Open Acquisition

How to share your magnetic resonance imaging acquisition sequences

open-acquisition

Purpose

The Open Acquisition working group have developed a database for scanner protocols with a web interface to enable protocols to be shared both across WIN and externally. The database provides access to standard protocols and to the latest experimental protocols and where these have been uploaded by WIN members.

Each deposited protocol contains all information necessary to reproduce that sequence on an appropriately licensed scanner, allowing yourself and others to have a permanent and full record of your data acquisition methodology.

Coming soon

THIS TOOL IS CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT. PLEASE REFER TO THE INFORMATION BELOW TO UNDERSTAND THE AIM AND AMBITION OF THIS PROJECT. THE “HOW TO” GUIDE WILL BE BUILT BY THE COMMUNITY AND TOOL DEVELOPERS IN THE COMING MONTHS.

For WIN members

Version control

The acquisition database is version controlled, so WIN members are invited to upload their protocols during pilotting to keep track of optimisation and final versions. Comments and notes can be added to each entry to you can keep well structured documentation about why certain decisions were made. You can also link database entries with acquired data held on the Open Data server

Citable research output

Versions (with minor and major edits) can be assigned a digital object identified (DOI) using the Oxford Research Archive (ORA) Data repository using the stable link provided by the acquisition database. Once a DOI has been created, your acquisition protocol becomes a citable object which you can add to your list of research outputs.

Reproducible methods detail

Depositing your acquisition protocol in the database is as simple as uploading the sequence pdf available from the scanner console, or alternatively you can upload the .exar file used by our Siemens scanners. All sequence detail is captured from either document, and parsed into a unified machine readable and searchable format. You can upload a single sequence, or all sequences used in a single imaging session (a protocol) together.

For external researchers

External users will be able to search the database for acquisition protocols which individual research teams have chosen to make openly available. These may be deposited to support publications as supplementary methods material, or they may form the main body of research in acquisition sequence development.

Both internal and external users can search the database using keyword terms based on anatomy, the imaging system, sequence types, or the theoretical application.

How to use

Access

Access the Open Acquisition Database (requires a connection to the FMRIB VPN)

Coming soon

Detailed guidance on how to use the Open Acquisition database will be produced during one of our documentation hacks

Working group members (alphabetically)

We are grateful to the following WIN members for their contributions to developing the Open Acquisition database