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According to Kendra Sirak, a paleogeneticist at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors, the authors of the new paper deliberately chose to invite only active practitioners of ancient DNA research. They also emphasize that these guidelines come from a specific group of scholars in the ancient DNA community.

Working in the lab, Dr. “We realized that what was missing in this area was a statement from a group of practitioners from all over the world, so we wanted to contribute here,” said Sirak. David Reich, one of the leading experts on ancient DNA.

The new article is not the first set of ethical guidelines published on the subject. In 2018, a group of scientists based in North America, instructions for ancient DNA research – the first recommendations approved by the American Society of Human Genetics, a professional organization.

However, the authors said that concerns arose during the virtual workshop that the guidelines for this article might not be extended worldwide. Dr. “Our lab is global, and we’ve heard from many of our collaborators that these guidelines are good steps, but not universally applicable,” said Jakob Sedig, a postdoctoral fellow in Reich’s lab.

In the new paper, the authors noted that the task of creating globally applicable guidelines for ancient DNA research is daunting, as historical and cultural contexts and arrangements vary widely around the world. In the United States and Hawaii, where Indigenous peoples have historically been displaced by white settlers, “It is very important to put Indigenous perspectives at the center,” said Nathan Nakatsuka, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and author of the paper. The authors argue that it doesn’t always make sense to consult communities elsewhere in the world that live near or claim ties to a site.

The fourth recommendation in the new paper has sparked much discussion about making data available to check scientific findings after publication. The guidelines call it “best practice” to make data fully open, but only require that other researchers be allowed to confirm the authenticity of the original study.

Dr. Sirak said that many authors advocate purely open data; They argued that limited data access could drive the availability of such data to larger, well-funded labs. Dr. “But we’ve seen situations where we can justify limiting data if there are concerns,” Sirak said.