Outcomes, Good Intentions: Approaching the Potential Misuse of Crime Data by Policy Makers

“…It is well established that "research misuse" can arise in many different scientific fields and in many ways. To illustrate, rather than trying to be exhaustive, recent specialized discussions on this topic have been held in the field of biomedicine (Hammack et al, 2019;Salloch, 2018;Smith & Sandbrink, 2021;Murgatroyd et al, 2015), (bio-)security (Boddie et al, 2015;Koopman, 2016;Smith & Sandbrink, 2022); research methods (Kara & Pickering, 2017;Griffin et al, 2022;Wible, 2016) or, closer to this chapter, public policy (Fedina, 2015;Mandal, 2021;Matthew, 2020;Williams, 2021), just to mention a few of them.…”

Bad Outcomes, Good Intentions: Approaching the Potential Misuse of Crime Data by Policymakers

“…It is well established that "research misuse" can arise in many different scientific fields and in many ways. To illustrate, rather than trying to be exhaustive, recent specialized discussions on this topic have been held in the field of biomedicine (Hammack et al, 2019;Salloch, 2018;Smith & Sandbrink, 2021;Murgatroyd et al, 2015), (bio-)security (Boddie et al, 2015;Koopman, 2016;Smith & Sandbrink, 2022); research methods (Kara & Pickering, 2017;Griffin et al, 2022;Wible, 2016) or, closer to this chapter, public policy (Fedina, 2015;Mandal, 2021;Matthew, 2020;Williams, 2021), just to mention a few of them.…”