Responsible use of population neuroscience data: Towards standards of
accountability and integrity
Abstract
This editorial focuses on the issue of data misuse which is increasingly
evidenced in social media as well as some premiere scientific journals
like yours. 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. This editorial contains
recommendations and references which may guide authors and assist
reviewers alike in avoiding misleading scientific interpretations not
only with use of ABCD data but other large scale data sets as well.