Responsible use of population neuroscience data: Towards standards of accountability and integrity

Sandra A Brown; Hugh Garavan; Terry L Jernigan; Susan F Tapert; Rebekah S Huber; Daniel Lopez; Traci Murray; Gayathri Dowling; Elizabeth A Hoffman; Lucina Q Uddin

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101466

Responsible use of population neuroscience data: Towards standards of accountability and integrity

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2024 Oct 18:101466. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101466. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, 1 South Prospect UHC 6436, Burlington, VT 05401, United States.
³ Departments of Cognitive Science, Psychiatry, and Radiology, University of California San Diego, San DiegoCA 92093, United States.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd, UHN-80R1, Portland, OR 97239, United States.
⁶ Division of Extramural Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD 20877, United States.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024, United States.

PMID: 39488499
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101466

Abstract

This editorial focuses on the issue of data misuse which is increasingly evidenced in social media as well as some premiere scientific journals. This issue is of critical importance to open science projects in general, and ABCD in particular, given the broad array of biological, behavioral and environmental information collected on this American sample of 12.000 youth and parents. ABCD data are already widely used with over 1000 publications and twice as many citations per year as expected (relative citation index based on year, field and journal). However, the adverse consequences of misuse of data, and inaccurate interpretation of emergent findings from this precedent setting study may have profound impact on disadvantaged populations and perpetuate biases and societal injustices.

Keywords: Ancestry; Genetic; Health equity; Inclusivity; Population descriptors; Population neuroscience; Race; Responsible data use.

Publication types

Editorial