New data management & sharing resources on the INCF portal!

Data sharing is on everyone’s mind right now, especially since NIH put their data managing and sharing policy into effect on January 25. At INCF, we have been working to facilitate data sharing, reuse, and reproducibility in neuroscience since our inauguration in 2005. Our current focus is on developing, evaluating, and endorsing standards and best practices that facilitate data sharing, open, FAIR, and citable neuroscience, as well as providing commuunity with resources and training opportunities on how to implement these standards and best practices.

Our portal is newly stocked with a multitude of resources to researchers who are in need of guidance and knowledge around the fundamentals of data sharing and data management:

• The FAIR roadmap: A living document that is intended to serve as a framework for identifying the current gaps, challenges, and opportunities in the landscape of open, FAIR, and citable neuroscience, as well as a framework for coordinating community action
• The INCF Standards and Best Practices Portfolio: A collection of community-supported and INCF-endorsed FAIR standards for neuroscience
• The INCF Infrastructure Portfolio: An index of neuroscience data repositories and scientific gateways that have been assessed using the criteria for repository and science gateways and associated recommendations (Sci Data, 2022) developed by the INCF Infrastructure Committee. The portfolio provides guidance in selecting the best infrastructure for specific data types, analysis, and sharing needs. The portfolio offers more detailed neuroscience field-related metadata (modalities, file format, services offered, etc..) than available in general repository registries.
• The INCF Training Suite: A collection of open access platforms that aims to facilitate self-guided study in the sub-specialisms of neuroscience with an emphasis on neuroinformatics. The INCF Training Suite currently consists of TrainingSpace, Neurostars, and KnowledgeSpace. These platforms provides users with access to:
  • Multimedia educational content from courses, conference lectures, and laboratory exercises from some of the world’s leading neuroscience institutes and societies
  • Study tracks to facilitate self-guided study
  • Tutorials on tools and open science resources for neuroscience research
  • A Q&A forum 
  • A data discoverability portal and encyclopedia that provides users with thousands of publicly available neuroscience datasets and abstracts in PubMed 
• For those new to the FAIR principles and how to implement them in neuroscience research, TrainingSpace also includes the study track “Introduction to FAIR neuroscience”.

INCF is a member organization - an active global network of neuroscientists, data scientists, and tool developers that come together to interact and receive feedback in order to solve large and small problems around data sharing and standardization. This network is our greatest resource and it’s open for participation: we have individual and group memberships, both for academic/non-profit groups and for companies in related fields. Many of our working groups are also open to new members. 

INCF membership provides access to decision making regarding global strategies for FAIR data management, training, and standardization issues in neuroscience. Membership is of interest for neuroinformaticians, neuroscience researchers who need to manage, share and analyze their data, infrastructure providers and tool developers, and funders who are trying to implement and encourage open and FAIR neuroscience. Being a part of the network allows groups and individuals to build capacity and collaborate on a global scale through our various councils and activities.

If you have any questions about how to get involved, contact us at info@incf.org.