Organization and Preprocessing
Data organization. To ensure full syntactic data interoperability, the ANC requires datasets to adhere to the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS; Gorgolewski et al., 2016). BIDS specifies a standardized structure for storing data in a hierachical file system. When uploading a dataset to the ANC, a BIDS validator automatically checks for compliance with the current BIDS version. In accordance with the FAIR principles, standardized data organization greatly facilitates the accessibility and syntactic interoperability of the data stored on the ANC.
Data classification. The ANC commits to machine-readable and machine-actionable metadata via Hierarchical Event Descriptors (HED, Robbins et al., 2021) and a domain-specific schema extension (Denissen et al., in press). Complementing the syntactic interoperability ensured by BIDS, standardized metadata annotations enable semantic data interoperability, i.e. data can be assessed and integrated based on meaningful context descriptions. Specifically, HED annotations allow to exhaustively describe the experimental setting, i.e. how the data was collected. Providing data with meaningful metadata is peculiar relevance for FAIR data sharing because it significantly improves the data's findability and reusability.
Processing and Analysis
As a fully intergrated environment for sustainable research data management, the ANC also provides standard analysis rountines for neuroimaging data. The handling of fMRI data, for instance, is facilitated through state-of-the-art open source preprocessing (fMRIprep) and data analysis software (FitLins). Through containerization, analysis workflows are reproducible on any hardware and make full use of HPC systems.
Archiving and Reuse
Object maintenance. Digital objects stored on the ANC are subject to stringent quality control (ensuring integrity of both research data and metadata), version control, and control of data lineage.
Data protecton and licensing. Data handling in the ANC is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union. In the context of the Digital Neuroscience Initiative (2021), a team of legal experts and scientists carefully considers the intricate interplay between academic freedom and the protection of privacy. This ensures a continuously sound legal basis for datasets stored on the ANC. Endorsing open and non-discriminatory data sharing, as far as legally possible and desired by the data owners, the ANC preferredly awards Creative Commons licenses.