Big Brain Data Initiatives in Universiti Sains Malaysia: Data Stewardship to Data Repository and Data Sharing

Abstract

The sharing of open-access neuroimaging data has increased significantly during the last few years. Sharing neuroimaging data is crucial to accelerating scientific advancement, particularly in the field of neuroscience. A number of big initiatives that will increase the amount of available neuroimaging data are currently in development. The Big Brain Data Initiative project was started by Universiti Sains Malaysia as the first neuroimaging data repository platform in Malaysia for the purpose of data sharing. In order to ensure that the neuroimaging data in this project is accessible, usable, and secure, as well as to offer users high-quality data that can be consistently accessed, we first came up with good data stewardship practices. Then, we developed MyneuroDB, an online repository database system for data sharing purposes. Here, we describe the Big Brain Data Initiative and MyneuroDB, a data repository that provides the ability to openly share neuroimaging data, currently including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG), following the FAIR principles for data sharing.

Keywords: Data repository; Data sharing; Data stewardship; Neuroimaging data; Neuroimaging technique.