Neuroinformatics Software Applications Supporting Electronic Data Capture, Management, and Sharing for the Neuroimaging Community

Accelerating insight into the relation between brain and behavior entails conducting small and large-scale research endeavors that lead to reproducible results. Consensus is emerging between funding agencies, publishers, and the research community that data sharing is a fundamental requirement to ensure all such endeavors foster data reuse and fuel reproducible discoveries. Funding agency and publisher mandates to share data are bolstered by a growing number of data sharing efforts that demonstrate how information technologies can enable meaningful data reuse. Neuroinformatics evaluates scientific needs and develops solutions to facilitate the use of data across the cognitive and neurosciences. For example, electronic data capture and management tools designed to facilitate human neurocognitive research can decrease the setup time of studies, improve quality control, and streamline the process of harmonizing, curating, and sharing data across data repositories. In this article we outline the advantages and disadvantages of adopting software applications that support these features by reviewing the tools available and then presenting two contrasting neuroimaging study scenarios in the context of conducting a cross-sectional and a multisite longitudinal study.