Outreach Plan

Broad engagement with the neuroscience community is necessary for the optimization, integration, and adoption of the Resource components.

We conduct five types of outreach activities that require different approaches:

1. Precursor Projects

Our Selection Process requires a "Precursor Project" for any new experiment modality to be included in DataJoint Elements. A precursor project is a project that develops a DataJoint pipeline for its own experiments either independently or in collaboration with our team. We reach out to teams who develop DataJoint pipelines for new experiment paradigms and modalities to identify essential design motifs, analysis tools, and related tools and interfaces. We interview the core team to learn about their collaborative culture, practices, and procedures. We jointly review their open-source code and their plans for dissemination. In many cases, our team already collaborates with such teams through our other projects and we have a good understanding of their process. As we develop a new Element to support the new modality, we remain in contact with the team to include their contribution, solicit feedback, and evaluate design tradeoffs. When the new Element is released, a full attribution is given to the Precursor Project.

Rationale: The Resource does not aim to develop fundamentally new solutions for neurophysiology data acquisition and analysis. Rather it aims to systematize and disseminate existing open-source tools proven in leading research projects.

2. Tool Developers

DataJoint pipelines rely on analysis tools, atlases, data standards, archives and catalogs, and other neuroinformatics resources developed and maintained by the broader scientific community. To ensure sustainability of the Resource, we reach out to the tool developer to establish joint sustainability roadmaps.