amy dockser marcus noted in a 2014 essay in the wall street journal that when ubiome raised its initial round of crowdfunding in early 2013, many questions were raised by bioethicists about the company's citizen science business model - namely whether it had actually obtained informed consent from its customers, and whether direct to consumer genetic testing initiatives could be ethically conducted at all, and its lack of institutional review board (irb) approval. the wall street journal essay also noted that questions were raised about the quality of data obtained in citizen science initiatives, with regard to self-selection and other issues.