Influenza: Making Privileged Data Public

In the Report by C. Fraser et al. [“Pandemic potential of a strain of influenza A (H1N1): Early findings,” 19 June, p. 1557], the authors used data, collected by their own agency, that had not been made public. It is not uncommon for researchers to have access to privileged data from government agencies; agencies have the responsibility to handle sensitive information that might be misused or misrepresented, and they collaborate with trusted scientists, often staff researchers. However, this raises a potential conflict of interest, given that staff researchers or officials might use their public authority to withhold information for the sole purpose of publishing a paper. I believe that the following criteria should serve as guidelines to make public and scientific use of data more transparent.