A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience
- Lund University, Sweden
- University of Würzburg, Germany
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- University of Marburg, Germany
- Free University, Germany
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
Abstract
Insect neuroscience generates vast amounts of highly diverse data, of which only a small fraction are findable, accessible and reusable. To promote an open data culture, we have therefore developed the InsectBrainDatabase (IBdb), a free online platform for insect neuroanatomical and functional data. The IBdb facilitates biological insight by enabling effective cross-species comparisons, by linking neural structure with function, and by serving as general information hub for insect neuroscience. The IBdb allow users to not only effectively locate and visualize data, but to make them widely available for easy, automated reuse via an application programming interface. A unique private mode of the database expands the IBdb functionality beyond public data deposition, additionally providing the means for managing, visualizing and sharing of unpublished data. This dual function creates an incentive for data contribution early in data management workflows and eliminates the additional effort normally associated with publicly depositing research data.
Data availability
All data underlying the figures of the paper are freely available in the insect brain database: insectbraindb.orgAccess to the database is free and can be achieved either by browsing insectbraindb.org or by API access. Documentation see https://insectbraindb.org/static/IBdb_Userguide.pdf
Article and author information
Author details
Frederick Zittrell
Funding
H2020 European Research Council (714599)
- Stanley Heinze
Swedish Research Foundation (2014 - 04623)
- Marie Dacke
H2020 European Research Council (817535)
- Marie Dacke
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-14-1-0242)
- Eric Warrant
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EL784/1-1)
- Basil el Jundi
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HO 950/24-1,HO 950/25-1,HO 950/26-1)
- Uwe Homberg
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Me365/34)
- Randolf Menzel
Startup grant from the University of Würzburg
- Keram Pfeiffer
Norwegian Research Council (287052)
- Bente G Berg
Freie Universität Berlin and Zukunftskolleg University Konstanz
- Randolf Menzel
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2021, Heinze et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience
eLife 10:e65376.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65376
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