From ELSA to responsible research and Promisomics

* Correspondence: h.zwart@science. ru.nl Department of Philosophy and Science Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Science, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (ISIS), P.O. Box 9010, 6500, GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Centre for Society and the Life Sciences (CSG), P.O. Box 9010, 6500, GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Full list of author information is available at the end of the article


A short history of LSSP
In 2005, Genomics, Society and Policy (GSP), the predecessor of LSSP, was launched as a peer-reviewed freely accessible on-line journal, publishing articles and reviews on the societal dimensions of emerging life sciences, notably genomics. GSP was developed within the ESRC Genomics Network (EGN) in the UK, and launched in 2005 as a co-production with the Centre for Society and Genomics (CSG) in the Netherlands. From the beginning, CSG has functioned as an important outlet for the ELSA genomics/life sciences community that has now evolved worldwide. GSP published 8 issues (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) which are now available as an integrated part of the LSSP archive.
From 2013 onwards, Springer Science & Business Media will publish the journal as an Open Access publication. As our scope has broadened and now includes postgenomics areas such as personalised medicine, systems biology and synthetic biology as well, we decided to change the name of the journal into LIFE SCIENCES, SOCIETY AND POLICY.

The ELSA life sciences community
In order to adequately address the societal dimensions of emerging life sciences in all their complexity, a trans-disciplinary approach is called for. Therefore, LSSP gives the floor to a broad spectrum of disciplines and approaches, such as philosophy of science, bioethics, science and technology studies, science communication, technology assessment and others. Usually, this field is referred to as ELSI or ELSA research.
The acronym ELSI (in the U.S.) or ELSA (in Europe) refers to research activities that anticipate and address ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) or aspects (ELSA) of emerging life sciences, notably genomics. ELSI was conceived in 1988 when James Watson, at the press conference announcing his appointment as director of the Human Genome Project (HGP), suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly declared that the ethical and social implications of genomics warranted a special effort and should be directly funded by NIH (Cook-Deegan 1994/1995. Over the years, various ELSI or ELSA programs have been developed, in Canada, a Europe and the Far East. Table 1 provides a historical overview, to which several new initiatives could be added. In Kant 1798Kant /1971, published his book "The conflict of the faculties" (Die Streit der Fakultäten), arguing that philosophy should critically reflect on the research that is being conducted within the other three faculties that existed in those days, namely Theology, Medicine and Law -the 18th century equivalents of what we nowadays refer to as humanities, natural science and social science. Following Kant, philosophers should critically reflect on how these other disciplines address issues such as informed consent and the use of research animals (in Medicine), individual autonomy (in the case of Theology) and justice (in the case of Law). This Kantian approach experienced a dramatic come-back after the Second World War when traumatic experiences such as the Nuremberg Trials and nuclear bombing raised grave societal concerns. In an era of next generation sequencing and synthetic cells, these concerns have far from evaporated, while the field of Science Studies addressing them has significantly broadened, so that it now involves a broad spectrum of disciplines besides philosophy proper. In Europe, these issues are currently addressed under the heading of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), calling upon research consortia to make these reflections and deliberations an integrated part of their work. We hope that this journal will allow us to share insights and experiences and consolidate our field and develop our expertise.
Endnote a The Canadian acronym (GE 3 LS) added the G (for genomics) but dropped the postfix A (or I).