A crucial aspect of making data interoperable and reusable is using common definitions for the same things, such that data collected in one study is comparable to the data collected by others. For instance, what one researcher defines as "injury severity" is the same across the research community. However, this is extremely challenging in practice because there is generally not only a single way to define what we do in the laboratory. A solution can be common terminologies that serve as reference models and standards for defining data variables (also known as data elements). These provide information on how to name variables, and their definitions and, in some instances, define how the variables need to be collected or measured to fulfill those definitions.
The ODC uses different sets of common terminologies depending on the community and the projects supported.
These common terminologies are still in development and are likely to evolve and change over time. We can help to understand and navigate these terminologies. Contact us if you need help!
ODC-SCI community data elements (CoDEs). The ODC-SCI has a set of data elements endorsed by the community board that serves as the minimal required variables necessary for making data public through the ODC-SCI.
There are currently several federally-supported efforts to develop and update common data elements for TBI. Prominent examples are:
PRECISE-TBI CDEs. The PRE Clinical Interagency reSearch resourcE-TBI (PRECISE-TBI) project uses the ODC-TBI as a data-sharing platform. PRECISE-TBI is developing a set of CDEs for pre-clinical TBI research. Those CDEs will be available for their use as common terminology for data shared through the ODC-TBI.
TOP-NT TBI CDEs. The Translational Outcomes Project In Neurotrauma (TOP-NT) is a consortium for developing and validating clinically relevant biomarkers for traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The ODC-SCI community board has approved the definition of a set of community data elements or CoDEs and established them as a minimal set of variables required for any dataset to be published through the ODC-SCI with a DOI.
If you get used to including these variables with the following names during the preparation of your data, you will reduce the time to get a DOI!
The list below includes the required variable name (in bold font) and the definition for each CoDE. You can download an ODC data dictionary template with the CoDEs
Subject_ID: Unique identifiers for each subject in the dataset
Species: Species of the subject
Strain: Strain of the subject
Animal_origin: Vendor or origin of the animal
Age: Age of the subject at start of experiment. If age is available at different timepoints, age is provided at the corresponding time in a corresponding time/timepoint variable
Weight: Weight of the subject at start of experiment. If weight is available at different timepoints, weight is provided at the corresponding time in a corresponding time/timepoint variable
Sex: Sex of the subject
Group: Name or identifier of the experimental group at which the subject was included if any
Laboratory: Name of laboratory, usually the PI
StudyLeader: Name of person responsible for overseeing project
Exclusion_in_origin_study: Whether the subject was included in the study that originated the data. 'Total exclusion" if excluded from the entire study, otherwise, specify experiment or measures of which the animal was excluded if any. For example: animals that were run in behavior but maybe tissue is loss and excluded from histological analyses. Reasons for exclusion might be specify in the exclusion_reason variable.
Exclusion_reason: Reason by which the subject was excluded from the study that originated the data as specified in the Exclusion_in_origin_study variable
Cause_of_Death: Cause of death (e.g. perfusion/necropsy, died during surgery, euthanized for health reasons, etc)
Injury_type: Type or model of injury used in the subject (e.g. contusion, complete transaction, partial section)
Injury_device: Name of the device used for the injury
Injury_level: Spinal cord level at which the injury was performed including segment (e.g. cervical; C) and number (e.g. C5)
Injury_details: Other details referent to the injury that might be relevant to understand the severity and type of injury performed