ArticleNature2021
Ethics of DNA research on human remains: five globally applicable guidelines.
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Article in Nature, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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45citing papers in PubMed
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Large-scale human genomic resources drive innovations toward forensic intelligent source attribution and precision identification.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Review
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- The genetic legacy of the 17th-century colonial capital of St. Mary's City.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- The Genomic Legacy of the Norman Conquest in Rural England.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Genetic genealogy of the Piast dynasty and related European royal families.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Subsistence transition preceded population turnover in the eastern Colombian Andes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Ancient DNA studies performed in the forensic genetic laboratory in Slovenia: a narrative review.Croatian medical journal · 2026Review
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- A reanalysis of population dynamics in the Casas Grandes region of Northern Mexico using mitochondrial DNA.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Power and Limitations of Inferring Genetic Ancestry.Annals of human genetics · 2025Review
- Spatiotemporal reconstruction of Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial rituals reveals complex dynamics divergent from steppe ancestry.Science advances · 2025Article
- Human, Animal, or Mineral? Ethical Considerations for Studies of Fossilized Hominin Remains.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Article
- The outcasts, the sick, and the undead: atypical burials of the late medieval to modern greater Poland.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neolithic introgression of IL23R-related protection against chronic inflammatory bowel diseases in modern Europeans.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Stable isotope evidence for pre-colonial maize agriculture and animal management in the Bolivian Amazon.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
64 authors.
Songül Alpaslan-RoodenbergDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
David AnthonyDepartment of Anthropology, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY, USA.
Hiba BabikerMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
Eszter BánffyRomano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5156-826X
Thomas BoothFrancis Crick Institute, London, UK.
Patricia CaponePeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Arati Deshpande-MukherjeeDepartment of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India.
Stefanie EisenmannMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6301-5889
Lars Fehren-SchmitzDepartment of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. lfehrens@ucsc.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5510-1114
Michael FrachettiDepartment of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6906-4334
Ricardo FujitaCentro de Genética y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Lima, Peru.
Catherine J FriemanSchool of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9030-4483
Qiaomei FuKey Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7141-0002
Victoria GibbonDivision of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7875-3297
Wolfgang HaakMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2475-2007
Mateja HajdinjakFrancis Crick Institute, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4064-0331
Kerstin P HofmannRomano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4405-5751
Brian HolguinDepartment of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Takeshi InomataSchool of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Hideaki Kanzawa-KiriyamaNational Museum of Nature and Science, Ibaraki, Japan.
William KeeganFlorida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Janet KelsoMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3618-322X
Johannes KrauseMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9144-3920
Ganesan KumaresanDepartment of Genetics, School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0533-3181
Chapurukha KusimbaDepartment of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Sibel KusimbaDepartment of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Carles Lalueza-FoxInstitute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
Bastien LlamasAustralian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-9176
Scott MacEachernOffice of the Chancellors, Duke Kunshan University, Jiangsu, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4859-3998
Swapan MallickDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Hirofumi MatsumuraSchool of Health Science, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5453-7987
Ana Y Morales-ArceInstitute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2934-3141
Giedre Motuzaite MatuzeviciuteLithuanian Institute of History and Department of Archaeology, History Faculty, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9069-1551
Veena Mushrif-TripathyDepartment of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4749-1316
Nathan NakatsukaDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Rodrigo NoresDepartamento de Antropología, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto de Antropología de Córdoba (IDACOR), CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
Christine OgolaEarth Sciences Department, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya.
Mercedes OkumuraDepartment of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Nick PattersonDepartment of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Ron PinhasiDepartment of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1629-8131
Samayamantri P R PrasadDBT-Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India.
Mary E PrendergastDepartment of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA. mary@rice.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0275-6795
Jose Luis PunzoInstituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Michoacán, Mexico.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1025-9169
David ReichDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7037-5292
Rikai SawafujiSchool of Advanced Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Kanagawa, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8174-2326
Elizabeth SawchukDepartment of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Stephan SchiffelsMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1017-9150
Jakob SedigDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Jakob_Sedig@hms.harvard.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6642-7734
Svetlana ShnaiderArchaeoZOOlogy in Siberia and Central Asia-ZooSCAn, CNRS-IAET SB RAS International Research Laboratory, Novosibirsk, Russia.
Kendra SirakDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Kendra_Sirak@hms.harvard.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2347-3479
Pontus SkoglundFrancis Crick Institute, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-5913
Viviane SlonDepartment of Anatomy and Anthropology and Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Meradeth SnowAnthropology Department, University of Montana, Missoula, MO, USA.
Marie SoressiFaculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1733-7745
Matthew SpriggsSchool of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7293-6778
Philipp W StockhammerMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. philipp.stockhammer@lmu.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4702-9372
Anna Szécsényi-NagyInstitute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest, Hungary.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2095-738X
Kumarasamy ThangarajDBT-Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India.
Vera TieslerSchool of Anthropological Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0532-5819
Ray ToblerDepartment of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Chuan-Chao WangDepartment of Anthropology and Ethnology, Institute of Anthropology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9628-0307
Christina WarinnerMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Surangi YasawardeneDepartment of Anatomy, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9193-4372
Muhammad ZahirMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-6319
Funding
Medical Scientist Training ProgramT32GM007753 · NIGMS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY (MEDICAL SCHOOL) · PI WALENSKY, LOREN DAVID · 1985 to 2021
$50.0MCancer Research UK FC001595NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM007753Wellcome Trust FC001595
Abstract
We are a group of archaeologists, anthropologists, curators and geneticists representing diverse global communities and 31 countries. All of us met in a virtual workshop dedicated to ethics in ancient DNA research held in November 2020. There was widespread agreement that globally applicable ethical guidelines are needed, but that recent recommendations grounded in discussion about research on human remains from North America are not always generalizable worldwide. Here we propose the following globally applicable guidelines, taking into consideration diverse contexts. These hold that: (1) researchers must ensure that all regulations were followed in the places where they work and from which the human remains derived; (2) researchers must prepare a detailed plan prior to beginning any study; (3) researchers must minimize damage to human remains; (4) researchers must ensure that data are made available following publication to allow critical re-examination of scientific findings; and (5) researchers must engage with other stakeholders from the beginning of a study and ensure respect and sensitivity to stakeholder perspectives. We commit to adhering to these guidelines and expect they will promote a high ethical standard in DNA research on human remains going forward.
Indexed as
CadaverGuidelines as TopicInternationalityAmerican Indian or Alaska NativeAnthropologyArchaeologyCommunity-Institutional RelationsDNA, AncientHuman GeneticsHumansIndigenous PeoplesMolecular BiologyStakeholder ParticipationTranslationsDNA, Ancient
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