Leaving Community
Are you sure you want to leave this community? Leaving the community will revoke any permissions you have been granted in this community.
ODC-SCI Glossary
Community Data Space (also referred to as the Commons)
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY v4.0)
DOI or Digital Object Identifier.
Full member of ODC-SCI (formerly Lab Member):
Registered user of the ODC-SCI
Citation (of a dataset)
Similar to scientific publications, when a dataset is made public with a DOI, a citation including the author names, title, year of publication and ODC-SCI information is created. Dataset citation with a DOI is a common way to reference the use of public data.
Back to the topCommon Data Elements (CDEs):
Data elements that have been recommended or required by NIH Institutes and Centers and other organizations for use in research and for other purposes. A data element is a basic unit of information (i.e., a variable) collected within a dataset that has a unique meaning and subcategories (data items) of distinct value. Examples of data elements include gender, race, and geographic location. ODC-SCI is implementing NIH’s CDEs where appropriate to aid in standardization and harmonization across different datasets.
Back to the topCommunity Board (CB)
Governance body comprising up to 12 members representing the different stakeholder groups served by the ODC-SCI who advise the Leadership Team in setting priorities and strategic directions in establishment of the ODC-SCI, the development of a sustainability model, to review and assist with decision making process, and to assist in the development of the curation process. The board will be engaged to keep a close link between the ODC-SCI and the SCI community . Membership in the CB shall be determined by the leadership team and the Executive Board.
Back to the topCommunity Moderators
Governance body comprising members of the ODC-SCI Leadership Team or their designees who approve requests to join the ODC-SCI as either a general or full member.
Back to the topCommunity Data Space (also referred to as the Commons)
Semi-private data space accessible to full members of the ODC-SCI where members can share unpublished or pre-published data with other full members. All members agree to abide by the data sharing policies governing use of unpublished datasets shared in the Community Space.
Back to the topCreative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY v4.0)
Open source license allows anyone with access to use the content of the dataset but sets the legal obligation of giving appropriate credit to the authors of the data.
Back to the topCSV (or csv) format
CSV, “comma-separated values”, is a widely-used file format for spreadsheet-style datasets. In brief, a CSV is a delimited text file where each value (i.e. cell of the spreadsheet) is separated by a comma. CSV can be read by spreadsheet programs such as Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.
ODC-SCI requires datasets and data dictionaries to be in CSV format when you are uploading to the ODC-SCI. You can easily convert excel (e.g. ".xls", ".xlsx") files to “.csv” files through spreadsheet programs like Excel by saving as a ".csv". For more details you can follow our tutoral
Back to the topData dictionary
A data dictionary is a file containing information about each Variable (i.e. Column) in the dataset. The data dictionary provides critical information for the interpretability and reusability of the dataset. Importantly, the data dictionary helps other users understand what each of your Variables are and any important details you include. Data dictionaries are required when publishing data with a DOI. We encourage you to submit a data dictionary with your dataset, even if you do not plan to publish the data.
For more details and a downloadable Data Dictionary template, please see “How to prepare a data dictionary (Data Dictionary Guidelines)”.
Back to the topData Spaces
Back to the topData team
Governance body responsible for curation and Quality Control (QC) of all datasets that will be released to the public space.
Back to the topDOI or Digital Object Identifier.
A DOI is a globally unique, persistent identifier that uniquely identifies a digital object such as an article, data set or protocol. ODC-SCI uses DOIs to identify datasets. The DOI of a dataset is the standard way to reference datasets in publications.
Back to the topEditorial Board
Governance body overseeing the types of datasets published by the ODC-SCI, ensuring that they are consistent with the mission of the ODC-SCI and are accompanied by high quality and complete metadata. The Editorial Board is invited to serve by the Editor in Chief.
Back to the topExecutive Board
Governance body comprising senior members of the ODC-SCI community,responsible for steering the ODC-SCI. Works with the Leadership Team to set high level policy and strategy for the governing and long term sustainability of the ODC-SCI. members of the Executive board shall initially be appointed at the discretion of the Leadership Team, however once established it will determine the method of selecting its own successors. Membership on this board will be over 1-2 terms of 3 years per term, with call meetings being held every other month.
Back to the topFAIR Data Principles
High level principles designed to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable for both humans and machines (Wilkinson et al., 2016). The principles encompass 15 guidelines designed to improve the usability of digital data. More details can be found at the GO-FAIR initiative. ODC-SCI is adopting these principles, e.g., the use of persistent identifiers, FAIR vocabularies and community standards to ensure that ODC-SCI data is FAIR. You can read more about how ODC-SCI is adopting FAIR at Fouad et al., 2019 and Torres-Espin et al., 2021
Back to the topFull member of ODC-SCI (formerly Lab Member):
Membership level granted to general members when they successfully apply to start or join a lab in the ODC-SCI. Full members can upload data, share with their lab members and other full members via the Commons. They may share individual datasets with general members on a peer to peer basis. Full members may also publish datasets to the public space with a DOI.
Back to the topGeneral member of ODC-SCI
Membership level granted when a user registers for an account and is approved by ODC-SCI Community Moderators. As a general member, other ODC-SCI members can directly share their datasets with you, including their unpublished datasets (feature under development). General membership requires that the individual is affiliated with a recognized institution subject to institutional oversight. General members agree to abide by the data use agreement regarding any datasets shared with them.
Back to the topLeadership Team
Governance body that oversees the establishment of the portal, outreach and integration of the community into decision making, and the development of the curation process. Current members comprise the PIs of current grants supporting the ODC-SCI, the head of the Community Board and other key personnel.
Back to the topMetadata
Accompanying information and documentation that provides details about your dataset. The data dictionary can be considered part of the metadata, as well as other information such as abstract, author list, associated methodology. A minimal metadata is required for publishing a dataset with DOI, and must be completed when requesting. You can read more about ODC-SCI metadata in our metadata tutorial.
Back to the topODC-SCI Data Spaces
Virtual spaces in the portal determining levels of sharing permissions within ODC-SCI. ODC-SCI currently defines 4 different data spaces or levels of data sharing: 1) Personal (account owner); 2) Lab Space: Shared with lab members; 3) Community Space (aka the Commons): Shared with ODC-SCI Full Members; 4) Public: Shared with public with a DOI. Complete metadata is viewable for all public data via the ODC-SCI public portal but download of datasets requires an account at the registered user level.
Back to the topODC-SCI Lab
Basic organizational unit on the ODC-SCI for data upload and includes Personal and Lab data spaces comprising a Principal Investigator (PI) and individuals invited to join their lab. The PI has sole discretion as to who is admitted to their lab. Requests for establishing an ODC-SCI Lab will undergo a manual review by the ODC-SCI Community Moderators or other authorized individuals to ensure that they meet the criteria for membership in the ODC-SCI:
The user making the request is verified as a PI belonging to a recognized institution
The Laboratory has agreed to operate according to the principles of the ODC-SCI, and abide by the ODC-SCI Terms and Conditions and Data Usage Agreement
Individuals joining a lab must be approved by the PI or their designee.
Back to the topORCID ID
Open Researcher and Contributor ID is a stable, unique identifier assigned to individual researchers to connect researchers to their intellectual products and affiliations. The ORCID is a digital handle that unambiguously identifies an individual researcher and is maintained independently of a particular institution. Two researchers with the same name will have unique ORCIDs and unlike an email, the ORCID does not change when a researcher changes institutions. ODC-SCI requires that the PI and the contact person provide their ORCID IDs as part of the dataset metadata, and encourages provisioning of ORCIDs for all contributors so that researchers can get credit for datasets published. ODC-SCI now allows researchers to create an account in ODC-SCI using their ORCIDs which automatically associates any datasets authored in ODC-SCI with their ORCID ID. ODC-SCI also allows and encourages Researchers can register for a ORCID at orcid.org.
Back to the topPrincipal Investigator (PI)
Head of a laboratory or research group at a recognized institution. The PI is the individual within the laboratory or group that has the authority and rights to make s final decisions about what, when and with whom to share data using the ODC-SCI. Within ODC-SCI, the PI is considered the owner and responsible party for all data uploaded by members of the PI’s lab and must sign off on all datasets shared to the Commons or the Public spaces.
Back to the topPublic dataset
Dataset that has been made public with a DOI through the ODC-SCI publication process. Registered users as well as ODC-SCI members have access to the public data space, where all public datasets can be found.
Back to the topRegistered user of the ODC-SCI
An individual who has signed up for an account and verified their email address. Registration requires no additional approval and allows the account holder to download public data.
Back to the topRequest DOI
Process by which members of the ODC-SCI can submit their datasets for quality control and generate a DOI. The final product of this process is a public dataset with a citation and a DOI. To know more about what you need to get your dataset ready for publication and request a DOI, check our tutorials.
Back to the topScicrunch
Software platform on which ODC-SCI is developed. Scicrunch is developed and maintained by the FAIR Data Informatics Lab at UCSD for providing unified search across independently maintained databases and other data resources. The platform includes data ingestion, curation tools and vocabulary services.
Back to the topUnpublished dataset
A dataset that has not been published to the ODC-SCI Public Data Space with a DOI. Unpublished data may be private to an individual, shared within a lab or shared in the Community Data Space.
Back to the topVerified Lab
An ODC-SCI Lab that has undergone review by the ODC-SCI to ensure that they meet requirements for participating in the ODC-SCI:
The lab head is a PI belonging to a recognized institution
The Laboratory has agreed to operate according to the principles of the ODC-SCI, and abide by the ODC-SCI Terms and Conditions and Data Usage Agreement.
About
Spinal cord injury (SCI) produces a complex syndrome characterized by loss of motor control and mobility; loss of bladder, bowel and sexual function; pathological pain; and loss of autonomy. The multifaceted nature of SCI presents a challenge for the translational pipeline. This problem of SCI complexity can be conceptualized as a big-data issue: the field needs a forum for large-scale data-sharing and application of advanced analytics to catalyze SCI discoveries. Various funders and publishers have recognized this need as well currently implementing data sharing mandates.
To address this challenge the SCI research community is assembling a large database through collaborative and FAIR data sharing. We are a digital infrastructure with the goal to democratize SCI data, allowing researchers to access existing SCI data, contribute their own, and publish with citable DOI. Learn more
Recent News Entries
Contact Us
Use the Contact help desk button on the right bottom corner of your screen.
Send us an email at info@odc-sci.org. Please allow 2-3 business days for a response.
