Why would scientists share data?

F1000Research is an open access journal for life scientists, with rapid publication, transparent peer review (post-publication) and full data deposition and sharing. Open Access Journal have been widely discussed. I have talked about it here. However, sharing data is barely discussed. This journal has recently shared their experience with data openness:
http://blog.f1000research.com/2013/03/14/data-why-openness-and-sharing-are-important/

They raised several important questions, such as verification of results/conclusions, attracting collaborators or establish that you were the first to obtain those data. Scientists have also been questioned about their views and reported in Data Sharing by Scientists: Practices and Perceptions.

As a researcher, I have sometimes data which I would like to share (patient data can't be shared of course...), but I am torn between "I can't write a paper about the data itself" and "If I share it without caution, someone will use my data and not even acknowledge me and it gave me so much work!".

Did you ever considered sharing your data?

RSS feed for medical imaging journals

RSS is a protocol for feeding updates of websites, either blogs, newspapers and even academic journals. This protocol was created by recently deceased Aaron Swartz (NYTimes article). If you are a researcher, you might find it difficult to know the latest papers published or keep track of your favorite journal publications. I personally use Google Reader to keep track of journals and blogs. You just have to subscribe to the journal and/or blog.

For this blog, you can simply use knowyourimages.blogspot.com.
For journals, you have to find the correct address. I put here some of my favorite journals RSS feeds:

• Physics in Medicine and Biology: http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9155/?rss=1
• IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/rss/TOC42.XML
• Neuroimage: http://rss.sciencedirect.com/publication/science/6968
• Medical Physics: http://online.medphys.org/search_rss?q=+&searchtype=searchin&faceted=faceted&searchzone=2&fromdate=&todate=&ignoredates=true&alias=&key=MPHYA6&fromvolume=&fromissue=&tovolume=&toissue=&sortby=newestdate&recordspage=25&possible1=&possible1zone=multi&bool1=and&possible2=&possible2zone=multi&bool2=and&possible3=&possible3zone=multi&figtabcap=&submit1=Display+Results&rss=rss&rsstitle=Medical%20Physics

Do you recommend other RSS feeds?

Open-source journals

Among researchers, there has been great discussion about journals and their subscriptions. The main argument is that journals are making money easily: researchers write the articles and other researchers review them for free, while universities and institutes are paying expensive subscriptions fees to access those articles. Therefore, many researchers are turning their papers to open-source journals. In this case, the access to the articles is free, while researchers pay to publish their articles. As a open-source fan, I was always thinking how great it is that things are changing, until I read an opinion article from Simon Cherry. Simon Cherry is the new Editor-in-Chief of the journal, “Physics in Medicine and Biology”. The journal is one of the top-ranked biomedical engineering journals.I have talked with Simon Cherry about my work in conferences and I greatly admire him. Just last year, in Anaheim NSS/MIC conference, he was awarded "The Edward J. Hoffman Medical Imaging Scientist Award"and his speech was just great to hear!

Simon Cherry's article "Open Access and PMB"
Short article about his new role:
http://www.bme.ucdavis.edu/articles/2011/10/06/simon-cherry-editor-physics-medicine-biology/Si
Simon Cherry's Lab:
http://www.bme.ucdavis.edu/cherrylab/

20 years of fMRI

Functional MRI (fMRI) is a technique with 20 years. In medical imaging terms, it is now in its adolescence. To commemorate, the journal Neuroimage published an issue dedicated to this topic. It covers every aspect of fMRI from history, reviews, the future and even tools such as FSL and SPM. There are 100 papers to read!


The article "Twenty years of functional MRI: The science and the stories" is great to read because it takes us for a ride into the first years of fMRI. I put here an interesting example about the first fMRI image: "Belliveau used an approach involving two sequential injections of Gadolinium during time series EPI data collection to create maps of cerebral blood volume before and during visual stimulation. The subtraction of these two blood volume maps (active minus rest) produced the now iconic image on the cover of the November 1, 1991 issue of Science (Belliveau et al., 1991)."

As a still young researcher and not an MRI expert, I enjoyed reading about such details!

I recommend also the article "The future of fMRI in cognitive neuroscience". In this article, the neuroscientist describes the hopes he has for fMRI future and I couldn't agree more, specially with "Methodological rigor" and "Open science and data aggregation".


Links:
Twenty years of functional MRI: The science and the stories
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811912004223
The future of fMRI in cognitive neuroscience
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811911008949

Neuroimage Complete Issue
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10538119/62/2