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Celebrating parasites

Nature Genetics volume 49, pages 483–484 (2017)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

In an editorial published last year1, Dan Longo and Jeffrey Drazen introduced us to 'research parasites'. These individuals “had nothing to do with the design and execution of the study but use another group's data for their own ends, possibly stealing from the research productivity planned by the data gatherers, or even use the data to try to disprove what the original investigators had posited” (ref. 1). The editorial sparked discussion about the role of secondary data analysis in the scientific process, both in official letters to the editor and informal commentary online. In light of the term's widespread publicity, we chose to use it to honor individuals who practice the craft of data reanalysis for novel ends.

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Acknowledgements

Numerous individuals and organisms contributed time and money toward the 2017 Research Parasite Awards. We would like to thank the PSB organizers, who helped us hone our selection criteria and award committee, and GigaScience, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Nature Genetics and Scientific Data, which provided financial and travel support for the awards. The authors were supported in part by grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF 4552 to C.S.G.) and the US National Institutes of Health (R01LM012373 and K01ES025434 to L.X.G. and R01LM008111 to L.E.H.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Casey S Greene

  2. Cancer Epidemiology Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

    Lana X Garmire

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Chicago School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Jack A Gilbert

  4. Biomedical and Translational Informatics Program, Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pennsylvania, USA

    Marylyn D Ritchie

  5. Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA

    Lawrence E Hunter

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  1. Casey S Greene
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  2. Lana X Garmire
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  3. Jack A Gilbert
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  4. Marylyn D Ritchie
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  5. Lawrence E Hunter
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Correspondence to Casey S Greene.

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Greene, C., Garmire, L., Gilbert, J. et al. Celebrating parasites. Nat Genet 49, 483–484 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3830

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