Survey on Open Science Practices in Functional Neuroimaging

Abstract

Replicability and reproducibility of scientific findings is paramount for sustainable progress in neuroscience. Preregistration of the hypotheses and methods of an empirical study before analysis, the sharing of primary research data, and compliance with data standards such as the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS), are considered effective practices to secure progress and to substantiate quality of research. We investigated the current level of adoption of open science practices in neuroimaging and the difficulties that prevent researchers from using them.Email invitations to participate in the survey were sent to addresses received through a PubMed search of human functional magnetic resonance imaging studies between 2010 and 2020. 283 persons completed the questionnaire.Although half of the participants were experienced with preregistration, the willingness to preregister studies in the future was modest. The majority of participants had experience with the sharing of primary neuroimaging data. Most of the participants were interested in implementing a standardized data structure such as BIDS in their labs. Based on demographic variables, we compared participants on seven subscales, which had been generated through factor analysis. It was found that experienced researchers at lower career level had higher fear of being transparent, researchers with residence in the EU had a higher need for data governance, and researchers at medical faculties as compared to other university faculties reported a higher need for data governance and a more unsupportive environment.The results suggest growing adoption of open science practices but also highlight a number of important impediments.

Research Data Management and Data Sharing for Reproducible Research—Results of a Community Survey of the German National Research Data Infrastructure Initiative Neuroscience

“…The percentage of collected data that is publicly shared remains therefore unclear but is certainly well below 45%. This result is consistent with a previous survey on open science practices in functional neuroimaging which reported that 34% of their participants have never shared their raw neuroimaging data (Paret et al, 2021). This similarity could also be caused by the fact that half of respondents in our survey are engaged in neuroimaging.…”

Ten recommendations for reducing the carbon footprint of research computing in human neuroimaging

“…In a recent survey of neuroimaging researchers, 54% indicated that they were likely to share all raw imaging data in online repositories for their next project ( Paret et al, 2022). This demonstrates an impressive commitment from much of the neuroimaging community to transparent and accountable science.…”

Open and reproducible neuroimaging: from study inception to publication

“…Even when members of a specific scientific community have taken a central role in open science advocacy and tool development, like in the neuroimaging community, the impact on the rest of the very same community is limited. A recent survey (Paret et al 2021) including researchers who are senior and likely to hold a positive attitude towards open science, indicated that 42% have never pre-registered a neuroimaging study and 34% have never shared their raw neuroimaging data. Many of those who indicated that they pre-registered or shared their data at least once likely did not do so in all their studies, and thus, the actual rate of pre-registration and data sharing in neuroimaging is likely much lower.…”

“…Likewise, a more recent survey indicated that similar percentages of researchers in neuroimaging have never learned how to pre-register or share their data online and that they know too little about pre-registration platforms and suitable data repositories (Paret et al 2021). These later challenges could be alleviated by a simplified overview of the open resources available.…”