Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2022 2:03:39 GMT
Five globally applicable guidelines
We present five guidelines to promote robust ethical standards in ancient DNA research that apply across the breadth of research contexts discussed above, as well as other major world regions that we have not discussed owing to space limitations, including Central Asia, Siberia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania (Box 1). We begin with guidelines that address issues of scientific ethics and then return to the topic of ensuring sensitivity of research to perspectives of communities, including Indigenous groups.
(1) Researchers must ensure that all regulations were followed in the places where they work and from which the human remains derived. Researchers must consider whether it is ethical to carry out ancient DNA research given the environment in the place from which they sample human remains. Once engaged in a project, researchers must abide by all local regulations. While this may seem obvious, the experience of some co-authors is that ancient DNA researchers have not always followed all agreements. For example, it may be necessary to obtain multiple levels of permission for scientific analysis or export of biological material from institutional, local, regional or national bodies, and to provide reports to curating institutions according to agreed timelines. Where local regulations are insufficient66, researchers must adhere to a higher standard following the principles below.
(2) Researchers must prepare a detailed plan prior to beginning any study. This should include an articulation of research questions; a description of the techniques to be used and expected impact on remains (including skeletal elements to be studied and quantity to be used); a description of the type of DNA data that will be generated; any plan for material sharing with collaborating laboratories; a timeline for the return of unused material and sharing of results; a plan for how, where and by whom results will be disseminated; a plan for capacity building or training in settings where this can be of value; and a plan for data storage and sharing agreed by stakeholders and complying with open data principles67. The plan should define the scope of the research and honestly communicate possible outcomes, recognizing that the analysis of genetic data can lead in unanticipated directions. Such a plan creates a record of the intended research that can be referred to later should there be a deviation from it. Adjustments to the study design should occur only with the support of those involved in the original agreement: researchers must acknowledge that when permission is granted to study the remains of ancient individuals, they become the stewards of that material for the purpose for which consent was obtained, but that ‘ownership’ is not transferred68. It is the responsibility of the researchers to share their plan with those responsible for the human remains and other groups whose perspectives need to be reflected; as such, it should be written in a way that is accessible to a non-specialist audience. If appropriate and agreed upon by all relevant parties, a pathway toward repatriation of human remains curated outside their area of origin may be outlined in the research plan.
(3) Researchers must minimize damage to human remains. Minimizing the impact of research on anthropological collections is especially important given the recent focus on a single skeletal element—the petrous bone—that often yields many-fold more human genetic data than other elements69,70,71,72. Researchers should develop a strategy through consultation with other stakeholders to balance concerns about protecting remains with their scientific analysis. Researchers should not collect human remains without training in best practice techniques to minimize damage while maximizing yield of useable data11,12,73,74,75,76. Researchers should not sample more material than necessary to be able to address their scientific questions, should provide documentation to those responsible for human remains noting when sampling occurred, and should report negative results to prevent repeated analysis using similar methods on remains with poor DNA preservation. Before sampling, morphology should be documented with high-resolution photography and bioarchaeological assessment. At least for very ancient individuals or those from unique contexts, micro-CT scans or casts should be produced, and there should be discussion about whether analysis of faunal or non-diagnostic remains should take place first to evaluate DNA preservation at a site.
Once sampling has occurred, responsible treatment of remains can also be promoted through the sharing of material as well as derived molecular products such as DNA extracts and libraries, which reduces the need for additional sampling in subsequent studies. Researchers have the responsibility to maintain derived molecular products for the purposes of study replication. We also encourage researchers to seek approval for sharing sampled human remains and derived products between laboratories. This facilitates reappraisal of the questions addressed in the original study, as well as additional analyses beyond the scope of the initial study, as long as such uses are consistent with an approved research plan.
(4) Researchers must ensure that data are made available following publication to allow critical re-examination of scientific findings. Ancient DNA data must be published in a timely manner and subsequently made available at least for the purpose of critical reappraisal of results77,78. Scientists cannot ethically participate in a study if there is not a guarantee that data will be available at least for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of published findings, and this guarantee needs to be incorporated into the original permissions for the study. This is important both to prevent the spread of misinformation, and to enable future analyses that seek to re-examine the same questions.
It is best practice to make data fully available following publication, and indeed nearly all ancient genomic data have been published this way in enduring public data repositories, which has been an ethical strength of the field79. Beyond contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge, making data fully available contributes to responsible stewardship of human remains, in that the ability to reuse data reduces the need for further sampling. However, we can envision scenarios in which discussions among stakeholders reveal that it would be ethical to limit the ways in which ancient DNA data can be reused, such as when reporting results from some types of analyses could harm stakeholders, which could outweigh the benefits of fully open data6,10,80. In these cases—which should be identified during a process of engagement prior to the inception of the study—the limitation of data distribution to qualified researchers who agree to only analyse the data for the purpose of reappraising the study findings should be part of the initial research plan.
When data are not made fully publicly available, management and distribution of data for the purpose of critical re-examination of results should be performed by an organization with expertise to prevent data misuse and without an interest in research outcomes. It has been suggested that stakeholders such as Indigenous groups could be responsible for managing distribution of data after publication to researchers10,13,15,81. However, it is not consistent with professional ethics for researchers to participate in a study where those with a stake in the research findings can deny the sharing of data to qualified researchers whose goal is to critically re-examine the questions covered by the original research agreement. There are established mechanisms for ensuring distribution of non-fully public data to researchers who apply to use it for the purposes of critical re-examination. For example, data could be made available through a repository that shares data only upon formal application and approval from a data access committee that determines whether the applicant’s request satisfies the limitations on data use described in the publication. This is sometimes done for modern genomic data to address privacy concerns through mechanisms such as the dbGaP or EGA repositories82,83, although a shortcoming is that the data-acquisition process can be slow76. Repositories for data from Indigenous people are also beginning to be established that involve communities in data storage and dissemination10,13,79,84,85. While no stakeholder group—including researchers, community representatives, or curators—should control the distribution of data to researchers who wish to critically re-examine questions covered in the original research agreement, Indigenous data repositories could have an important role in storing and distributing data for purposes beyond those covered by the original research agreement.
(5) Researchers must engage with other stakeholders from the beginning of a study and ensure respect and sensitivity to stakeholder perspectives. A project to generate new ancient DNA data may be initiated by diverse stakeholders, including but not limited to local communities, archaeologists, anthropologists, geneticists or curators, any or all of whom may be members of the research team if they contribute in a scholarly way to the work. Other stakeholders who are consulted should be thanked in the Acknowledgments sections of papers if they consent to be named. Stakeholders—ideally including groups from the place of origin of the human remains being studied—should be actively involved in discussions about study design, research questions and whether a scientific project should proceed. Researchers must accept a negative answer if stakeholders are not collectively supportive of the work taking place15.
Once a consensus to proceed has been reached, professional scientific ethics requires that researchers are able to pursue their work up to the point of publication without requiring further approval. The suggestion that there should be a requirement for manuscripts to be approved by stakeholder groups who are not members of the research team before publication15,81 is not feasible, as researchers cannot ethically participate in a study in which this is mandated. The imperative of scientific independence once a study begins does not mean that researchers should publish results without considering stakeholder perspectives about the implications of the data. It is valuable to invite stakeholders to engage with research results through the addition of their perspectives or by providing critical feedback prior to publication especially when results are surprising and challenge previous assumptions. Continued engagement with other stakeholders after the beginning of a study is an effective mechanism by which researchers can address their professional ethical obligation to understand whether reporting a result in a particular way is likely to cause harm. If these conversations indicate that a result cannot be shared in a way that avoids substantial harm to a stakeholder group, researchers should not publish that result.
Researchers should be available to provide regular updates and must commit to returning results at the culmination of a project. It should be made clear from the outset what the study’s potential findings may be, that genetic data may be inconsistent with other forms of knowledge, and that while the results of scientific analyses are reported as scholarly output, they do not discredit, diminish or decrease the importance of traditional expertise and deeply held beliefs. Discrepancies between results from genetic analyses and other lines of evidence should be reported as important elements of the compound nature of understanding the past.
Researchers should commit to working with stakeholders on outreach efforts that create additional outputs accessible to communities. This may involve working with local collaborators to translate the results of papers into local languages30,35,36,86,87, developing children’s educational resources88,89,90,91, producing brochures and pamphlets for libraries or other community centres, or working with museums to design exhibits. When relevant, researchers should contribute to training and education, especially for members of stakeholder groups and local communities4,15, and should consider ways in which to improve the curatorial state of collections11.This can include supplying the resources needed for participating in the generation, interpretation and dissemination of data, for example training in sampling of human remains or laboratory techniques, and financial support for further training or attending professional meetings. It is important for granting agencies to ensure that adequate funding is allocated to capacity building initiatives.
We present five guidelines to promote robust ethical standards in ancient DNA research that apply across the breadth of research contexts discussed above, as well as other major world regions that we have not discussed owing to space limitations, including Central Asia, Siberia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania (Box 1). We begin with guidelines that address issues of scientific ethics and then return to the topic of ensuring sensitivity of research to perspectives of communities, including Indigenous groups.
(1) Researchers must ensure that all regulations were followed in the places where they work and from which the human remains derived. Researchers must consider whether it is ethical to carry out ancient DNA research given the environment in the place from which they sample human remains. Once engaged in a project, researchers must abide by all local regulations. While this may seem obvious, the experience of some co-authors is that ancient DNA researchers have not always followed all agreements. For example, it may be necessary to obtain multiple levels of permission for scientific analysis or export of biological material from institutional, local, regional or national bodies, and to provide reports to curating institutions according to agreed timelines. Where local regulations are insufficient66, researchers must adhere to a higher standard following the principles below.
(2) Researchers must prepare a detailed plan prior to beginning any study. This should include an articulation of research questions; a description of the techniques to be used and expected impact on remains (including skeletal elements to be studied and quantity to be used); a description of the type of DNA data that will be generated; any plan for material sharing with collaborating laboratories; a timeline for the return of unused material and sharing of results; a plan for how, where and by whom results will be disseminated; a plan for capacity building or training in settings where this can be of value; and a plan for data storage and sharing agreed by stakeholders and complying with open data principles67. The plan should define the scope of the research and honestly communicate possible outcomes, recognizing that the analysis of genetic data can lead in unanticipated directions. Such a plan creates a record of the intended research that can be referred to later should there be a deviation from it. Adjustments to the study design should occur only with the support of those involved in the original agreement: researchers must acknowledge that when permission is granted to study the remains of ancient individuals, they become the stewards of that material for the purpose for which consent was obtained, but that ‘ownership’ is not transferred68. It is the responsibility of the researchers to share their plan with those responsible for the human remains and other groups whose perspectives need to be reflected; as such, it should be written in a way that is accessible to a non-specialist audience. If appropriate and agreed upon by all relevant parties, a pathway toward repatriation of human remains curated outside their area of origin may be outlined in the research plan.
(3) Researchers must minimize damage to human remains. Minimizing the impact of research on anthropological collections is especially important given the recent focus on a single skeletal element—the petrous bone—that often yields many-fold more human genetic data than other elements69,70,71,72. Researchers should develop a strategy through consultation with other stakeholders to balance concerns about protecting remains with their scientific analysis. Researchers should not collect human remains without training in best practice techniques to minimize damage while maximizing yield of useable data11,12,73,74,75,76. Researchers should not sample more material than necessary to be able to address their scientific questions, should provide documentation to those responsible for human remains noting when sampling occurred, and should report negative results to prevent repeated analysis using similar methods on remains with poor DNA preservation. Before sampling, morphology should be documented with high-resolution photography and bioarchaeological assessment. At least for very ancient individuals or those from unique contexts, micro-CT scans or casts should be produced, and there should be discussion about whether analysis of faunal or non-diagnostic remains should take place first to evaluate DNA preservation at a site.
Once sampling has occurred, responsible treatment of remains can also be promoted through the sharing of material as well as derived molecular products such as DNA extracts and libraries, which reduces the need for additional sampling in subsequent studies. Researchers have the responsibility to maintain derived molecular products for the purposes of study replication. We also encourage researchers to seek approval for sharing sampled human remains and derived products between laboratories. This facilitates reappraisal of the questions addressed in the original study, as well as additional analyses beyond the scope of the initial study, as long as such uses are consistent with an approved research plan.
(4) Researchers must ensure that data are made available following publication to allow critical re-examination of scientific findings. Ancient DNA data must be published in a timely manner and subsequently made available at least for the purpose of critical reappraisal of results77,78. Scientists cannot ethically participate in a study if there is not a guarantee that data will be available at least for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of published findings, and this guarantee needs to be incorporated into the original permissions for the study. This is important both to prevent the spread of misinformation, and to enable future analyses that seek to re-examine the same questions.
It is best practice to make data fully available following publication, and indeed nearly all ancient genomic data have been published this way in enduring public data repositories, which has been an ethical strength of the field79. Beyond contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge, making data fully available contributes to responsible stewardship of human remains, in that the ability to reuse data reduces the need for further sampling. However, we can envision scenarios in which discussions among stakeholders reveal that it would be ethical to limit the ways in which ancient DNA data can be reused, such as when reporting results from some types of analyses could harm stakeholders, which could outweigh the benefits of fully open data6,10,80. In these cases—which should be identified during a process of engagement prior to the inception of the study—the limitation of data distribution to qualified researchers who agree to only analyse the data for the purpose of reappraising the study findings should be part of the initial research plan.
When data are not made fully publicly available, management and distribution of data for the purpose of critical re-examination of results should be performed by an organization with expertise to prevent data misuse and without an interest in research outcomes. It has been suggested that stakeholders such as Indigenous groups could be responsible for managing distribution of data after publication to researchers10,13,15,81. However, it is not consistent with professional ethics for researchers to participate in a study where those with a stake in the research findings can deny the sharing of data to qualified researchers whose goal is to critically re-examine the questions covered by the original research agreement. There are established mechanisms for ensuring distribution of non-fully public data to researchers who apply to use it for the purposes of critical re-examination. For example, data could be made available through a repository that shares data only upon formal application and approval from a data access committee that determines whether the applicant’s request satisfies the limitations on data use described in the publication. This is sometimes done for modern genomic data to address privacy concerns through mechanisms such as the dbGaP or EGA repositories82,83, although a shortcoming is that the data-acquisition process can be slow76. Repositories for data from Indigenous people are also beginning to be established that involve communities in data storage and dissemination10,13,79,84,85. While no stakeholder group—including researchers, community representatives, or curators—should control the distribution of data to researchers who wish to critically re-examine questions covered in the original research agreement, Indigenous data repositories could have an important role in storing and distributing data for purposes beyond those covered by the original research agreement.
(5) Researchers must engage with other stakeholders from the beginning of a study and ensure respect and sensitivity to stakeholder perspectives. A project to generate new ancient DNA data may be initiated by diverse stakeholders, including but not limited to local communities, archaeologists, anthropologists, geneticists or curators, any or all of whom may be members of the research team if they contribute in a scholarly way to the work. Other stakeholders who are consulted should be thanked in the Acknowledgments sections of papers if they consent to be named. Stakeholders—ideally including groups from the place of origin of the human remains being studied—should be actively involved in discussions about study design, research questions and whether a scientific project should proceed. Researchers must accept a negative answer if stakeholders are not collectively supportive of the work taking place15.
Once a consensus to proceed has been reached, professional scientific ethics requires that researchers are able to pursue their work up to the point of publication without requiring further approval. The suggestion that there should be a requirement for manuscripts to be approved by stakeholder groups who are not members of the research team before publication15,81 is not feasible, as researchers cannot ethically participate in a study in which this is mandated. The imperative of scientific independence once a study begins does not mean that researchers should publish results without considering stakeholder perspectives about the implications of the data. It is valuable to invite stakeholders to engage with research results through the addition of their perspectives or by providing critical feedback prior to publication especially when results are surprising and challenge previous assumptions. Continued engagement with other stakeholders after the beginning of a study is an effective mechanism by which researchers can address their professional ethical obligation to understand whether reporting a result in a particular way is likely to cause harm. If these conversations indicate that a result cannot be shared in a way that avoids substantial harm to a stakeholder group, researchers should not publish that result.
Researchers should be available to provide regular updates and must commit to returning results at the culmination of a project. It should be made clear from the outset what the study’s potential findings may be, that genetic data may be inconsistent with other forms of knowledge, and that while the results of scientific analyses are reported as scholarly output, they do not discredit, diminish or decrease the importance of traditional expertise and deeply held beliefs. Discrepancies between results from genetic analyses and other lines of evidence should be reported as important elements of the compound nature of understanding the past.
Researchers should commit to working with stakeholders on outreach efforts that create additional outputs accessible to communities. This may involve working with local collaborators to translate the results of papers into local languages30,35,36,86,87, developing children’s educational resources88,89,90,91, producing brochures and pamphlets for libraries or other community centres, or working with museums to design exhibits. When relevant, researchers should contribute to training and education, especially for members of stakeholder groups and local communities4,15, and should consider ways in which to improve the curatorial state of collections11.This can include supplying the resources needed for participating in the generation, interpretation and dissemination of data, for example training in sampling of human remains or laboratory techniques, and financial support for further training or attending professional meetings. It is important for granting agencies to ensure that adequate funding is allocated to capacity building initiatives.