Scientific Transparency

SciTran is an open-source software project, started at Stanford University's VISTA Lab, and originally funded by the Simons Foundation. Designed to enable and foster reproducible research through data management and provenance tracking, the heart of SciTran is a Python-built RESTful API.

The SciTran API delivers efficient and robust organization, archiving, and sharing of scientific data. We have developed an ecosystem system for neuroimaging data, but our goal is to build a system that is flexible enough to accommodate all types of scientific data – from paper-and-pencil tests to genomics.

The SciTran codebase is now being developed and maintained by Flywheel, a commercial entity, founded by the original SciTran team. Meanwhile, the VISTA Lab group has transitioned its focus from developing SciTran core functionality to creating scientific applications that run within the SciTran framework, with a particular focus on reproducible methods in neuroscience research.

While SciTran is a set of core open-source components, released under the MIT license, and hosted on GitHub, it is not a complete system. Flywheel has built a comprehensive data management and processing solution, including a modern web-based user interface, powerful search functionality, efficient command line tools and language bindings, as well as a scalable computation framework. Flywheel also offers commercial support for installation and maintenance of their system.

The SciTran API has also been adopted by the Stanford Center for Reproducible Neuroscience, led by Russ Poldrack and Chris Gorgolewski. The Center has supported members of the SciTran team for collaborating on the OpenfMRI platform.