Skip to main content

Umbrella menu

  • SfN.org
  • eNeuro
  • The Journal of Neuroscience
  • Neuronline
  • BrainFacts.org

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Latest Articles
    • Issue Archive
    • Editorials
    • Research Highlights
  • TOPICS
    • Cognition and Behavior
    • Development
    • Disorders of the Nervous System
    • History, Teaching and Public Awareness
    • Integrative Systems
    • Neuronal Excitability
    • Novel Tools and Methods
    • Sensory and Motor Systems
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • For the Media
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Feedback
  • SfN.org
  • eNeuro
  • The Journal of Neuroscience
  • Neuronline
  • BrainFacts.org

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
eNeuro
  • My alerts

eNeuro

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Latest Articles
    • Issue Archive
    • Editorials
    • Research Highlights
  • TOPICS
    • Cognition and Behavior
    • Development
    • Disorders of the Nervous System
    • History, Teaching and Public Awareness
    • Integrative Systems
    • Neuronal Excitability
    • Novel Tools and Methods
    • Sensory and Motor Systems
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • For the Media
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Feedback
PreviousNext
Editorial

Open Source Tools and Methods: A New Category of Short Papers to Share Knowledge, Accelerate Research, and Acknowledge Those Who Develop Such Tools and Methods

Christophe Bernard
eNeuro 5 September 2019, 6 (5) ENEURO.0342-19.2019; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0342-19.2019
Christophe Bernard
Editor-in-Chief
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Christophe Bernard
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

I am excited to introduce a new type of paper at eNeuro to provide a venue to share open-source tools and methods.

Neuroscience relies heavily on the development of new tools to perform research and methods to acquire and analyze data. For example, there is a considerable amount of developed knowledge in terms of tools and methods behind fMRI. With the acquisition of very large datasets, such as thousands of cells simultaneously recorded with optical or electrophysiological equipment, laboratories must develop specific tools and methods, often in-house, to acquire and analyze data. We can anticipate the development of tools to extract relevant information from multidimensional datasets, big data, etc. For such types of papers, we already have the Methods/New Tools submission type. But the development of tools and methods is not limited to major pieces of equipment, large software, etc. We will always need a low-cost device to measure animal behavior, a new biophysical model of a single neuron, a better method to realign images when performing in vivo two-photon imaging, scripts and codes to analyze signals, etc. Such tools and methods often end up being published in the Materials and Methods section of a paper. However, such tools and methods may be very useful to the community if they could be made available to all of us in a plug-and-play manner. See the recent commentary by White et al. (2019) for more information on the benefits of open source in neuroscience. And as there is no publication venue dedicated explicitly to Open Source Tools and Methods in neuroscience, we decided to create one at eNeuro.

The requirements are relatively simple. The papers should be short and fully describe the tool or the method so that other scientists can use them without having to contact the authors for details.

Introducing this new type of papers offers several advantages: reducing the time and money laboratories spend to reinvent methods; increasing transparency; and improving reproducibility. As importantly, it allows for acknowledgment of those who developed such tools and methods fully, often rotating students or engineers recruited on a short-duration contract. On a standard research paper, their name ends up in the middle of the list of authors, but the Open Source Tools and Methods type will allow them to be the first author.

I am sure that we all have such tools and methods stored away in our drawers, which we would like to be published and used by others (I do). This new initiative of eNeuro is for you.

eNeuro: always leading.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.

References

  1. ↵
    White SR, Amarante LM, Kravitz AV, Laubach M (2019) The future is open: open-source tools for behavioral neuroscience research. eNeuro 6:ENEURO.0223-19.2019. doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0223-19.2019
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
View Abstract
Back to top

In this issue

eneuro: 6 (5)
eNeuro
Vol. 6, Issue 5
September/October 2019
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Email

Thank you for sharing this eNeuro article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Open Source Tools and Methods: A New Category of Short Papers to Share Knowledge, Accelerate Research, and Acknowledge Those Who Develop Such Tools and Methods
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from eNeuro
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in eNeuro.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Open Source Tools and Methods: A New Category of Short Papers to Share Knowledge, Accelerate Research, and Acknowledge Those Who Develop Such Tools and Methods
Christophe Bernard
eNeuro 5 September 2019, 6 (5) ENEURO.0342-19.2019; DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0342-19.2019

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Share
Open Source Tools and Methods: A New Category of Short Papers to Share Knowledge, Accelerate Research, and Acknowledge Those Who Develop Such Tools and Methods
Christophe Bernard
eNeuro 5 September 2019, 6 (5) ENEURO.0342-19.2019; DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0342-19.2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • On Fallacies in Neuroscience
  • Calling Names
  • Optogenetics: Keep Interpretations Light
Show more Editorial
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Latest Articles
  • Issue Archive
  • Blog
  • Browse by Topic

Information

  • For Authors
  • For the Media

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Feedback
(eNeuro logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2021 by the Society for Neuroscience.
eNeuro eISSN: 2373-2822

The ideas and opinions expressed in eNeuro do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the eNeuro Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in eNeuro should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in eNeuro.