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| 1 | +# Longitudinal and multi-site studies |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Multiple sessions (visits) are encoded by adding an extra layer of directories |
| 4 | +and [filenames](common-principles.md#filenames) |
| 5 | +in the form of a session (for example `ses-<label>`) and |
| 6 | +with a [`*_sessions.tsv` file](modality-agnostic-files.md#sessions-file). |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +<!-- This block generates a file tree. |
| 9 | +A guide for using macros can be found at |
| 10 | + https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-specification/blob/master/macros_doc.md |
| 11 | +--> |
| 12 | +{{ MACROS___make_filetree_example( |
| 13 | + { |
| 14 | + "sub-control01": { |
| 15 | + "ses-predrug": { |
| 16 | + "anat": { |
| 17 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_T1w.nii.gz": "", |
| 18 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_T1w.json": "", |
| 19 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_T2w.nii.gz": "", |
| 20 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_T2w.json": "", |
| 21 | + }, |
| 22 | + "func": { |
| 23 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_task-nback_bold.nii.gz": "", |
| 24 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_task-nback_bold.json": "", |
| 25 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_task-nback_events.tsv": "", |
| 26 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_task-nback_physio.tsv.gz": "", |
| 27 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_task-nback_physio.json": "", |
| 28 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_task-nback_sbref.nii.gz": "", |
| 29 | + }, |
| 30 | + "dwi": { |
| 31 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_dwi.nii.gz": "", |
| 32 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_dwi.bval": "", |
| 33 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_dwi.bvec": "", |
| 34 | + }, |
| 35 | + "fmap": { |
| 36 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_phasediff.nii.gz": "", |
| 37 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_phasediff.json": "", |
| 38 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_magnitude1.nii.gz": "", |
| 39 | + }, |
| 40 | + "sub-control01_ses-predrug_scans.tsv": "", |
| 41 | + }, |
| 42 | + "ses-postdrug": { |
| 43 | + "func": { |
| 44 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_task-nback_bold.nii.gz": "", |
| 45 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_task-nback_bold.json": "", |
| 46 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_task-nback_events.tsv": "", |
| 47 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_task-nback_physio.tsv.gz": "", |
| 48 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_task-nback_physio.json": "", |
| 49 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_task-nback_sbref.nii.gz": "", |
| 50 | + }, |
| 51 | + "fmap": { |
| 52 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_phasediff.nii.gz": "", |
| 53 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_phasediff.json": "", |
| 54 | + "sub-control01_ses-postdrug_magnitude1.nii.gz": "", |
| 55 | + } |
| 56 | + }, |
| 57 | + "sub-control01_sessions.tsv": "", |
| 58 | + }, |
| 59 | + "participants.tsv": "", |
| 60 | + "dataset_description.json": "", |
| 61 | + "README": "", |
| 62 | + "CHANGES": "", |
| 63 | + } |
| 64 | +) }} |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +`sub-control01_sessions.tsv` content: |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +```Text |
| 69 | +session_id acq_time systolic_blood_pressure |
| 70 | +ses-predrug 2009-06-15T13:45:30 120 |
| 71 | +ses-postdrug 2009-06-16T13:45:30 100 |
| 72 | +``` |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +See this [example dataset](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-examples/tree/master/7t_trt) |
| 75 | +that has been formatted |
| 76 | +using this specification and can be used |
| 77 | +for practical guidance when curating a new longitudinal dataset. |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | +## Multi-site or multi-center studies |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +This version of the BIDS specification does not explicitly cover studies with |
| 82 | +data coming from multiple sites or multiple centers (such extension is planned |
| 83 | +in [BIDS `2.0`](https://github.com/bids-standard/bids-2-devel). |
| 84 | +There are however ways to model your data without any loss in terms of metadata. |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | +### Option 1: Treat each site/center as a separate dataset |
| 87 | + |
| 88 | +The simplest way of dealing with multiple sites is to treat data from each site |
| 89 | +as a separate and independent BIDS dataset with a separate participants.tsv and |
| 90 | +other metadata files. This way you can feed each dataset individually to BIDS |
| 91 | +Apps and everything should just work. |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +### Option 2: Combining sites/centers into one dataset |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +Alternatively you can combine data from all sites into one dataset. To identify |
| 96 | +which site each subjects comes from you can add a `site` column in the |
| 97 | +`participants.tsv` file indicating the source site. This solution allows you to |
| 98 | +analyze all of the subjects together in one dataset. One caveat is that subjects |
| 99 | +from all sites will have to have unique labels. To enforce that and improve |
| 100 | +readability you can use a subject label prefix identifying the site. For example |
| 101 | +`sub-NUY001`, `sub-MIT002`, `sub-MPG002` and so on. Remember that hyphens and |
| 102 | +underscores are not allowed in subject labels. |
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