Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence Open Science Policies

The Kempner Institute seeks to build a community of scholars who work across boundaries and fields to advance our understanding of Natural and Artificial Intelligence. To support this endeavor, we commit to making research funded by the Kempner Institute as widely and easily available as possible.

Prior to receiving any funding from the Kemper Institute, all recipients will be required to sign the Harvard University Participation Agreement.

The requirements below apply only to intellectual property and publications for which the investigator is a primary or corresponding author or inventor and the research was funded in whole or in part by the Kempner Institute. Work, including research and code development, is not considered to be funded by the Kempner merely because the investigator or researcher receives salary or other general support from the Gift.

If the recipient receives research funding the following policies will apply:

Data Access

We are committed to developing and using platforms that disseminate data openly and freely. In support of these goals, any datasets either curated or generated using the Kempner-funding will be made publicly available on or before first publication, including preprint publication, and easily accessible online under an Open Definition-Conformant License.

That said, we understand the need for subsets of data to be protected or provided with controlled access. In these cases data shall be handled in accordance with national and international standards, including all privacy regulations (including, without limitation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health Act, as far as applicable).

All raw data (sequencing, imaging, etc.) and metadata not otherwise restricted should be deposited into a publicly accessible repository.

Intellectual Property

We are committed to ensuring that Kempner funded technologies have the broadest reach and impact. In support of that goal, and in alignment with existing Harvard University policy, intellectual property generated using Kempner funding shall be made freely available for all academic and noncommercial use.

Kempner-funded projects may result in the creation of software and other works of authorship (“Developed Software”) and may also result in other intellectual property, both non-software inventions and patentable inventions, as described below.

Developed Software

Whenever possible, to encourage sharing and reuse, code produced for new software and tools will be made available through open-source licenses.

To support this goal, any third-party or pre-existing Code used for a Kempner-funded research project should be licensed under the most permissive terms possible and used or incorporated in such a way as it will allow for further distribution.

Where possible, all code will be developed in the open using a code sharing site like GitHub from the start of the Kempner funded project to promote open collaboration.

All Kempner Developed Code shall be released under a permissive open-source license.

Patentable Inventions

We seek the broadest distribution and dissemination of technology developed from Kempner funded research. In some cases, commercialization of intellectual property rights in the form of patents will provide the best route for dissemination.

Harvard’s policies and procedures for intellectual property management will be followed, and in all cases, non-exclusive patent licensing shall be given preference over exclusive licensing.

All patentable and non-patentable intellectual property shall be made freely and openly available for all academic use and openly available for non-commercial use, in alignment with Harvard policy. Kempner funded research will also be made openly available for non-commercial use by for-profit companies.

Reagent Sharing

We commit to reproducible science. In support of that effort, all data and replicable materials shall be made available, in a timely manner and on reasonable, cost reimbursable basis, from the date of publication.

We encourage the use of existing community repositories where possible. The requirement for sharing applies to clones, and to transgenic organisms and cell lines including monoclonal antibodies.

Publication

We support full publication and public availability of research findings without conditions or restrictions on academic and publication freedom.

All manuscripts for any publications that were funded in whole or in part by the Kempner Institute shall be submitted as preprints to bioRxiv, or a similar service for sharing preprints, before or upon first submission to a journal.

Experimental protocols shall be made publicly available through a protocol sharing service such as https://protocols.io. If there is some reason that will make this impossible or counterproductive the investigator shall contact Kempner Institute Directors.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgement of support will be included in publications referencing research sponsored under the Kempner Institute.

We suggest the following wording: “This work has been made possible in part by a gift from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation to establish the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence.”

Drafted: 12/12/20222

Approved: 1/24/2023