Sharing research data and findings relevant to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) represents a significant and urgent threat to global health.

We call on researchers, journals and funders to ensure that research findings and data relevant to this outbreak are shared rapidly and openly to inform the public health response and help save lives.

We affirm the commitment to the principles set out in the 2016 Statement on data sharing in public health emergencies, and will seek to ensure that the World Health Organization (WHO) has rapid access to emerging findings that could aid the global response.

Specifically, we commit to work together to help ensure:

• all peer-reviewed research publications relevant to the outbreak are made immediately open access, or freely available at least for the duration of the outbreak
• research findings relevant to the outbreak are shared immediately with the WHO upon journal submission, by the journal and with author knowledge
• research findings are made available via preprint servers before journal publication, or via platforms that make papers openly accessible before peer review, with clear statements regarding the availability of underlying data
• researchers share interim and final research data relating to the outbreak, together with protocols and standards used to collect the data, as rapidly and widely as possible - including with public health and research communities and the WHO
• authors are clear that data or preprints shared ahead of submission will not pre-empt its publication in these journals

We intend to apply the principles of this statement to similar outbreaks in the future where there is a significant public health benefit to ensuring data is shared widely and rapidly.

We urge others to make the same commitments. If your organisation is committed to supporting these principles, please contact us (d.carr@wellcome.org) and we will add your organisation to the list of signatories

Signatories to the statement

• Abasyn University Peshawar, Pakistan
• Academy of Medical Sciences, UK
• Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)
• African Academy of Sciences
• African Journal of Laboratory Medicine
• American Chemical Society (ACS)*
• American Physical Society (APS)*
• American Society for Microbiology*
• Annals of Internal Medicine*
• ARTiFACTS
• arXiv
• Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response / Biodefense Advanced Research and Development Authority, USA
• Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS)
• Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
• Ayass Bioscience LLC
• BenevolentAI
• Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM)
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Biochemical Society & Portland Press
• BioRxiv
• The British Medical Journal (BMJ)*
• Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
• Brunel University
• Bulletin of the World Health Organization*
• CABI
• Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – Gulbenkian Science Institute
• Cambridge University Press (CUP)*
• Canada Foundation for Innovation
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Canadian Science Publishing
• Cancer Research UK
• Cell Press*
• Center for Biomedical Research Transparency (CBMRT)
• Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), USA
• CEPI
• Certara
• Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
• Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer*
• CIFAR
• Cochrane
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
• Company of Biologists*
• CONCYTEC – National Council for Science, Technology and Technological Innovation, Peru
• Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India
• The Department for International Development (DFID), UK
• Dutch Research Council (NWO)
• EATRIS – European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine
• EDP Sciences
• eLife*
• EcoHealth Alliance
• Elsevier*
• EMBO
• EMBO Press*
• Emerald Publishing*
• Epicentre – MSF
• European Commission
• European Institute for Systems Biology & Medicine (EISBM)
• European Respiratory Society*
• European University Association (EUA)
• F1000 Research Limited*
• Fondation Merieux
• Fonds de recherche du Québec, Canada
• Food & Drug Administration, USA
• French National Research Agency (ANR)
• Frontiers*
• Future Science Group (FSG)*
• Genome Canada
• Génome Québec
• GeoVax
• Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH)
• The Global Health Network
• Global Virus Network
• GLOPID-R
• Good Clinical Practice Alliance – Europe
• Healthcare Infection Society*
• Health Research Board, Ireland
• Hindawi*
• Indiana University
• Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
• Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO)
• Inserm (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale), France
• Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
• The Institut Pasteur
• International Forum for Acute Care Trialists (InFACT)
• International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC)
• International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID)
• International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
• IOP Publishing*
• Jain Hospital & Research Center, India
• The JAMA Network
• Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)
• JMIR Publications*
• Johnson & Johnson
• Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
• Karger Publishers*
• Kent Ridge Health Singapore
• The Lancet*
• Life Science Alliance*
• Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
• MDPI*
• Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
• MedRxiv
• Merck Research Laboratories
• Michael Smith Health Research BC
• Microbide Limited
• Microbiology Society*
• National Academy of Medicine, USA
• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK
• National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA
• National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italy
• National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF Singapore)
• National Science Centre, Poland
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) / Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada (CRSNG)
• New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)*
• Office of Global Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, USA
• Oxford University Press*
• Partners in Digital Health*
• PeerJ*
• Penn State University
• PLOS*
• PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA*
• Portuguese Society of Mental Health Nursing
• Project HOPE
• ProMED
• The Research Council of Norway
• Research Square
• Rockefeller University Press (RUP)*
• The Royal Society*
• SAGE Publishing*
• Science Europe
• Science Foundation Ireland
• Science Journals – American Association for the Advancement of Science*
• ScienceOpen
• Sciencepaper Online
• SciLifeLab – Science for Life Laboratory, Sweden
• Society for Applied Microbiology
• South African Medical Research Council
• SPARC Europe
• Springer Nature*
• SSRN
• STM
• Strategic Initiative for Developing Capacity in Ethical Review (SIDCER)
• Swedish Research Council
• Takeda
• Taylor & Francis*
• UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union
• University College London
• University of Bristol
• University of Southampton
• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
• Vivli
• Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung)
• Wellcome Trust
• WikiJournal User Group*
• Wiley*
• Wolters Kluwer*
• World Scientific Publishing
• XPRIZE Foundation
• ZonMW – The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development

*These journals/publishers have also agreed to make all of their COVID-19 and coronavirus-related publications, and the available data supporting them, immediately accessible in PubMed Central (PMC) and license it in ways that facilitate reuse.

Related content

• Coronavirus (COVID-19): supporting global research and development

Related statements

• Sharing research findings and data relevant to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (May 2018)
• Statement on data sharing in public health emergencies (February 2016)