Compatible or incompatible? DSI, open access, and benefit-sharing
The scientific community has a strong tradition of sharing digital sequence information (DSI) in an unrestricted manner through public databases. While this tradition of “open access” sharing has many benefits, it has created tension in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Differences of opinion on open access to DSI underlie key points of divergence in ongoing negotiations. The CBD has provided a set of policy options for DSI, but they are not granular enough to assess whether they are compatible with open access principles. Here, we explain what open access to DSI means in practice, assess the CBD DSI policy options through a more granular, technical lens, and discuss which policy options best enable open access. We show that de-coupled benefit-sharing mechanisms for DSI are the most compatible with open access practices and multilateral mechanisms, in general, are the most suited for benefit-sharing if fully de-coupled mechanisms become politically unrealistic.