Contributing to and extending the BIDS specification
This page lists some ways that you can get involved with the BIDS community.
Contributing to BIDS
There are many ways to get involved with the BIDS community!
The BIDS Starter Kit
If you're new to the BIDS community and you'd like to learn a bit more, we recommend checking out the BIDS Starter Kit. This has introductory information about the BIDS specification, tools in the BIDS ecosystem, and how you can get involved.
The BIDS Contributor guide
If you'd like to get involved more heavily in helping extend the BIDS specification or develop tools for it, see the BIDS Contributor Guide. It contains more in-depth information for getting involved with the BIDS community.
BIDS Extension Proposals
The BIDS specification can be extended in a backwards compatible way and will evolve over time. These are accomplished with BIDS Extension Proposals (BEPs), which are community-driven processes.
Below is a table of currently-active BEPs. The "Extension label" column provides a direct link to the documentation.
| Extension label | Title | Moderators/ leads | Summary | Blocking point(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEP001 | Structural acquisitions that include multiple contrasts (multi echo, flip angle, inversion time) sequences | Gilles de Hollander and Kirstie Whitaker | The draft BEP is nearly ready to be submitted as a PR. | A few items need to be revised and a final decision made. |
| BEP002 | The BIDS Models Specification | Tal Yarkoni | Working with the computational models group for consistency. Starting with fMRI then extend to other modalities. | An item that is blocking progress is transformed data. |
| BEP003 | Common Derivatives | Available | Need a leader to help finish push this to completion. | An item that is blocking progress is coordinate systems. |
| BEP004 | Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) | Available | Looking for a new leader. | Searching for a new leader. |
| BEP005 | Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) | Henk-Jan Mutsaerts and Michael Chappell | Very close to completion. This includes finalizing the implementation in the validator and drafting the manuscript. | None. |
| BEP009 | Positron Emission Tomography (PET) | Melanie Ganz | Very close to completion. This includes finalizing the standard and writing the paper. | None. |
| BEP011 | The structural preprocessing derivatives | Andrew Hoopes | Have finalized the surface-based and volumetric overlays (and stats), differentiate between discrete and probabilistic segmentation. The next step for this BEP is standardizing the universal look-up table and characterizing surfaces. | None. |
| BEP012 | The functional preprocessing derivatives | Camille Maumet and Chris Markiewicz | None. | |
| BEP013 | The resting state fMRI derivatives | Steven Giavasis | Merged into BEP012 | None. |
| BEP014 | The affine transformations and nonlinear field warps | Oscar Esteban | A new file format (X5) to store spatial transforms is being created, and a draft proposal has been discussed under the scope of this BEP. A software prototype demonstrating X5 is currently under development. | In progress. |
| BEP015 | Mapping file | Eric Earl, Camille Maumet, and Vasudev Raguram | Comments in BEP suggest this could be a tool rather than a BEP. This BEP is looking for thoughts and contributions. | Thoughts and contributions. |
| BEP016 | The diffusion weighted imaging derivatives | Franco Pestilli and Oscar Esteban | Being discussed in a GitHub repository | |
| BEP017 | Generic BIDS connectivity data schema | Eugene Duff and Paul McCarthy | This BEP is searching for a reviewer with fresh eyes that understands the scope of this BEP. | None. |
| BEP018 | Genetic information | Cyril R Pernet, Clara Moreau, and Thomas Nichols | Submitted a pull request for review | None. |
| BEP019 | DICOM Metadata | Satrajit Ghosh | Not active - perhaps this is in the 20% of use cases. Could be a NIDM extension rather than in BIDS. | None. |
| BEP020 | Eye Tracking including Gaze Position and Pupil Size(ET) | Benjamin Gagl and Dejan Draschkow | BEP is progressing and reaching consensus on items. | Small issues are blocking completion. |
| BEP021 | Common Electrophysiological Derivatives | Mainak Jas, Stefan Appelhoff, Cyril Pernet, Robert Oostenveld, Teon Brooks | Work has resumed since merging in EEG and iEEG. Next steps are to distribute a survey to gather what derivatives researchers care about, create example datasets to understand practical issues, and updates to the validator. | A few blocking items is what file format may be best suited and annotations. |
| BEP022 | Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) | Dickson Wong | This is stalled effort, but trying to restart. | Restarting the effort. |
| BEP023 | PET Preprocessing derivatives | Martin Noergaard, Graham Searle, Melanie Ganz | Work is paused until BEP009 manuscript has been submitted/accepted. | A blocking item is the need for more contributors, especially from senior PET experts. |
| BEP024 | Computed Tomography scan (CT) | Hugo Boniface | This effort has stalled and looking for more contributors and experts. | None. |
| BEP025 | Medical Population Imaging Data structure (MIDS) | Jose Manuel Saborit Torres, Maria de la Iglesia Vayá | This BEP is working on the automated recognition of the DICOM sequence and writing the manuscript. | None. |
| BEP026 | Microelectrode Recordings (MER) | Greydon Gilmore | Active effort. Looking for thoughts and contributions | None. |
When an extension reaches maturity it is merged into the main body of the specification. Below is a table of BEPs that have been merged in the main body of the specification.
| Extension label | Title | Moderators/leads |
|---|---|---|
| BEP006 | Electroencephalograpgy (EEG) | Cyril Pernet, Stefan Appelhoff, Robert Oostenveld |
| BEP007 | Hierarchical Event Descriptor (HED) Tags | Chris Gorgolewski |
| BEP008 | Magnetoencephalography (MEG) | Guiomar Niso |
| BEP010 | intracranial Electroencephalograpgy (iEEG) | Chris Holdgraf, Dora Hermes |
All of the extension ideas that are not backwards compatible and thus will have to wait for BIDS 2.0 are listed here.