Curation, Quality, and Compliance¶

The Austrian NeuroCloud (ANC) ensures technical quality, standards compliance, and high-quality data curation through continuous validation and stewardship workflows that apply identically to newly deposited datasets and updates to existing ones. Quality assurance is therefore not confined to a single ingest phase, but embedded in an ongoing cycle of data stewardship. ANC's curation practices exceed basic and enhanced curation levels by implementing comprehensive data-level curation, corresponding to Level D in the CoreTrustSeal definition, for all datasets. This includes not only validation, but also active editing and enrichment of deposited metadata, while preserving the original deposit and the complete history of changes. All curation activities are carried out in accordance with the terms agreed with depositors in the Transfer and License Agreement, especially point "4. Archiving".

Community Alignment¶

All datasets are deposited in the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) target format, following the ANC Data Format Requirements. While we offer support for converting data to BIDS, this remains a complementary service rather than a core offering.These requirements help ensure that metadata and documentation are understandable and actionable by the Designated Community. To further enhance dataset interpretability, ANC extends basic BIDS and standard data annotation practices in two ways:

• Participant information is harmonized with the Neurobagel data model [30], enabling integration into federated search infrastructures for neuroscience data.
• Where feasible, ANC data stewards assist depositors in annotating events using the Hierarchical Event Descriptors (HED) schema [31], facilitating fine-grained understanding of experimental conditions.

These additions ensure that ANC datasets are not only technically valid, but also semantically rich, increasing their fitness for reuse and evaluation within the Designated Community.

Where quality gaps are identified, data stewards implement the necessary changes or engage depositors in the curation process until repository standards are met. All corrections and enhancements are tracked using GitLab issues and merge requests, maintaining transparency throughout the process.

Continuous Validation¶

All datasets undergo continuous validation based on the ANC Data Format Requirements [27], which enforces compliance with the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) specification (see R08). The ANC applies stricter constraints than the basic BIDS standard by promoting certain optional elements to required status to support long-term reuse.

Every change to a dataset - whether initial deposit or later modification - is processed through GitLab CI/CD pipelines that:

• Validate the dataset structure and metadata against the current BIDS version,
• Check conformance to the ANC dataset template structure,
• Generate feedback accessible to depositors and data stewards,
• Preserve a full audit trail of versioned changes and reviewer decisions.

This reproducible and automated validation framework ensures that metadata completeness and format quality are consistently enforced, and that curatorial decisions are transparent and traceable.

Continuous Curation¶

Experienced data stewards provide expert oversight and act as peer reviewers for dataset onboarding and all dataset changes, verifying quality, completeness, and adherence to repository standards before integration. They also guide and support researchers in advanced metadata annotation, including domain-specific frameworks such as Hierarchical Event Descriptors (HED) and the Neurobagel data model. Their responsibilities and activities are specified in the Data Stewardship Policy. Curation documentation and standard procedures are maintained in Data Steward SOPs.

Curation Documentation¶

ANC guides depositors using structured dataset templates, embedded GitLab issues, and in-file instructions, such as template for README.md file that reflect repository expectations. All data and metadata changes are managed through a version-controlled environment using Git and GitLab. Git preserves original deposits unaltered, tracks every modification in the form of file differences, and enables complete transparency about who made each change, when, and why. The entire history of changes is available to data stewards and all users with access to a dataset access, or to everyone if the dataset is publicly available. The GitLab Merge Request interface facilitates detailed review workflows before accepting updates.

Managed Adaptation to Standards Evolution¶

To maintain long-term interoperability and FAIRness, data stewards monitor the development of community standards, particularly BIDS, and coordinate systematic metadata updates across affected datasets, including schema evolutions and BIDS specification changes. All validation tools are versioned and tested before repository-wide rollout. Where possible, these updates are streamlined across all datasets to minimize the need for depositor intervention, while depositors are kept informed through GitLab issues and merge requests. This ensures that quality assurance criteria evolve together with technical and disciplinary expectations. When standards updates introduce breaking changes, ANC responds through targeted dataset curation, guided by structured GitLab issue workflows and reviewed by data stewards.