Overview of Principles

The principles of the International Society for Computational Biology to guide corporate sponsoring have been organized into the following categories: General Principles that apply to most situations; Special Guidelines that deal with specific issues and concerns; Organizational Review that outlines processes as well as the roles and responsibilities of specific bodies and officers of the society. These guidelines should be reviewed over time to assure their continued relevance to the policies and operations of ISCB and to our scientific environment.

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General Principles

ISCB vision and values statement provides guidance for third-party sponsoring. Sponsor relations that are not motivated by the society's mission provide a risk to ISCB’s ability to provide representation and leadership for the profession.

1. ISCB's vision and values must drive the proposed activity
   ISCB's vision and values ultimately must determine whether a proposed sponsor relationship is appropriate for ISCB. ISCB should avoid relationships with organizations or industries whose principles, policies or actions obviously conflict with the ISCB’s vision and values, as documented in ISCB’s relevant statements (http://www.iscb.org/iscb-mission-vision-values). For example, relationships with producers of products that harm the public health (e.g., tobacco) are not appropriate for ISCB. Also ISCB stands for respectful handling of organisms and human specimens
2. The relationship must preserve or promote trust in ISCB and in the professional computational biology community
   To be effective, professionalism requires the public's trust. Corporate relationships that could undermine the public's trust in ISCB or the related profession are not acceptable. For example, no relationship should raise questions about the scientific content of ISCB’s conferences, ISCB's advocacy on issues pertaining to computational biology or the truthfulness of its public statements
3. The relationship must maintain ISCB's objectivity with respect to issues in computational biology
   ISCB accepts funds or royalties from external organizations only if acceptance does not pose a conflict of interest and in no way impacts the objectivity of the society, its members, activities, programs or employees. For example, relationships requiring exclusivity with manufacturers of information-technology, biotechnology, or health-related products marketed to the public could impair ISCB’s objectivity. The ISCB's objectivity with respect to scientific issues relevant to the theme of the society issues should not be biased by external relationships

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Special Guidelines

The following guidelines address a number of special situations regarding external funding.

1. Relationships must not permit or encourage undue influence by the corporate partner on ISCB
   ISCB encourages corporate relationships that help the society understand the industrial sector and its goals and interest. As such, we encourage membership of corporate representatives on advisory committees, etc., is desired (see ISCB Industry Advisory Council Charter). However, an ISCB corporate relationship must not permit undue influence by the corporate partner on ISCB policies, priorities, and actions
2. Participation in a sponsorship program does not imply ISCB's endorsement of an entity or its policies
   Participation in sponsorship of an ISCB program does not imply ISCB’s approval of that corporation's general policies, nor does it imply that ISCB will exert any influence to advance the corporation's interests outside the substance of the arrangement itself. ISCB's name and logo should not be used in a manner that would express or imply an ISCB endorsement of the corporation or its policies
3. ISCB may accept unrestricted funds from corporate sponsors and use them as it sees fit
   ISCB will not accept funds from corporate sponsors earmarked for core governance, its public affairs and policies activities, or its advocacy agenda. However, ISCB is free to use any contributed unrestricted corporate funds it receives to defray the costs of these activities on a temporary basis

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Organizational Reviews

Reviewing of proposals: Every proposal for an external sponsor relationship is screened by the ISCB staff. It is the authority and the responsibility of the ISCB staff to conservatively identify proposals that might conflict with the guidelines. Those proposals are given to review by the appropriate committee (hereinafter Committee).

Decision on proposals: The staff decides on proposals that are not given to the Committee. For any other proposal, the Committee prepares a suggestion for a decision on the proposal which it hands over to the Executive Committee for discussion subsequent handing over to the Board of Directors for discussion and decision.

Reporting of affiliations: All ISCB corporate arrangements will be summarized annually as part of the material for the annual in-person meeting of the Board of Directors and communicated to the ISCB membership at the Open Business Meeting of ISMB.

It is important for ISCB to have an orderly reporting process to the ISCB membership.  This presentation will take place at the annual Open Business Meeting.

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The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) Society Pages provide a valuable means for members of the computational biology and bioinformatics community to learn how to get involved in numerous ongoing activities that cover the full spectrum of research, education, and professional service.

ISCB Society Pages appear in ISCB’s official journals - PLOS Computational Biology and OUP Bioinformatics. Articles describe the specific programs of ISCB, highlight significant accomplishments of communities and individuals, and provide opportunities for those who oversee the Society’s activities to communicate their vision and plans. We welcome guest authorship for articles that highlight conferences, editorials on important research directions (full length review articles are not appropriate for the Society Pages), or other items of interest to the ISCB membership.

ISCB members wishing to submit to the ISCB Society Pages can do so by preparing a manuscript that conform to the following guidelines:

• Up to two pages in length, two-columns, 11 point font – this does not include the title, authors, affiliations, images, and references; entire length including all elements may not exceed four pages.
• Research perspective and conference summaries should provide an overview of the highlights, new challenges facing the field, and particularly interesting conclusions, rather than a detailed description of each presentation.
• Corresponding Authors with contact information need to be included at the end of the manuscript.

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Licensing and Publication:

Manuscripts submitted for publication will follow a similar production timeline as scientific papers. This timeline is approximately two months in length, from time of acceptance to publication.

Each article will go through an editing process before the final manuscript is submitted for production. Editorial review will rest with the ISCB Society Pages Editors, the editorial team, and Editors in Chief of each journal.

Articles submitted to PLOS Computational Biology will be licensed under the Creative Commons license – CC-BY.

ISCB Society Pages submitted to OUP Bioinformatics are by default published under a standard license that allows the public to view the article for free. Alternatively, authors have the option to choose an Open Access license, either CC-BY or CC-BY-NC, for a fee of £850 / $1500 / €1275.

Please note that ISCB has a special agreement with the publishers. The process of publication is slightly different than normal submissions to the journals. Because of this, there is a time delay for online access to the article on a complimentary basis as some of the programming needs to be done manually. Corresponding authors of the article are responsible for communicating this delay to all other authors and their communities of interest.

ISCB will determine which of its journals is most appropriate for each article and will notify the author of its decision at the time of acceptance.

Adopted by the ISCB Board of Directors on 9 October 2014

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Overview of Principles

The principles of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) to guide exhibiting and technology track presentation at official conferences have been organized into the following categories: General Principles that apply to most situations; Special Guidelines that deal with specific issues and concerns; Organizational Review that outlines processes as well as the roles and responsibilities of specific bodies and officers of the society. These guidelines should be reviewed over time to assure their continued relevance to the policies and operations of ISCB and to our scientific environment.

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General Principles

ISCB's vision and values statement provides guidance for third-party exhibiting and technology track presenters. Exhibitor and technology track presentation relations that are not consistent with the society's mission provide a risk to ISCB’s ability to provide representation and leadership in the field.

1. The proposed activity must be consistent with ISCB’s vision and values
   ISCB's vision and values ultimately must determine whether a proposed exhibitor or technology track presenter relationship is appropriate for ISCB. ISCB should avoid relationships with organizations or industries whose principles, policies or actions obviously conflict with ISCB’s vision and values, as documented in ISCB’s relevant statements. For example, relationships with producers of products that harm the public health (e.g., tobacco) provide risks of addiction (e.g., alcohol, gambling) or violate ethical standards (e.g., pornography) are not appropriate for ISCB. The latter category also includes organizations that do not respectfully handle animals and human subjects.
   
   ISCB reserves the right (even after an application is received) to refuse applications not meeting standards required or expected, as well as the right to curtail or to close exhibits or end technology track presentations that reflect unfavorably on the character of the meeting and the Society.
2. The relationship must preserve or promote trust in ISCB and in the professional computational biology community.
   To be effective, professionalism requires the public's trust. Corporate relationships that could undermine the public's trust in ISCB or the related profession are not acceptable.
   
   No relationship should raise questions about the scientific content of ISCB’s conferences, ISCB's advocacy on issues pertaining to computational biology or the truthfulness of its public statements.
3. The relationship must maintain ISCB's integrity with respect to issues in computational biology.
   ISCB accepts funds or royalties from external organizations only if acceptance does not pose a conflict of interest and in no way impacts the objectivity of the society, its members, activities, programs, or employees. For example, relationships requiring exclusivity with manufacturers of information technology, biotechnology, or health-related products marketed to the public could impair ISCB’s objectivity. ISCB's objectivity with respect to scientific issues relevant to the theme of the society issues should not be biased by external relationships.

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Special Guidelines

The following guidelines address a number of special situations regarding external funding.

1. Relationships must not permit or encourage undue influence by the corporate partner on ISCB.
   ISCB encourages corporate relationships that help the society understand the industrial sector and its goals and interest. As such, we encourage membership of corporate representatives in ISCB’s Innovation Forum. However, an ISCB corporate relationship must not permit undue influence by the corporate partner on ISCB policies, priorities, and actions.
2. Participation in a exhibition and technology track program does not imply ISCB's endorsement of an entity or its policies.
   Participation in a conference exhibition and/or technology track of an ISCB program does not imply ISCB’s approval of that corporation's general policies, nor does it imply that ISCB will exert any influence to advance the corporation's interests outside the substance of the arrangement itself. ISCB's name and logo should not be used in a manner that would express or imply an ISCB endorsement of the corporation or its policies.

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Organizational Review

Reviewing of proposals: Every proposal for an external exhibitor or technology track relationship is screened by the ISCB staff. It is the authority and the responsibility of the ISCB staff to conservatively identify proposals that might conflict with the guidelines. Those proposals are given to review by the Fundraising Committee.

Decision on proposals: The staff has the authority to make decisions on proposals of those exhibitors and technology track presenters who have participated in the past. For any other proposal, the Fundraising Committee prepares a suggestion for a decision on the proposal, which it hands over to the Executive Committee for discussion subsequent to handing it over to the Board of Directors for discussion and decision.

Reporting of affiliations: It is important for ISCB to have an orderly reporting process to the ISCB membership. All ISCB corporate arrangements will be summarized annually as part of the material for the annual in-person meeting of the Board of Directors and communicated to the ISCB membership at the ISCB Town Hall (Open Business Meeting) of ISMB and will be included as part of the ISCB Annual Report.

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ISCB works to maintain an environment that allows science and scientific careers to flourish through respectful, inclusive, and equitable treatment of others and is committed to providing a safe place for its members and nonmember participants. As a statement of principle, ISCB rejects discrimination and harassment by any means, based on factors such as ethnic or national origin, race, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, age, or economic class. In addition, ISCB opposes all forms of bullying including threatening, humiliating, coercive, or intimidating conduct that causes harm to, interferes with, or sabotages scientific activity and careers. Discrimination, harassment (in any form), and bullying create a hostile environment that reduces the quality, integrity, and pace of the advancement of science by marginalizing individuals and communities. It also damages productivity and career advancement, and prevents the healthy exchange of ideas.

ISCB is committed to supporting a productive and safe working environment for all who are participating in ISCB activities, conferences, and programs. Incidents of inappropriate and uncivil behavior are taken extremely seriously. If an individual experiences or witnesses harassment, they should contact an ISCB Ombudsman (wearing the ISCB Ally ribbon) in person or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or use a venue phone and ask for security if they feel unsafe. All complaints will be treated seriously and responded to promptly. While ISCB is not an adjudicating body, ISCB has appointed Ombudsmen who can be consulted, give advice or help seek out appropriate authorities to further handle any form of harassment or assault. Confidentiality will be maintained unless disclosure is legally required.

All conference delegates are expected to adhere to the ISCB Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

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We are living at a time of unprecedented human-driven environmental change that threatens catastrophic changes for society and the environment. Our science has great potential to contribute to environmental science and biodiversity research outcomes. We recognise that there is a cost to the environment in the way we operate both as a society and as a community of computational biology. It is ISCB's policy to conduct our business in an environmentally sustainable and accountable manner, in compliance with all relevant environmental legislation, and we are committed to reducing as much as possible adverse environmental impacts that may result from our operations.

We aim to:

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns by

• Avoiding use, wherever possible, of environmentally damaging substances, materials, and processes
• Working with our supply chain to identify and mitigate the environmental impacts associated with our activities
• Promoting a purchasing policy that gives preference, as far as practicable, to those products and services that cause the least harm to the environment.
• Aiming to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and identifying options to reduce travel when possible

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Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by

• Implementing policies and procedures that contribute to a reduction in the carbon footprint of the ISCB and all its activities. We will base our policies on sound scientific evidence in a transparent way
• Taking into account the direct environmental impact of our operations (including that of our meetings, travel, and the procurement of materials and services) and, where possible, make a positive contribution to the environment
• Improving our energy efficiency by actively managing energy in our operations and working closely with our conference venues to do the same when hosting ISCB events
• Reducing waste generation and increasing the proportion of waste that is recycled
• Measuring, monitoring and communicating the environmental performance of our activities to drive continual improvement in areas of significant risk and opportunity.

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Create a global partnership for a sustainable future by

• Promoting a culture of environmental awareness among our membership and the wide computational biology community and encourage them to conduct their activities in an environmentally friendly manner
• Working with other agencies (such as funding agencies and research institutions) locally, nationally, and internationally to promote appropriate environmental policies
• Encouraging our members and the wider community to adopt and promote these aims in their own organizations

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ISCB provides complimentary press registration to pre-approved members of the working press with appropriate press credentials, and to working freelance journalists with a letter of assignment (on the publication’s official letterhead) from an editor.

Eligibility Requirements

The following individuals are eligible for press registration:

• Reporters, writers, producers, and editors as well as photographers and videographers with staff credentials from newspapers, magazines, online news services, wire services, and radio or television networks and stations
• Freelancers with assignment letters from editors of established, verifiable media outlets (Letters of Assignment must appear on the publication’s official letterhead.)
• Freelancers with at least one bylined article/report published online, in print, or broadcast by an established, verifiable media outlet during the six months prior to the meeting
  
• Representatives from journals that have a verifiable featured section or media outlet that reports news from the community at large with letter of assignment from the editor
• Online news services or online outlets that provide daily or weekly coverage of health and science
  
• Science bloggers who frequently comment about research, health issues, careers in science, or STEM education will be considered on a case by case basis.

ISCB encourages the above group to submit the media pass application in advance of the meeting. Once the media pass request is approved, a complimentary registration code will be provided. Applications should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.and should include evidence of eligibility, to include copy of staff credentials, letter of assignments, copy of bylined article, samples of online blogs or posting, etc.

The following individuals are not eligible for complimentary press registration:

• Writers, editors, and public relations professionals affiliated with exhibitors
• Public affairs staff from any association or organization\
• Industry representatives or financial/industry analysts
• Writers and editors for industry publications and websites
• Scholarly journal editorial staff or publishers
• Representatives from journals that do not have a featured section or media outlet that reports news from the community at large
• Representatives of public relations firms and the public relations/communications offices of industry, academic, government, and nonprofit organizations

The above individuals must register as regular attendees and pay the required registration fee regardless of affiliation with a news or trade media organization, contracted exhibitor, scientific journal, or publishing company.

ISCB reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to determine an individual’s eligibility for press registration and/or limit the number of passes available.

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Press/Media Badges

Members of the working press/media whose applications for press/media credentials are approved in advance of the meeting must pick up their press/media badges and meeting materials at the registration desk upon arrival at the meeting.

Press/media badges allow access to scientific sessions and the exhibit floor. Badges do not grant access to private or ticketed events, to committee or private meetings, or to the ISCB office or other private areas. ISCB reserves the right to request a member of the press/media leave an area of its meeting space.

Press/Media who plan to register onsite should bring identification, staff credentials, assignment letters, and/or bylined articles.

While at the conference, press/media must:

• Wear or display their official ISCB press/media badge at all times while on site
• Not exchange, loan, or borrow press/media badges. Individuals who do so will be required to leave the meeting
• Follow the rules and the meeting code of conduct including the expected behavior policy
• Attend the ISCB Town Hall meeting

As a courtesy, please help ISCB track press/media communications by sharing a post-publication copy of the article.  ISCB would be grateful if all coverage include reference to the meeting or conference where the research is presented.

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Preamble

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is dedicated to advancing human knowledge at the intersection of computation and life sciences. On behalf of the ISCB members, this public policy statement expresses strong support for open access, reuse, integration, and distillation of the publicly funded archival scientific and technical research literature, and for the infrastructure to achieve that goal.

Knowledge is the fruit of the research endeavor, and the archival scientific and technical research literature is its practical expression and means of communication. Shared knowledge multiplies in utility because every new scientific discovery is built upon previous scientific knowledge. Access to knowledge is access to the power to solve new problems and make informed decisions. Free, open, public, online access to the archival scientific and technical research literature will empower citizens and scientists to solve more problems and make better, more informed decisions. Attribution to the original authors will maintain consistency and accountability within the knowledge base. Computational reuse, integration, and distillation of that literature will produce new and as yet unforeseen knowledge.

We strongly encourage open software, data, and databases, issues that are not addressed here. A prior ISCB public policy statement on sharing software provides very clear support for open source/open access. We support open database access, standards, and interoperability. We also recognize that databases are complex dynamic entities, with ongoing roles and needs that cannot be treated properly within this statement. In contrast, the publicly funded archival research literature, addressed here, is the static historical record of publicly funded research outcomes.

ISCB supports many of the principles set forth in other open-access policies and statements, including the "Budapest Open Access Initiative," the "Bethesda Declaration on Open Access Publishing," the Bulletin of the World Health Organization "Equitable Access to Scientific and Technical Information for Health," the US National Academies of Sciences report on "Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences," the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development "Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding," and the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities."

The public policy statement put forward here builds upon these principles to elucidate in more detail the public policy position of ISCB and its members on this important issue in scientific dissemination.

 
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Supporting Statements

1. The possibilities latent in the digital information age make it essential to achieve open access, and computational reuse, integration, and distillation, of the publicly funded archival research literature
1. Immediate access is preferable, and when access is at an interval following publication, that interval should not exceed one year
2. At a minimum, every scientific journal should offer an open access option to every published research paper, as does every official or affiliated journal of the ISCB
3. Copyright licenses explicitly should permit computational reuse, integration, and distillation, using standard existing language that eliminates the need for manual or legal review
4. The format of the available article should be easy to parse by both human and machine (e.g., HTML). Ideally, a plain text version should be available as well (e.g., TXT), to facilitate computational reuse and integration (e.g., computational text mining for knowledge extraction).
5. Computational reuse, integration, and distillation should give attribution to the original authors
2. Existing open access models show high impact, scientific benefit, feasibility, and acceptability
1. The public benefit from open access to the world's online information via the publicly funded Internet provides a good model of expected impact
2. The scientific fertilization from open access to genomic information via the publicly funded Human Genome Project provides a good model of expected scientific benefit
3. Open access policies by the US National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Wellcome Trust provide good models of feasibility and acceptability
4. The Creative Commons Attribution License and the Science Commons Open Access Data Mark provide good models of legal mechanisms for computational reuse, integration, and distillation
3. Open literature access, reuse, integration, and distillation will enable a whole new generation of innovative computational tools and processes. The literature will be endowed with enriched commentary and usability. It will be connected seamlessly, by proper semantic links, to relevant Web sites, data, databases, and algorithms. Creating a web of knowledge around publications is an important consequence of semantic enrichment of the research literature. Such tools already are being built by publishers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and others. The further development of these tools should be supported aggressively. Removing all barriers to literature open access, reuse, integration, and distillation is critical to achieving such a knowledge-level transformation
4. Supplementary data and methods should be openly available online, in sufficient detail to replicate the reported research results and facilitate reuse. Such material should be deposited in appropriate public repositories, in compliance with accepted community standards, and in accord with the existing ISCB public policy statement on sharing software. It should allow for application of other computational methods to the data and application of other data to the computational methods
5. Publishing high-quality peer-reviewed scientific literature incurs costs. We recognize that cost recovery is a serious issue that must be addressed carefully if open access is to be a mandated policy
6. Open-access policy details - which version, where stored, how annotated and organized, what incentives, etc. - must be considered carefully. However, it has now become essential to put forward a broad policy mandate for public access to, and computational reuse, integration, and distillation of, the publicly funded archival scientific and technical research literature.
7. This statement is intentionally neutral about any specific funding policy. Many implementations all may achieve the same essential goal. Acceptable funding policies should:
1. Remove barriers to open access and subsequent computational reuse, integration, and distillation
2. Encourage public, private, and philanthropic funding organizations to establish policies that mandate free, open, public, online access to, and computational reuse, integration, and distillation of, the research results funded from their public, private, or philanthropic support
3. Promote the body of publicly funded archival research literature as a public investment that bears interest, and not as an ongoing access cost to the public
4. Establish copyright licenses in standard terms that permit literature access, reuse, and integration
5. Specify a format that is easy to parse by both human and machine (e.g., HTML); and, ideally, also provide a plain text version (e.g., TXT) to facilitate computational reuse and integration
6. Recognize the need to fund activities of peer review, copy editing, and publishing
7. Provide fair interim support or compensation, if and where needed, to facilitate making transitions and adaptations to new models for publishing and sustaining essential revenue
8. Provide fair interim support or compensation, if and where needed, to facilitate making transitions and adaptations to new models for publishing and sustaining essential revenue
9. Be consistent with government laws, patent requirements, other existing regulations, and research dissemination through viable commercial mechanisms
10. The expected cost of complete open access to the publicly funded archival research literature is only a very small percentage of the entire publicly funded international research endeavor.  Nevertheless, it is undesirable to divert funding from current research and thus risk underfunding basic science. New funding should be made available for open-access policy implementations

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Conclusion

Currently, scientific advancement is limited by article availability, access costs, copyright restrictions, document formats, bulk download limits, etc. All such barriers should be removed.

The publicly funded archival scientific and technical research literature represents a substantial investment by the public, governments, foundations, non-profit institutions, publishers, individuals, and others. We in the ISCB are committed to the continuous enhancement and leveraging of society's knowledge resources. One of our primary missions is the computational integration of individual pieces of knowledge from the research literature and databases, in ways that provide powerful new ideas and insights for next-stage research, for the benefit of the scientific community and society in general.

To achieve these public benefits, we strongly advocate free, open, public, online access to the publicly funded archival scientific and technical research literature, and the computational reuse, integration, and distillation of that literature into higher-order knowledge elements.

The example scenario illustrates an important public health benefit that could be achieved immediately: the opportunity to pursue useful knowledge-based innovations, by computational reuse, integration, and distillation of the publicly funded archival research literature, across many areas in biology and medicine.

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Appendices

Appendix A. Example Scenario

An automated malaria website might access location-specific information from thousands of publicly-funded malaria research articles daily, and then integrate that information into a free online interactive world map. Such a map might be annotated with up-to-date information about disease occurrences, drug resistance profiles, current best control practices, etc., as distilled from the research literature extracted for and attached to each local region. A hypothetical user might be a public health official in the developing world responsible for controlling a sudden malaria outbreak in a remote area. Such a website should encounter no barriers while performing this free, useful, and potentially essential public service.

Example Discussion

A search for "malaria" in the U.S. NIH/NLM PubMed literature database yielded more than 55,000 hits (July, 2010; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/). The publicly-funded portion of these 55,000 "malaria" hits should be freely available in bulk to this hypothetical malaria website, using technologies well suited to bulk tasks, for purposes of: (i) the initial bulk literature download; (ii) regular updates; and (iii) intermittent bulk repeat downloads to reinitialize an improved knowledge base. The relevant copyright permissions should permit computationally recombining the publicly-funded portion of these 55,000 texts into whatever final form is most useful and informative to the user.

This example scenario illustrates an important public health benefit that could be achieved immediately: the opportunity to pursue useful knowledge-based innovations, by computational reuse, integration, and distillation of the publicly-funded archival research literature, across many areas in biology and medicine.

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Appendix B. Documents Mentioned in the Statement Text

These URLs were correct when this statement was written, but are by their nature ephemeral and not archival.

1. Text of ISCB public policy statement on sharing software
   Link
2. Text of the "Budapest Open Access Initiative"
   Link 1 | Link 2
3. Text of the "Bethesda Declaration on Open Access Publishing"
   Link
4. Text of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization "Equitable Access to Scientific and Technical Information for Health"
   Link
5. Text of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences report on "Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences"
   Link
6. Text of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) "Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding"
   Link
7. Text of the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities"
   Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
8. Human Genome Project
   Link 1 | Link 2
9. Text of Open Access Policy from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
   Link 1 | Link 2
10. Text of Open Access Policy from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    Link 1 | Link 2
11. Text of the Wellcome Trust's "Position Statement in Support of Open and Unrestricted Access to Published Research"
    Link
12. Text of the Creative Commons Attribution License
    Link
13. Text of the Science Commons Open Access Data Mark
    Link

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Appendix C. General Background Material, Other Statements and Materials

These URLs were correct when this statement was written, but are by their nature ephemeral and not archival.

1. Academic publishing — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   Link
2. Open access (publishing) — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   Link
3. ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Repository Material Archiving Policies) as recommended by the Berlin Declaration
   Link
4. Text of Public Library of Science "Open Letter to Scientific Publishers" (signed by ~34,000 scholars worldwide)
   Link
5. Text of Research Councils of the UK "Access to Research Outputs"
   Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
6. Text of European Research Advisory Board Final Report "Scientific Publication: Policy On Open Access"
   Link
7. Open Science Directory
   Link
8. Peter Suber's "Open Access Overview"
   Link 1 | Link 2
9. Scholarly Kitchen on the Open Access Financial Model
   Link

Click here to Review blog comments made by the ISCB members and the bioinformatics community during the draft policy feedback period.

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Preamble

This software sharing statement is intended to address the ability of the scientific community to reproduce and build on research findings reported in scientific publications or generated with public funds. ISCB recognizes the value of commercial bioinformatics software. With respect to commercial software and scientific publications, we support the recommendations of the NAS report.

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Introduction

Bioinformatics software availability is extremely important to the field of bioinformatics. The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is committed to the advancement of the understanding of living systems through computation. In support of that mission, we believe that research results should be shared with the scientific community so that they can be reproduced and built upon. Scientific research may include the development of software and algorithms. Therefore, ISCB is disseminating this statement to make recommendations on software availability policies for funders of bioinformatics research, for scientific journals that publish bioinformatics research, for bioinformatics researchers, and for their employers.

This statement has been revised from the original 2002 statement, incorporating feedback from the ISCB membership.

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Recommendations

1. Publishers, granting organizations, employers and researchers have a responsibility to uphold the core principle of sharing methods and results. If a researcher's software is necessary to understand, reproduce and build on scientific results, then the software should be made available. This principle is imperative for peer-reviewed scientific publications, recommended policy for granting agencies, and encouraged practice wherever individuals and organizations are committed to advancing science. ISCB supports the recommendations of the National Academies of Sciences report, "Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences."
2. Grantors and publishers should require statements of software availability in grant proposals and research reports. These statements should clearly describe how to obtain the software, and terms of use. The statements should be specific about cost, source code availability, redistribution rights (including for derived works), user support, and any discrimination among user types. The nature of software distribution is an appropriate criterion for consideration in the review of manuscripts and grant proposals, to assess the significance and impact the work is likely to have. Authors of statements of availability should be held accountable by journals, granting agencies and employers for delivering on their software's promised availability. The rights granted to the software user should be irrevocable.
3. No single licensing or distribution model is appropriate for all research projects, and therefore no single model should be mandated by either publishers or grantors.
4. Individuals, institutions, and businesses engaged in research in computational biology should recognize the primacy of dissemination and further research and choose licenses accordingly.

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Implementation when Software Sharing is Warranted

1. In most cases, it is preferable to make source code available.We recommend that executable versions of the software should be made available for research use.
2. Open source licenses are one effective way to share software. For more information, see the definition of open source, and example licenses, at www.opensource.org.

Click here to Review blog comments made during the 2008 revision period from the ISCB membership and bioinformatics community.
Click here to Review the original policy posted 5/21/2002

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