General Metadata¶

Every dataset must contain the following three files at the root level of the repository:

└── your_repository/
    ├── README.md
    ├── CITATION.cff
    ├── dataset_description.json
    ├── participants.json
    ├── participants.tsv
    └── sub-01/
        └── ses-01/

Template files for all three are provided in your dataset repository as template issues. The sections below explain each file and its fields in detail.

CITATION.cff¶

The CITATION.cff file describes how your dataset should be cited. At the ANC it serves two additional purpose:

• The citation and author entry of the dataset website is generated from this file

Fields¶

Authors

Each author entry should include:

• given-names and family-names
• email — institutional email address
• orcid — strongly recommended; use the full URL format https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000
• affiliation — use the ROR URL of the institution where possible (e.g. https://ror.org/05gs8cd61)

Preferred citation

Use preferred-citation to link the dataset to its associated journal article. Include at minimum: authors, title, type: article, year, and doi.

cff-version: 1.2.0
title: Title of the dataset
message: >-
  If you use this dataset, please cite both the article from
  preferred-citation and the dataset itself.
type: dataset
authors:
  - given-names: John
    family-names: Doe
    email: john.doe@plus.ac.at
    affiliation: 'https://ror.org/05gs8cd61'
    orcid: 'https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4925-7248'
  - given-names: Second
    family-names: Author
    email: second.author@plus.ac.at
    affiliation: 'https://ror.org/05gs8cd61'
    orcid: 'https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4925-7248'
keywords:
  - cognitive science
  - BIDS
abstract: >-
  A short description of the dataset, its purpose, and what
  it contains. This text appears on the dataset website.
license-url: https://handbook.anc.plus.ac.at/terms/anc_license_1.0.0.html
url: "https://bids-datasets.data-pages.anc.plus.ac.at/group/slug/"
repository-code: https://data.anc.plus.ac.at/bids-datasets/group/slug
preferred-citation:
  authors:
    - family-names: Doe
      given-names: John
  title: Title of the associated journal article
  type: article
  year: 2024
  doi: 10.9999/example.doi

dataset_description.json¶

This file contains machine-readable metadata about the dataset following the BIDS specification.

Fields¶

Funding

List each funding source as a separate string. Include grant numbers where available.

"Funding": [
    "Austrian Science Fund (FWF): P12345",
    "European Research Council (ERC): 987654"
]

Ethics approvals

List each ethics approval as a separate string. Include the name of the ethics committee and the protocol identifier.

"EthicsApprovals": [
    "Ethics Committee of the University of Salzburg: GZ 23/2021"
]

{
    "Name": "Name of the dataset",
    "BIDSVersion": "1.11.1",
    "HEDVersion": "8.4.0",
    "DatasetType": "raw",
    "Funding": [
        "List of funding sources (grant numbers)."
    ],
    "EthicsApprovals": [
        "List of ethics committee approvals of the research protocols and/or protocol identifiers."
    ]
}

README.md¶

The README is the first thing a user sees when accessing your dataset. It is also displayed publicly on the dataset website. Write it for an audience who is unfamiliar with your specific study.

Required sections¶

Overview¶

Start with a short paragraph describing the goal and purpose of the dataset and what makes it valuable. Then provide the following subsections:

Description of contents — what type of data, which tasks, and how many subjects.

Independent variables — the condition variables that were varied across the experiment.

- hearing impaired vs. normal hearing participants
- familiar vs. unfamiliar faces
- congruent vs. incongruent trials

Dependent variables — the response variables that were measured.

- reaction times
- BOLD signal
- accuracy

Control variables — what was explicitly held constant.

- age range
- stimulus length
- background noise level

Quality assessment — link to the quality report in the derivatives folder.

Methods¶

Document how the data was collected:

• Subjects — recruitment procedure, inclusion/exclusion criteria
• Apparatus — equipment and environment setup
• Initial setup — what was done when a participant arrived
• Task organization — task order, counterbalancing, interspersed activities
• Task details — detailed description of tasks and recorded events
• Additional data acquired — questionnaires, behavioral data, or other data not in the main BIDS structure
• Experimental location — geographic location and facility details

Missing data¶

Document any participants missing data or known issues in collected files. Use the following table formats:

Missing files

Known issues

Data access and reuse¶

• Data user agreement — link to the relevant agreement if applicable
• Contact person — name, email, and ORCID of the person responsible for queries

References¶

List any references cited in the README.