How do we know what we know? Discovering neuroscience data sets through minimal metadata

Sean Hill explains why the growing importance of data-intensive neuroscience makes it crucial for the community to establish minimal metadata standards With the emergence of brain research initiatives around the world, the need for standards to facilitate neuroscience data sharing is growing. A crucial first step will be to establish a minimal metadata standard that allows the discovery of and access to similar or related data sets. This will be a key element of an open neuroscience-data ecosystem in which data is valued, preserved and reused.