The need for open access MRI in psychosis: introducing a new global imaging resource (PsyShareD) | Schizophrenia

"Multicentre initiatives have thus made some excellent preliminary progress in advancing knowledge around the neuroanatomical underpinnings of psychosis. However, generating papers from these can be difficult and time-consuming, since datasets either have to be transferred and then analysed, or analysed separately by each site before results can be interpreted and published. Crucially, the issue is that these initiatives are not truly open-access, since data are not stored centrally and made widely accessible; although supporting data are sometimes made available alongside publications, most initiatives do not usually afford non-consortia members the ability to conduct analyses on their data. This makes it difficult for aspiring researchers who are not based at major research centres to conduct well-powered analyses. This problem is compounded by the fact that there is a major lack of open-access neuroimaging repositories in psychosis: those that exist (e.g. http://schizconnect.org/) are severely limited in terms of size, global reach, and what data and support is available to researchers. Given the large volumes of relevant ‘legacy’ neuroimaging data that exists globally, this really holds back the field, both in terms of capacity building for early-career researchers and for leveraging these data to drive reliable hypothesis testing and knowledge generation. To make progress, enhance research capacity, and foster new collaborations, there is a need to ensure open and equitable access to a well-resourced MRI depository covering a diverse range of schizophrenia and psychosis populations...."