Author(s)
Arti K. Rai
Source
Intellectual Property Rights In Frontier Industries: Software And Biotech, Robert Hahn, ed., AEI-Brookings Press; Duke Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series Research Paper No. 61
Summary
This paper looks at new models for scientific research that emphasize sharing information.
Policy Relevance
Sharing research products can work for scientists as well as software developers. However, successful "open science" may require public funding as well as rules adopted from "closed" systems.
Main Points
- Open source software offers an example of research produced by individuals who agree to share information with one another, often motivated by nonmonetary concerns.
- Biomedical research has become more proprietary and secretive over the past 30 years. Computation is important to biomedicine. Methods used by software developers to collaborate on open source projects could be used by biomedical researchers.
- Existing open and collaborative projects include producing bio-informatics software, the Human Genome Project, and systems biology. These ventures have produced usable software and genomic data. The data’s availability in the public domain will reduce costs for follow-on innovators.
- Open, collaborative ventures in wet lab systems biology may allow more coordinated and comprehensive attacks on the design of treatments for complex diseases than was previously possible.
- Open biomedical research, unlike open source software, can require public funding, restrictions on participation, explicit consideration of publication incentives, and limits on copyleft licensing (which restrict commercialization).
