General questions

Brainhack Global (BHG) is an umbrella term for all the hacking events run all around the world that brings reserchers from variety of subfields of neuroscience and in different seniority level to share open science practices and encourage the knowledge transfer across the community. The Brainhack Global is run by a central organizing committee, which is constituted by a volunteer team of researchers from a variety of research institutions. The team coordinates and helps in the planning and organization of the local events all around the world and is in charge of designing the proceedings of Brainhack Global as well as maintaining the Brainhack Global materials, websites, and social accounts. Brainhack Global does not run a central hacking event on their own, but shares the information, materials, and broadcasts from all local event sites during the defined event period. Local event sites refer to the local Brainhack events, where a group of researchers from local institutes comes together and runs hacking events for any period of time throughout of the year. These local events are entirely independent in designing their program and event schedule, tutorial materials, recruiting their attendees and speakers, and finding their funding and venues. The events might include educational tutorials, unconferences, hacking, and social events. The Brainhack Global team helps the local event sites by providing them with all the necessary guidelines and tools that would facilitate the organization of the local events and also helps them with the advertisement of their event all around the world via its website and social accounts.

Brainhack Global is a series of hacking events that aim to celebrate the application of open science practices in neuroscience research. At the same time, it seeks to foster collaboration among researchers from a variety of career levels and backgrounds. Brainhack Global provides a collective and collaborative unique frame that includes hacking, educational tutorials, unconference events, and networking opportunities between the attendees and event sites. The organization is run voluntarily by a team of individuals (usually graduate students, post-docs, researchers, and professors) that are involved in research in neurosciences at various institutions all around the world.

Any help you would like to offer is more than welcome! You may be part of Brainhack Global by either joining the Brainhack Global team or by organizing a local event for the upcoming year. Each year, the Brainhack Global team announces to collect interests for the volunteering teams via its own Mattermost channel and Twitter account. If you would like to participate in the organizing team , please look out for the announcements and contact us.

No. We support and encourage as much participation as possible from all around the world to celebrate and disseminate the open science processes and practices.

Brainhack Global is a voluntarily run organization, which is not funded or supported by any global/local agency, company, or institute. Therefore, Brainhack Global does not have any resources to support either the hosting event sites or the attendees financially. It is the responsibility of the hosting event sites’ local organizing committee to secure funding both for hosting the event and, if possible, for providing travel awards to their attendees.

You can either use the email form in Contact page or send an email to brainhackorg [at] gmail [dot] com.

Here you can find all the previous years’ event sites, contact points, and the link to their websites.

Here you can find updated information about all the confirmed event sites for that particular year’s Brainhack Global events.

Here you can find a calendar view of all of the local event sites' streamed and public events and information regarding how to attend to them. For the schedule of the each event site, please visit that particular event location’s website.

Yes, you can use the Brainhack logo in your presentations and materials. When you use educational and informational materials, please do not forget to cite the materials’ community/developer(s). Here you can download the logo and other materials of Brainhack Global.

Hosts

Yes! You do not have to have a big team or extensive attendee list. Sometimes event sites might not even come up with hacking projects. On those occasions, you might provide the attendees with tutorials, or you can watch simultaneously presented tutorials from other event sites and run brainstorming sessions to discuss the implementability of the presented methods in your research.

One thing to remember is that regardless of your event’s size, you always need a good supporting team working alongside the main organizers. Because, as you can read from the How to Guideline for Running Successful Brainhack, there are several aspects you have to consider and plan ahead of the event, and each requires a dedicated team of volunteers to work synchronously.

Please fill the Host Your Own Local Brainhack Event form with as much detail you can provide to the asked questions. Once the Brainhack organizing committee receives your application, we will contact you regarding the confirmation of your application and you will be supplied with the necessary details regarding the organization of your event.

Here you can find several sources that cover different aspects of organizing a Brainhack and helping your attendees with their needs. Please do not hesitate to give us your feedback so we can add/improve the materials.

Of course! Each local Brainhack event is free to create its program; you are even free to choose a specific theme (e.g., gradients, connectome, brain segmentation). Nonetheless, the program often follows a general framework, including activities that foster productive collaborations and create an excellent working atmosphere, allowing attendees to interactively learn new skills while working on (one or more) projects. These activities include, but are not limited to: an introduction to Brainhack (Global) (brainhacking 101), project pitches, (open) hacking, unconferences, wrap-ups and feedback, and social events/special activities (ice breakers).

This is your event, and you are the one to decide. In our opinion, any project facilitating collaboration, openness, and reproducibility within the (open) neuroscience community is eligible and should be supported. These projects could be focused on developing guidelines, protocols, or similar documents.

It certainly is fun to have different logos for each of the participating sites. However, this is optional, and you are welcome to use the Brainhack Global logos provided here. If you choose to create your logo, please follow the Code of Conduct: make sure that the logos do not offend any group of society or individuals by any means and/or create any conflicting ideas on political opinions, race, and gender discriminations.

We are not able to provide each local Brainhack site with a personalized website for their event, but event holders will receive a general template that can be easily personalized with their event’s information. Here you can find the template provided by the Brainhack Global. If you have any difficulties adapting the template, you can contact us through our email at brainhackorg [at] gmail [dot] com, and we will do our best to help you.

Likewise, we won’t be able to oversee the presentation broadcasting at each local Brainhack site individually, but we will provide you with general information on how to set up the necessary infrastructure in our guidelines listed in our Github repository

You can access the list of previous years’ event holders and their websites from here. As is the case now, each site had its program and schedule, and some of them made their tutorials publicly available. Those are still accessible through the events’ past websites. Please do not hesitate to check the tutorials and to use the materials by citing the original authors/creators.

Yes, you can access the materials from recent years from the event sites’ websites listed here. Please do not forget to cite the materials’ developer(s) in your presentations which will help the acknowledgment of data sharing and open science while respecting the amount of work done by the leading developer(s).

Once you declare your interest in running an event by sending an email to brainhackorg [at] gmail [dot] com, our Brainhack Global team will contact you with several questions about the planned event and confirm your participation to that year’s Brainhack Global. We will also provide you the links and information regarding the:

  • How to Guideline;
  • Template and instructions for building your website;
  • Checklist for the duties to run;
  • Attendee registration form;
  • PR materials: Brainhack logo and color scheme;
  • List of open science tools and materials that you can use in your own tutorial and share with your attendees;
  • Instructions for broadcasting.

Once you confirm that you will host an event, the Brainhack Global team will give you the support you need (i.e., as much as our volunteer team is able to provide). It is recommended to keep the Brainhack Global team up to date with your plans and preparations to swiftly get the support you need.

Yes. Please, do not forget that the involvement of any third party supplies and sponsors in the organization of your event is under your responsibility as the event hosting site. Those relationships are not bound to the Brainhack Global organization, and we, unfortunately, cannot take any responsibility for the sponsorship of the hosting sites with third party organizations and companies.

Yes. For free giveaways, we recommend you to use your resources wisely and to make sure that you have enough leftovers to spend on those giveaways after the main issues (i.e., venue, catering, printing materials, potentially travel awards) are solved. For selling, again it is up to the hosting site. We would recommend making sure that the money handling is audited and appropriately done abiding by the financial legislation and rules of the institute/country/state you are associated with.

As an event organizer, you have the responsibility to ensure the good conduct of your event as well as the safety of your attendees. First of all, as the main organizers, you have to make sure that you, all the volunteers working together with you and all of your attendees read the Code of Conduct and are clear on the terms declared in it.

You are highly recommended to have a dedicated Code of Conduct Committee whose members are outside of the organizing and volunteering team and if possible it should be constituted by the legal consultants in handling the misconduct cases provided by your institute.

You have to make sure that your website clearly refers to the Brainhack Code of Conduct and you have a simple and clear reporting workflow that would make it easier for attendees to share their experiences and observations regarding the incident. The reporting workflow could be either via a dedicated email address, contact form, face-to-face meeting, written letter/template report, dedicated communication channels to contact the responsible team, or the personnel.

Please make it clear on your website that, you will handle the cases privately and with a respect, and act accordingly to any reported cases with the same care and delicacy independent from the magnitude of the cases and following the law/rules of the current state/country.

When a conduct concern under Brainhack Code of Conduct is raised to the Code of Conduct Committee, they should determine whether the situation can (and should) be defused by communicating privately and separately with the individuals most directly involved and, possibly, particular witness(es) (“simple resolution”).

In the existence of the microaggression, a simpler resolution might be provided with a warning and clear conduct instructions to a person accused of a violation of this policy. Following that the Committee should observe whether it is apparent that: the misbehavior is corrected and not repeated, a sense of safety and inclusion has been restored without the need for further action, and each side of the incident is satisfied and agreed with the resolution. The Code of Conduct committee will report the event organizers accordingly regarding the measures that are taken in place.

In the case of such resolutions are not adequate, the committee must conduct a comprehensive investigation. The committee should approach to the known individuals who are involved with the case personally and in private as first and provide an opportunity to provide any evidence, facts behind the incident. The notes/reports should be taken and shared across the parties to give an opportunity to respond in the accusations/descriptions of the incident. The Code of Conduct committee should set submission deadlines in their sole discretion but taking into account the nature of the conduct concern, timing, and logistics. The Code of Conduct committee should work on making a fair determination and any consequences imposed in as timely a matter as possible accordingly with the rules and laws of the associated organization/institute/country and state.

Attendees

Yes! Everyone is invited! Brainhack events welcome researchers from every academic background and career stage who are interested in the brain. Each local event is encouraged to accept attendees from diverse backgrounds. Although previous knowledge of neuroscience methods, analysis, and the usage of the software tools are beneficial, it is not a requirement, and please do not forget that participation in Brainhack events can take on many forms. In summary, if you want to get involved, there’s always a place for you.

During the Brainhack Global event, you will be able to get more information about and follow broadcasts from the local sites via a calendar view with an easy search for you in that year’s particular webpage. Materials associated with the tutorials and talks will also be available on the hosting event’s website.

Unfortunately, Brainhack Global is a volunteer initiative that has limited funding sources for this particular year. However, some of the local events may offer funding opportunities. To find out more, please check the local events’ websites.

First of all, please make sure that you read, understand, and abide by the policies listed in the Brainhack Code of Conduct. Acting accordingly with the rules listed in the Code of Conduct is one of the main responsibilities of every single participant of the event.

Any action that violates the Code of Conduct should be immediately reported by following the procedures defined in the website of the local organization you are registered with. Depending on the event location/institute/state/country you are registered with the reporting procedures and resolving the violation of the Code of Conduct might differ from each other which defined and protected by the law of that current country/state where your local event is based on.

If the misconduct was held by one of the members of the local organizing committee, or if you feel that the local organization’s response to the case is inadequate, you are welcome to contact the Brainhack Global organizing team via sending us an inquiry via brainhackorg [at] gmail [dot] com providing

Your contact information, if you are comfortable providing it. Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there are additional witnesses, please include them as well. Your account of what occurred, and if you believe the incident is ongoing. If there is a publicly available record (e.g. a mailing list archive), please include a link. Any additional information that may be helpful.

Please do not forget that the Brainhack Global Code of Conduct Committee team members is ready to support you with the available solutions. Reporting offensive behavior will not only stop it from happening to you, but it will also prevent it from happening to others, and it will help to for sustaining an open, diverse, and safe community. The Brainhack Global team has your back!

Every attendee is entitled to pitch a project. It might be either a project they are already working on or a project they would like to receive contribution/opinion/help or a completely new project they would like to accomplish with group work.

It is always recommended to propose a project that would allow contributions from researchers with a wider background and career level and give equal opportunities to anyone who involves. Please read our How to Guideline for Leading and Attending to Brainhack Projects for further recommendations and suggestions regarding leading a Brainhack project.

This year we offer a centralized project submission and listing experience independent of the event location you are registered with. With this we aim to create a platform to increase the across site interactions and provide means for collaborative and open science.

The project submission is expected to run through filling a template issue listed in in Brainhack Github, in which you will be asked to fill several details that describe your project, the goals you aim with this project and the profile of the attendees you are looking for. These clear descriptions will help event attendees to browse easily and find the best fit for themselves while increasing the visibility of your project.

For more information regarding how to submit your project issue and how the following review procedure works please read through our Brainhack Global 2021 Project Submission Guideline

When you propose a project make sure that it has a rough plan about the amount of work that needs to be done and that it has clear goals that can be (partly) achieved during the (short) amount of time you are provided with. Afterward, further collaboration is encouraged to finalize the project. If your project involves coding make sure that your codes, README documents, and materials are stored on an open-access reposition; hence the attendees who would like to join your project can quickly go over them and start helping/contributing as soon as possible.

We would recommend you to submit your project as early as possible alongside your registration to the event. This will help the attendees to benefit from the matching algorithm to find and apply to the project and attract more interest from the community. It will also help the local event organizers to arrange the schedule and time allocation of the project pitches and hack tracks accordingly.

Since you won’t have any knowledge about the expertise profile of the other Brainhack attendees until the hackathon starts, it is better to incorporate some flexibility into your project plan and schedule. Because there is always a possibility of getting help from any number of attendees on many different aspects of your project that you didn’t plan ahead. Please do not undermine the contribution that would come from any of the attendees at the event. This is one of the important parts of the event. Be inclusive and open to the contributions. Especially be open to the early career researchers who are there to learn from you; please do not forget that once you were one of them too. Providing people with an environment to learn and improve themselves is one of the main goals and gains of the event. And again you would never be able to know which contribution an attendee could provide you with. Therefore, it is always better to keep yourself open to different ideas and contributions and to let the brainstorming help you achieve your project’s goals.

Depending on the Brainhack local event site, you might be asked to give a short presentation of your project (usually on the first day of the event) to inform attendees about the project aim(s) and the tasks to be done. Please using the template provided in the Brainhack Github Repository prepare a short and clear presentation in accordance with the plan of the event site of your choice. Gather your team, and let the magic happen!

We recommend and support the use and application of open science tools and methodologies. Using open science tools will bring transparency in proceedings, foster the efficacious implementation of methods, and increases the audibility and reproducibility of the proceedings.

However, you might already have ongoing projects that use non-open science/source tools due to the specs or requirements of the project. This platform could also provide you with the opportunity to seek advice on how to implement those projects using open science tools. Any project for the good of the community, facilitating other’s research by making it reproducible and open is welcomed.