Biobanks, which contain human biological samples and/or data, provide a
crucial contribution to the progress of biomedical research. However, the
effective and efficient use of biobank resources depends on their
accessibility. In fact, making bio-resources promptly accessible to everybody
may increase the benefits for society. Furthermore, optimizing their use and
ensuring their quality will promote scientific creativity and, in general,
contribute to the progress of bio-medical research. Although this has become a
rather common belief, several laboratories are still secretive and continue to
withhold samples and data. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire-based
survey in order to investigate sample and data accessibility in research
biobanks operating all over the world. The survey involved a total of 46
biobanks. Most of them gave permission to access their samples (95.7%) and
data (85.4%), but free and unconditioned accessibility seemed not to be common
practice. The analysis of the guidelines regarding the accessibility to
resources of the biobanks that responded to the survey highlights three
issues: (i) the request for applicants to explain what they would like to do
with the resources requested; (ii) the role of funding, public or private, in
the establishment of fruitful collaborations between biobanks and research
labs; (iii) the request of co-authorship in order to give access to their
data. These results suggest that economic and academic aspects are involved in
determining the extent of sample and data sharing stored in biobanks. As a
second step of this study, we investigated the reasons behind the high
diversity of requirements to access biobank resources. The analysis of
informative answers suggested that the different modalities of resource
accessibility seem to be largely influenced by both social context and
legislation of the countries where the biobanks operate