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SODA for SPARC

Keep Calm and Curate!

Your one-stop tool for curating and submitting SPARC datasets
By SPARC investigators, for SPARC investigators

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Screenshot of SODA for SPARC

About

SODA (Software to Organize Data Automatically) for SPARC is a cross-platform desktop software that allows SPARC-funded researchers to easily comply with the FAIR SPARC Data curation and sharing guidelines.

What is SPARC?

The NIH's Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program seeks to accelerate development of therapeutic devices that modulate electrical activity in nerves to improve organ function.

What are the FAIR SPARC Data Guidelines?

All SPARC-funded researchers must curate their datasets following the SPARC Data Standards (SDS) and share them openly on the Pennsieve data platform as per their funding agreement with SPARC.

What are the challenges?

The guidelines are very exhaustive to maximize FAIRness of SPARC datasets but are challenging and time-consuming for researchers to implement.

What does SODA for SPARC do?

SODA for SPARC combines intuitive user interfaces and automation such that researchers can efficiently and accurately curate their SPARC datasets.

Impact on SPARC datasets

Trusted by researchers all over the world

169k+

Files touched

206+

Datasets modified

14+ TB

Data uploaded

Development Approach

SODA for SPARC is distributed as an open-source application with an MIT License. Anyone is free to fork our GitHub repository and make their own changes if they would like. If you would like to submit a feature modification, or feature suggestion, please feel free to submit an issue on the repository.

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Funding

SODA for SPARC is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s SPARC program. The funding was initially provided as a supplement to an existing SPARC award at CalMI2during the first phase of development before now having a standalone award.

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Research Partners

SODA for SPARC connects with several resources developed by the SPARC Data Resource Center (DRC) and we therefore collaborate actively with the DRC teams throughout our development process.

Timeline

December 2018 - Birth of SODA for SPARC

The first prototype of SODA for SPARC is developed during the 2018 NIH SPARC Hackathon where it won the People's Choice Award.

May 2019 - Aug 2020 - Phase I development

The base framework of the software is developed and support for high-level requirements of the SDS are integrated.

Sept 2020 - Aug 2021 - Phase II development

The user interface is upgraded to become more intuitive, support is included for additional elements of the SDS, and the transition of SPARC from Blackfynn to Pennsieve is achieved.

Sept 2021 - Aug 2022 - Phase III development

Support is provided for the evolving SPARC guidelines. A Guided Mode is implement to further streamline data curation and sharing. Integration with the SDS validator is initiated.

Sept 2022 - Aug 2023 - Phase IV development

The SPARC data curation and sharing worflows will be further streamlined. Full integration will be achieved with the SDS validator and the new Pennsieve upload method. Support will be provided for the submission of non-SPARC data.

Publications

SPARC Data Structure: Rationale and Design of a FAIR Standard for Biomedical Research Data

Citation

Bandrowski, Anita, Jeffrey S. Grethe, Anna Pilko, Thomas H. Gillespie, Gabi Pine, Bhavesh Patel, Monique Surles-Zeiglera, and Maryann E. Martone. "Sparc data structure: Rationale and design of a fair standard for biomedical research data."bioRxiv (2021). doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.10.430563

SPARC: SODA, an interactive software for curating SPARC datasets

Citation

Patel, Bhavesh, Harshit Srivastava, Parya Aghasafari, and Karl Helmer. "SPARC: SODA, an interactive software for curating SPARC datasets."The FASEB Journal 34, no. S1 (2020). doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.02483