Abstract
Insect neuroscience generates vast amounts of highly diverse data, of which only a small fraction are findable, accessible and reusable. To promote an open data culture, we have therefore developed the InsectBrainDatabase (IBdb), a free online platform for insect neuroanatomical and functional data. The IBdb facilitates biological insight by enabling effective cross-species comparisons, by linking neural structure with function, and by serving as general information hub for insect neuroscience. The IBdb allows users to not only effectively locate and visualize data, but to make them widely available for easy, automated reuse via an application programming interface. A unique private mode of the database expands the IBdb functionality beyond public data deposition, additionally providing the means for managing, visualizing, and sharing of unpublished data. This dual function creates an incentive for data contribution early in data management workflows and eliminates the additional effort normally associated with publicly depositing research data.
Highlights
Data are the essence of what science delivers - to society, to researchers, to engineers, to entrepreneurs
The ‘Insect Brain Database’ (IBdb) can be found on the internet at insectbraindb.org and is freely available to everyone. It can be used with most modern web browsers with active Javascript on computers running any operating system, without the need for any additional plugins
An entry for a pontine neuron of the fan-shaped body in the monarch butterfly would become linked to the brain regions ‘fan-shaped body/central body upper division’ and its parent region ‘central complex’, as well as to ‘monarch butterfly’ as species
Summary
Data are the essence of what science delivers - to society, to researchers, to engineers, to entrepreneurs These data enable progress, as they provide the basis on which new experiments are designed, new machines are developed, and from which new ideas emerge. While research papers report conclusions that are based on data and present summaries and analyses, the underlying data most often remain unavailable, despite their value beyond the original context. Whereas this is changing in many fields and the use of open data repositories becomes increasingly mandatory upon publication of a research paper, this is not ubiquitous and older data remain inaccessible in most instances. The difficulties result from large file sizes of image stacks, high-speed videos, or recorded voltage traces, and from the heterogeneous data structure often generated by custom designed software or equipment
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
