The PHA4GE Microbial Data-Sharing Accord: establishing baseline consensus microbial data-sharing norms to facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration

Microbial data sharing underlies evidence-based microbial research, as well as pathogen surveillance and analysis essential to public health. While the need for data sharing was highlighted during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, some concerns regarding secondary data use have also surfaced. Although general guidelines are available for data sharing, we note the absence of a set of established, universal, unambiguous and accessible principles to guide the secondary use of microbial data. Here, we propose the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) Microbial Data-Sharing Accord to consolidate consensus norms and accepted practices for the secondary use of microbial data. The Accord provides a set of seven simple, baseline principles to address key concerns that may arise for researchers providing microbial datasets for secondary use and to guide responsible use by data users. By providing clear rules for secondary use of microbial data, the Accord can increase confidence in sharing by data providers and protect against data mis-use during secondary analyses.