Public Deliberation Resources


Deliberation Project Information Booklets

Salmon Genome Deliberation

Advanced Biofuels Deliberation

Ontario Vaccine Deliberation

BC Data Deliberation


Academic Literature


Publications from Deliberative Democracy Events and Associated Research

Burgess, M. M., Longstaff, H. & O’Doherty, K. C. (2016). Assessing deliberative design of public input on British Columbia biobanks. In S. Dodds & R. Ankeny (Eds.). Big Picture Bioethics: Developing Democratic Policy in Contested Domains. Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-32240-7

Chalmers, D., Burgess, M. M., Edwards, K., Kaye, J., Meslin, M. M. & Nicol, D. (2015). Marking shifts in human research ethics in the development of biobanking. Public Health Ethics, 8(1), 63-71. doi: 10.1093/phe/phu023

Burgess, M. M. & Longstaff, H. (2014). Representing the cultural significance of salmon in a west coast public deliberation. In K. Culver & K. O’Doherty (eds.). Fishing and Farming Iconic Species: Cod and Salmon and Social Issues in Genomics Science. Concord, Ontario: Captus Press. 

Cohen, E. & O’Doherty, K. C. (2014). Perceptions of salmon genomics among the Chinese-Canadian and Indo-Canadian community in BC. In K. Culver & K. O’Doherty (eds.). Fishing and Farming Iconic Species: Cod and Salmon and Social Issues in Genomics Science. Concord, Ontario: Captus Press.

O’Doherty, K. C., Longstaff, H. & Burgess, M. M. (2014). Using deliberative democracy to inform policy on applications arising from salmon denomics research. In K. Culver & K. O’Doherty (eds.). Fishing and Farming Iconic Species: Cod and Salmon and Social Issues in Genomics Science. Concord, Ontario: Captus Press.

Burgess, M. M. (2014). From ’trust us’ to participatory governance: Deliberative publics and science policy. Public Understanding of Science, 23(1): 48-52. doi: 10.1177/0963662512472160.

Moore, A. & O’Doherty, K. (2014). Deliberative voting: Clarifying consent in a consensus process. The Journal of Political Philosophy, 22(3), 302–319doi: 10.1111/jopp.12028

Chalmers, D., McWhirter, R. E., Nicol, D., Whiton, T., Otlowski, M., Burgess, M., Foote, S. J., Critchley, C. & Dickinson, J. L. (2014). New avenues within community engagement: Addressing the ingenuity gap in our approach to health research and future provision of health care. Journal of Responsible Innovation1(3), 321-328. doi: 10.1080/23299460.2014.963002

O’Doherty, K. C. (2013) Synthesising the outputs of deliberation: Extracting meaningful results from a public forum. Journal of Public Deliberation, 9(1). Retrieved from https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol9/iss1/art8/

O’Doherty, K. C. & Burgess, M. M. (2013). Public deliberation to develop ethical norms and inform policy for biobanks: Lessons learnt and challenges remaining. Research Ethics, 9(2), 55-77. doi: 10.1177/1747016113488858.

Nep, S. & O’Doherty, K. C. (2013). Understanding public calls for labeling of GM foods: Analysis of a public deliberation on GM salmon. Society & Natural Resources, 26(5), 506-521. doi: 10.1080/08941920.2012.716904.

O’Doherty, K. C., MacKenzie, M. K. & Badulescu, D., & Burgess, M. M. (2013). Explosives, genomics, and the environment: Conducting public deliberation on topics of complex science and social controversy. Sage Open3. doi: 10.1177/2158244013478951.

Burgess, M. M. (2012). Deriving policy and governance from deliberative events and minipublics. In M. Howlett & D. Laycock (Eds.), Regulating Next Generation Agri-Food Biotechnologies: Lessons from European, North American and Asian Experiences. (pp. 220-236). London, UK: Routledge.

O’Doherty, K. C., Gauvin, F.-P., Grogan, C., & Friedman, W. (2012). Implementing a Public Deliberative Forum. Hastings Center Report, 42(2), 20-23. doi: 10.002/hast.28

O’Doherty, K. (2012). Theorising deliberative discourse. In K. O’Doherty & E. Einsiedel (Eds.), Public Engagement and Emerging Technologies. (pp. 133-147). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

O’Doherty, K. C., Hawkins, A. K, & Burgess, M. M. (2012). Involving citizens in the ethics of biobank research: Informing institutional policy through structured public deliberation. Social Science and Medicine, 75, 1604-1611. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.06.026

O’Doherty, K. C., Ibrahim, T., Hawkins, A. K., Burgess, M. M. & Watson, P. (2012). Managing the introduction of biobanks to potential participants: Lessons from a deliberative public forum. Biopreservation and Biobanking10(1), 12-21. doi: 10.1089/bio.2011.0029

Secko, D. M. (2012). Swimming with salmon: The use of journalism to public engagement initiative on emerging biotechnologies. In K. O’Doherty & E. Einsiedel (Eds.), Public Engagement and Emerging Technologies. (pp. 211-228). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

MacKenzie, M. K. & O’Doherty, K. C. (2011). Deliberating future issues: Minipublics and salmon genomics. Journal of Public Deliberation7(1). Retrieved from https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol7/iss1/art5 

O’Doherty, K. C., Burgess, M. M., Edwards, K., Gallagher, R., Hawkins, A., Kaye, J., McCaffrey, V., & Winickoff, D. (2011). From consent to institutions: Designing adaptive governance for genomic biobanks. Social Science and Medicine73, 367-374. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.05.046.

Walmsley, H. L. (2011). Stock options, tax credits or employment contracts please! The value of deliberative public disagreement about human tissue donation. Social Science & Medicine71(1), 209-216. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.05.005

Hawkins, A. K. & O’Doherty, K. C. (2010). Biobank governance: A lesson in trust. New Genetics & Society29(3), 311-325. doi: 10.1080/14636778.2010.507487

Longstaff, H & Burgess, M. M. (2010). Recruiting for representation in public deliberation on the ethics of biobanks. Public Understanding of Science, 19(2), 212-24. doi: 10.1177/0963662508097626

O’Doherty, K.C., Burgess, M. M. & Secko, D. M. (2010). Sequencing the salmon genome: A deliberative public engagement. Genomics, Society and Policy, 6(1), 16-33. doi: 10.1186/1746-5354-6-1-15

O’Doherty, K. C. & Hawkins, A. K. (2010). Structuring public engagement for effective input in policy development on human tissue biobanking. Public Health Genomics13(4), 197-206. doi: 10.1159/000279621

O’Doherty, K. C. & Davidson, H. J. (2010). Subject positioning and deliberative democracy: Understanding social processes underlying deliberation. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour40(2), 224-245. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00429.x

MacLean, S & Burgess, M. M. (2010). In the public interest: Assessing expert and stakeholder influence in public deliberation about biobanks. Public Understanding of Science, 19(4), 486-496. doi: 10.1177/0963662509335410

Longstaff, H & Secko, D. M. (2010). Media influence on biobank deliberations. Journal of Health & Mass Communication2, 73-96. Retrieved from http://www.csjp.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Longstaff_Secko_JHMC_2010.pdf

Walmsley, H. L. (2010). Biobanking, public consultation, and the discursive logics of deliberation: Five lessons from British Columbia. Public Understanding of Science, 19(4), 452-468. doi: 10.1177/0963662509335523

Walmsley, H. L. (2010). Witnessing genomics: The design, facilitation and evaluation of inclusive deliberative public consultation about biobanking in British Columbia (Canada) (Doctoral Dissertation, Lancaster University). Retrieved from http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.547973

Walmsley, H. L., Burgess, M. M., Brinkman, J., Hegele, R., Wilson-McManus, J., & McManus, B. (2010). Ethics of biomarkers: Where are the borders of investigative research, informed consent and patient protection. In M. Bleravins, R. Rahbari, M. Jurima-Romet & C. Carini (Eds.) Biomarkers in Drug Development: A Handbook of Practice, Application and Strategy. (pp. 625-642) New York, NY: Wiley.

Avard, D., Bucci, L. M., Burgess, M. M., Kaye, J., Heeney, C., & Cambon-Thompson, A. (2009). Public health genomics and public participation: Points to consider. Journal of Public Deliberation, 5(1). Retrieved from https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol5/iss1/art7           

Secko, D. M., Preto, N., Niemeyer, S. & Burgess, M. M. (2009). Informed consent in biobank research: Fresh evidence for the debate. Social Science & Medicine, 68(4), 781-789. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.11.020              

O’Doherty, K. C. & Burgess, M. M. (2009). Engaging the public on biobanks: Outcomes of the BC Biobank Deliberation. Public Health Genomics12(4), 203-215. doi: 10.1159/000167801

Walmsley, H. L. (2009). Mad scientists bend the frame of biobank governance in British Columbia. Journal of Public Deliberation5(1). Retrieved from https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol5/iss1/art6 

Watson, P. H., Wilson-McManus, J. E., Barnes, R. O., Giesz, S. C., Png, A., Hegele, R. G., Brinkman, J. N., Mckenzie, I. R., Huntsman, D. G., Junker, A., Gilks, B., Skarsgard, E., Burgess, M. M., Aparicio, S., & McManus, B. (2009). Evolutionary concepts in biobanking – The BC BioLibrary. Journal of Translational Medicine7, 95. doi: 10.1186/1479-5876-7-95

Wilcox, E. S. (2009). Does “misinformation” matter? Exploring the roles of technical and conceptual inaccuracies in a deliberative public engagement on biobanks (Master’s thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada).

Tansey, J. & Burgess, M. M. (2008). The meaning of genomics: A focus group study of “interested” and lay classifications of salmon genomics. Public Understanding of Science, 17(4), 473-484. doi: 10.1177/0963662507076603

Burgess, M. M., O’Doherty, K. C. & Secko, D. C. (2008). Biobanking in BC: Enhancing discussions of the future of personalized medicine through deliberative public engagement. Personalized Medicine, 5(3), 285 – 296. doi: 10.2217/17410541.5.3.285

Secko, D. M., Burgess, M. M., & O’Doherty, K. C., (2008).  Perspectives on engaging the public in the ethics of emerging biotechnologies: From salmon to biobanks to neuroethics. Accountability in Research,15(4), 283-302. doi: 10.1080/08989620802388762

Wilcox, E. (2008). A Lego model to help inform participants at the British Columbia biobank deliberation. Health Law Review, 16(4), 9- 11.


Publications by Collaborators on Deliberative Events and In Theoretical Literature

Molster, C., Potts, A., McNamara, B., Youngs, L., Maxwell, S., Dawkins, H., & O’Leary, P. (2013). Informing public health policy through deliberative public engagement: Perceived impact on participants and citizen-government relations. Genetic Testing & Molecular Biomarkers, 17(9). doi: 10.1089/gtmb.2013.0044

MacKenzie, M. K., &  Warren, M. E. (2012). Two trust-based uses of minipublics in democratic systems. In J. Parkinson & J. Mansbridge (Eds.), Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale. (pp. 95-124). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139178914.006

Molster, C., Maxwell, S., Youngs L., Potts, A., Kyne, G., Hope, F., Dawkins, H., & O’Leary, P. (2012). An Australian approach to the policy translation of deliberated citizen perspectives on biobanking. Public Health Genomics, 15(2), 82-91. doi: 10.1159/000334104

Molster, C., Maxwell, S., Youngs, L., Kyne, G., Hope, F., Dawkins, H., & O’Leary, P. (2011). Blueprint for a deliberative public forum on biobanking policy: Were theoretical principles achievable in practice? Health Expectations16(2), 11-224. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-7625.2011.00701.x


Submitted or In-Press

Tansey, J & MM Burgess (in press). Complexity of public interest in ethical analysis of genomics. In D. Castle & K. Culver (Eds.) Genomics and Public Policy: Issues and Perspectives for Canada and the World. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Walmsley, H. (under review). From dinosaur clones to infertile super-humans: The temporality of deliberative communication in a promissory bio-democracy. Social Studies of Science.