Most peer reviewers will never encounter a manuscript that raises biosecurity or national security concerns. But for reviewers in fields such as virology, synthetic biology, microbiology, genomics, engineering, or information technology, the possibility is real.
Dual-use research of concern, or DURC, refers to research conducted for legitimate scientific purposes that could also be misapplied to cause harm.
What is DURC?
The World Health Organization describes DURC as research that can reasonably be anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat to public health, agriculture, the environment, or national security.
- Experiments that enhance transmissibility, virulence, or host range of dangerous pathogens.
- Research involving select agents and toxins subject to biosafety oversight.
- Experiments that allow pathogens to evade immune responses or resist standard treatments.
- The synthesis or reconstruction of dangerous pathogens from published genomic sequence data.
Peer review and dual-use research: What reviewers are expected to do
Peer reviewers matter here, but not as the last line of defence. Responsibility sits first with researchers and institutions, then funders, and finally editors and reviewers at publication.
Most reviewers are domain experts, not biosecurity specialists. What the system asks is narrower than it may sound: notice when something warrants a closer look and flag it with the editor.
What you can realistically contribute as a peer reviewer
- Notice if institutional review is missing for work involving select agents, enhanced pathogens, or gain-of-function techniques.
- Pay attention to whether methodological detail becomes a reproducible how-to guide without enough biosafety or biosecurity context.
- Escalate concerns in confidential comments and suggest expert biosecurity review when appropriate.
Beyond biology: dual-use concerns in other fields
The formal framework around dual-use research was built for life sciences, but similar questions arise in AI, autonomous systems, chemistry, materials science, cybersecurity, neuroscience, and cognitive science.
Research with clear applications in autonomous weapons, mass surveillance, exploitation techniques, dangerous synthesis routes, or methods for cognitive influence may raise dual-use questions even when formal publication frameworks are less settled.
Remember that the decision to publish is itself an ethical act
A manuscript that clears peer review enters the permanent, credentialed scientific record. For most research, broad access is the point. For a small category of research, it requires careful thought about what is being made available and to whom.
If you find yourself thinking that the science is interesting but the details may be too easy to misuse, raise the concern with the editor and ask for the right expertise to be brought in.
