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    <p><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">(apologies
            for cross-postings)</font></font></font></p>
    <p><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">Dear
            everyone,</font></font></font></p>
    <p><font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">With
            this email, we would like to introduce a new BIDS Extension
            Proposal
            (BEP) dedicated to electrophysiological data recorded in
            animals
            (BIDS-animal-ephys). The BEP document is available <a
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oG-C8T-dWPqfVzL2W8HO3elWK8NIh2cOCPssRGv23n0">here</a>
            and we are now seeking feedback (e.g comments directly </font></font></font><font
        color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">in
            the document, or posts in our discussion <a
              href="https://github.com/INCF/neuroscience-data-structure/issues">forum</a>)
          </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font
          face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font style="font-size:
            11pt" size="2"><span style="text-decoration: none">fr</span></font></font></font><font
        color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">om
            the community at large </font></font></font><font
        color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">to
            make sure this suits the </font></font></font><font
        color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">largest</font></font></font><font
        color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2">
            possible </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font
          face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font style="font-size:
            11pt" size="2">array
            of</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font
          face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font style="font-size:
            11pt" size="2">
            needs in animal electrophysiology.</font></font></font></p>
    <p><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight:
                    normal"><span style="background: transparent">A
                      bit of context and history. <a
                        href="https://bids.neuroimaging.io/">BIDS</a>
                      is a simple and intuitive way to organize and
                      describe
                      neuroscientific data in a standardized manner,
                      originally developed
                      for human neuroimaging data (see the first paper
                      on <a
                        href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fsdata.2016.44">MRI-BIDS</a>),
                      and widely extended since its original
                      introduction to other data
                      modalities (see e.g <a
                        href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0104-8">EEG-BIDS</a>,
                      or <a
                        href="https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.110">MEG-BIDS</a>).
                      A
                      good number of exchanges have already taken place
                      with
                      electrophysiologists, with initial debates on
                      whether adapting the
                      hierarchical organization offered (and imposed) by
                      BIDS (for other
                      data modalities and recorded in human subjects)
                      could suit the needs
                      of the community of researchers working with
                      animal models. Of
                      course, it will change the habits of some, but a
                      consensus has
                      emerged that sticking to what BIDS suggests could
                      suit the needs of a
                      vast majority and that the long term benefits of
                      such a
                      standardization could be worth changing some
                      habits. These
                      observations have led to the formalization of this
                      BIDS-animal-ephys
                      Extension Proposal (BEP).</span></span></span></font></font></span></font></span><span
        style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="background: transparent">
                </span></font></font></span></font></span>
    </p>
    <p><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight:
                    normal"><span style="background: transparent">For
                      info, this BEP has been drafted by members of the
                      <a
                        href="https://incf.org/sig/incf-working-group-standardized-data">INCF
                        Working Group on Standardized Data Structures</a>,
                      that was initiated
                      in 2020 to attempt standardizing the handling of
                      neuroscientific data
                      recorded in animal models. Note that at the
                      present time (early
                      2021), the discussions in this Working Group are
                      split to tackle two
                      different issues:</span></span></span></font></font></span></font></span></p>
    <p><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight:
                    normal"><span style="background: transparent">-
                      How to handle animal data in a generic manner (i.e
                      across data
                      modalities, for both in vitro and in vivo data
                      etc.)? The specific
                      discussion about this topic is centralized <a
                        href="https://github.com/INCF/neuroscience-data-structure/issues/9">here</a>.</span></span></span></font></font></span></font></span></p>
    <p style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight:
      normal; text-decoration: none">
      <font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span style="background:
              transparent">-
              How to handle electrophysiological data recorded in
              animals, and how
              to standardize the associated metadata? This is the main
              objective of
              the present BEP.</span></font></font></font></p>
    <p><span style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight:
                    normal"><span style="background: transparent">Please
                      consider joining this working group if you would
                      like to contribute
                      to this effort </span></span></span></font></font></span></font></span><span
        style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight:
                    normal"><span style="background: transparent">(either
                      directly on these topics, or for other questions /
                      data modalities)</span></span></span></font></font></span></font></span><span
        style="font-variant: normal"><font color="#000000"><span
            style="text-decoration: none"><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
              sans-serif"><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
                  style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight:
                    normal"><span style="background: transparent">.
                      You can also reach the moderators of the present
                      BEP through our main
                      discussion <a
                        href="https://github.com/INCF/neuroscience-data-structure/issues">forum</a>.
                      Also, please do not hesitate to forward this
                      message around you so
                      that we reach as many electrophysiologists as
                      possible!</span></span></span></font></font></span></font></span></p>
    <p style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight:
      normal; text-decoration: none">
      <font color="#000000"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
            style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span style="background:
              transparent">Thanks
              in advance for your feedback and contributions!</span></font></font></font></p>
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    <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- 
Sylvain Takerkart

Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone (INT)
UMR 7289 CNRS-AMU
Marseille, France
tél: +33 (0)4 91 324 007
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/_TAKERKART-Sylvain_?lang=en">http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/_TAKERKART-Sylvain_?lang=en</a></pre>
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