Available upon all requests? How and why we should better incentivize the sharing of biomaterials

by Suzannah J. Rihn, Alexander Harms

Biomaterial sharing offers enormous benefits for research and for the scientific community. Individuals, funders, institutions, and journals can overcome the barriers to sharing and work together to promote a better sharing culture. Could better biomaterial sharing improve the scientific community? This Perspective draws on the authors’ experiences of sharing biomaterials, discussing the advantages and challenges biomaterial sharing creates, and the ways sharing could be more actively promoted and rewarded.