“Idealists and capitalists”: ownership attitudes and preferences in genomic citizen science

Abstract

The perspectives of genomic citizen scientists on ownership of research outputs are not well understood, yet they are useful for identifying alignment of participant expectations and project practices and can help guide efforts to develop innovative tools and strategies for managing ownership claims. Here, we report findings from 52 interviews conducted in 2018 and 2019 to understand genomic citizen science stakeholders’ conceptualizations of, experiences with, and preferences for ownership of research outputs. Interviewees identified four approaches for recognizing genomic citizen scientists’ ownership and related credit interests in research outputs: shared governance via commons models; fractional ownership of benefits; full and creative attribution; and offensive and defensive patenting. Interviewees also agreed that the model selected by any project should at least maximize access to research outputs and, as appropriate and to the extent possible, broadly distribute rights of control and entitlements to research benefits.

Keywords:

• citizen science
• participatory research
• intellectual property
• patent
• commons

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alex Pearlman for her assistance with visualization of findings.

Disclosure statement

CG is a paid consultant to National Science Foundation Award Number 2032598 and received an honorarium for presenting at Bioethics, Citizen Science, and Human Subject Protection: Waiting for the World to Change. AM is a paid member of the SAB for Geisinger Research and Morgridge Institute for Research and is a paid member of the Board for the Greenwall Foundation.

Data availability statement

Research materials are available upon reasonable request. Raw data are not available consistent with the confidentiality provisions of the approved study protocol.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed https://doi.org/10.1080/14636778.2022.2063827

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K01 HG009355. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, the authors’ employers, or any institutions with which they are or have been affiliated.