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What is the OSR?

The Open Science Room (OSR) is a conference within a conference, at the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) annual meeting. The meeting this year will be held on a virtual platform, opening on Tuesday 23rd June. The OSR hosts discussions around advances in neuroimaging, with a specific interest in open research practices.


Who will be presenting in the OSR?

We have selected presentations following an open call for submission and an open review. The schedule of talks contains links to the accepted presentations, with links to speaker bios. You can also review speaker profiles.

We are open to submissions for emergent discussions throughout the meeting. Emergent organisers will also be listed on the speakers page where profiles are provided.


Who can participate in the OSR?

Anyone can participate in the OSR! Our content is scheduled to minimise clashes with live material being presented in the main meeting, and our content will be repeated three times every 24 hours at different timezones so you can join at a time convenient for you.

You must register for the OSR to obtain the details to connect to the discussions. Registration for the OSR is included with the main meeting if you are attending the full OHMB program. Details for how to join the OSR will be provided in the OHBM meeting virtual platform.

You can also register for the OSR at zero-cost. Please complete the registration form and we will communicate the details regarding how to join the conversation before the meeting commences on Tuesday 23rd June.


Do I have to travel to participate in the OSR?

Short answer - No! This year we will be virtual only, and you can attend from anywhere with an internet connection and access to a web browser.


When will I know if I have been accepted to present in the OSR?

We have communicated with all lightning, demo and keynote submission authors to confirm the outcome of their proposals.

If you have submitted a proposal for an emergent session, there will be a brief review process to determine whether your proposal is broadly relevant to our community. We will aim to get back to you on the same day to confirm that your proposal has been accepted and communicate the process for booking time in our program to host your session.


What if my presentation clashes with my talk/poster in the main meeting?!

We have attempted to minimise clashes between our own content and that of the main meeting. Unfortunately it is unlikely that we will be able to adjust the schedule if there is a clash between your scheduled appearance in the OSR and activities in the main meeting. In these situations we ask that you contact us as soon as possible and we will work with you to find a convenient time to address the Q&A portion of your talk. If you are hosting an emergent session, you will be given access to our calendar to book a convenient time to hold your session.


How do I contact the OSR?

Before and during the meeting you can contact using one of the channels described here.

During the meeting you will be able to identify members of the OSR team at various locations on our virtual platforms. We will provide more details on how to connect with our team as soon as we can.


How will the virtual OSR differ from the in-person OSR?

We’d like for them to be as similar as possible! We have created a space for talks, spaces for chat and networking, the ability to ask questions from speakers, and a chance for one-to-one or one-to-many support from the community.

There have been a few format changes from the main meeting to reduce the load and compensate for the understanding that attention spans will be divided when attending online. The scheduled talks will be a maximum of 30 minutes long, and there will be comfortable breaks throughout the day. We will also make greater use of polls and audience interaction tools to keep you engaged, and there will be live chat happening alongside talks. There will also be “on-demand” material which you can watch whenever it is convenient for you.


How will you handle time zone differences of attendees?

We have structured our content to be repeated across three timezone hubs over 24 hours. The program of prerecorded talks will run for 2 hours 30 minutes per day, and we have scheduled it to fit into a 09:00 - 17:00 day for most regions within each hub. Emergent and social sessions will be held at the beginning and end of each day, so they should be convenient for the start or end of the day in each hub depending on where you are located. Take a look at our schedule to find the time of broadcasts in your hub, and view activities in your local time zone.


Why have talks been pre-recorded?

Pre-recording of talks will minimise technicalities in switching between speakers, which will be frequent in the short formats. Giving a prerecorded talk also means the speaker can be on hand to answer questions from the community during the talk itself, and will not have to split their attention between presentation and text chat. Pre-recording also means presenters will have a greater opportunity to deliver the talk they were aiming for in the allotted time, which will be invaluable for our short format sessions. Pre-recording also means that we have all material ready to broadcast across each hub in turn, rather than waiting for speakers to wake up in their local timezones before we can share their work with the world!


Who has contributed to the OSR?

The OSR has been built by the OHBM Open Science Special Interest Group (OS-SIG), and the generous support of our team of volunteers who responded to our call for contributors. We are indebted to the them for the time and energy they have brought to this project.

You can join the team for next year by running for election into the OS-SIG, or staying close to OS-SIG activities and reaching out as we start to build again next year! You can find out more about OS-SIG operations by joining our content on Friday 26th June, where we will host discussions around elections and an open Town Hall session where you can ask us anything!


Who has sponsored the OSR?

The OSR has been made possible this year by the generous support of Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform, Courtois NeuroMod, the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF), OHBM Australian Chapter, OpenNeuro, Quebec Bio-Imaging Network, Unifying Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence - Quebec and The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. Thank you to all our sponsors, for helping us work towards our vision for an inclusive, world class OSR.

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