The structure of behavioral data

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Behaverse Data Model (BDM), a standard for structuring behavioral data to facilitate reuse, analysis, and scientific progress across various fields.

Contribution

It proposes the BDM as a new standard for organizing behavioral data, addressing the lack of standardization that hampers data sharing and analysis.

Findings

Development of the Behaverse Data Model (BDM) standard.

Facilitates data reuse and integration across studies.

Aims to improve data processing and tool development.

Abstract

For more than a century, scientists have been collecting behavioral data--an increasing fraction of which is now being publicly shared so other researchers can reuse them to replicate, integrate or extend past results. Although behavioral data is fundamental to many scientific fields, there is currently no widely adopted standard for formatting, naming, organizing, describing or sharing such data. This lack of standardization is a major bottleneck for scientific progress. Not only does it prevent the effective reuse of data, it also affects how behavioral data in general are processed, as non-standard data calls for custom-made data analysis code and prevents the development of efficient tools. To address this problem, we develop the Behaverse Data Model (BDM), a standard for structuring behavioral data. Here we focus on major concepts in behavioral data, leaving further details and developments to the project's website (https://behaverse.github.io/data-model/).