Share data, but do it right
In February 2025, the Konstanz project "NODES" received the Open Science Award of the Young European Research University Network (Yerun). The aim of the project is to establish a new standard for archiving and sharing research data from the field of psychoneuroendocrinology.
In traditional, "closed" research, data and methods are often difficult or impossible to access, even for specialist colleagues. This impairs the traceability of study results as well as their reproducibility and further use, which in turn can impact the credibility of research. Using open science practices – for example the unrestricted sharing of research data – provides a pathway to improving the transparency of research.
But simply sharing research data is often not enough. In many cases, the data sets are extremely complex, and the interpretation of data can depend heavily on the context in which it was collected. One research field to which this applies in particular is psychoneuroendocrinology. This subdiscipline of psychology lies at the interface of medicine and biology and studies the reciprocal interactions between behaviour and hormones.
Context is key
"The concentrations of hormones in our body are subject to strong fluctuations, which can depend significantly on a given situation and the time of measurement. Therefore, you can only ensure a reasonable interpretation of hormonal data if you have precise knowledge of the context in which it was collected," explains Maria Meier, postdoctoral researcher in the lab team of Jens Pruessner at the Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz. In many studies, however, this context is not adequately described, even when the underlying data is made freely available with good intentions.
Jointly with colleagues from the Amsterdam University Medical Center, Meier and Pruessner have now initiated the development of a standard format for free research data in psychoneuroendocrinology under the project title "NODES" (short for "Neuroendocrinology Open Data Exchange Standard"). By also recording relevant additional information related to the data collection, this standard will ensure that all important contextual information is supplied in a comprehensible way in addition to the mere measurement data. At the same time, the project aims to generate technical aids that make it as easy as possible for other researchers to convert their own datasets into the new standard format.
"We hope that this will lead to more data in our research field being shared publicly in the future, in a form that enables other researchers to reuse it in a meaningful way", says Meier.
An initiative worthy of an award
In February 2025, an international jury of the Young European Research University Network (Yerun) presented NODES with one of this year's four Yerun Open Science Awards, confirming the great significance of the project. The award, which grants each winning project 2,000 euros, highlights outstanding initiatives at Yerun universities that promote the concept of Open Science based on transparency, reproducibility, reusability and open communication.