QUEST Open Data Reuse award

Open data sharing to increase robustness and value in biomedical research is becoming increasingly common. It is requested by many funders and journals, and the Charité has signed the Berlin Declaration, which endorses the open sharing of research data. The rapidly growing amount of openly available data has also spurred the development of dataset search engines, which allow the location of relevant datasets. Corresponding to this development, the number of publications based on secondary data analysis, reusing open data, is also on the rise. However, it is still uncommon in many areas of biomedical research to base a study on secondary analysis of raw data. Thus, the QUEST Open Data Reuse award rewards publications which made use of publicly available datasets. The goal is to raise awareness for the importance of data as first-class research outcomes and the potential that data reuse has for contributing to innovation, interdisciplinarity and scientific progress.

The publication is predominantly based on reused data.

The data were not generated by any of the co-authors (except if the collaboration itself was sparked by the respective co-author(s) sharing the reused datasets).

The data used might be raw or pre-processed, but must be at a level of granularity substantially exceeding summary statistics.

The majority of data was provided openly via public repositories, which can be all-purpose, disciplinary, or institutional repositories; thus, conversely, publications are not eligible if data in their majority were shared personally, for pay, or under a data sharing agreement or other usage restrictions.

The dataset(s) used are properly acknowledged.

Information for your application

The QUEST center is offering this award of 1,000 € to first/last/corresponding BIH or Charité authors (and employees) of publications which made use of publicly available datasets.
Papers published from 2017 onwards are accepted.
Prizes can be spent until the end of 2024. Awards are given on an ongoing basis.
Only one QUEST Prize can be awarded per publication.
Authors can apply (with different publications) only once per year per prize (i.e. maximum 5 prizes per year per author).
Publications of authors (independent of the author´s position) which are also QUEST employees cannot be considered.
Awardees will be featured on the QUEST web pages.

To apply for the award, please fill out the registration form that you can find here.

The publication Pulmonary dysfunction and development of different cardiovascular outcomes in the general population receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The publication is completely based on openly available data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). The authors used these data to investigate the pathobiology involved in the co-development of pulmonary dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. The article was published in 2018 in Archives of Cardiovascular Diseases (DOI: 10.1016/j.acvd.2017.07.001). Applicant: Dr. Bob Siegerink, Centrum für Schlaganfallforschung Berlin (CSB), Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication CADD: predicting the deleteriousness of variants throughout the human genome receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The publication describes the newest version of “Combined Annotation Dependent Depletion”, a tool for assessing human genomic variants. For its improvement, data from over 40 publicly available sources have been used, e.g. EBI ENSEMBL, ENCODE, and gnomAD. CADD is freely available online, with all code and data underlying it. The article was published in 2019 in Nucleic Acids Research (DOI: 10.1093/nar/gky1016). Applicant: Philipp Rentzsch, Computational Genome Biology, Berlin Institute of Health and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication A Computational Analysis of Alternative Splicing across Mammalian Tissues Reveals Circadian and Ultradian Rhythms in Splicing Events receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The authors carried out a systematic genome-wide evaluation of circadian and ultradian rhythms in transcription, focusing on the post-transcriptional event of alternative splicing. The analysis was primarily based on two freely available circadian datasets of mammalian tissues, shared via GEO and ENA databases, respectively. The article was published in 2019 in International Journal of Molecular Sciences (DOI: 10.3390/ijms20163977). Applicant: Rukeia El-Athman, Molecular Cancer Research Center (MKFZ), Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Evaluating the replicability, specificity, and generalizability of connectome fingerprints receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The authors showed that the accuracy reported for the detection of unique brain signatures can be replicated, but that this does not necessarily mean a high specificity, especially when standard-quality neuroimaging data and larger datasets are used. For this, they used an openly available Human Connectome Project dataset. The article was published in 2017 in NeuroImage (DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.07.016). Applicant: Lea Waller, Research Division of Mind & Brain, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Antidepressants and suicidality: A re-analysis of the re-analysis receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The authors showed that the conclusions of earlier analyses on suicidality with antidepressants might be simplified and that the outcome strongly depends on the statistical analysis method used. For their re-analysis the authors used data available in the Drugs@FDA database. The article was published in 2020 in the Journal of Affective Disorders (DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.01.107). Applicant: Jakob André Kaminski, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie (CCM), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication On the treatment effect heterogeneity of antidepressants in major depression. A Bayesian meta-analysis receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The authors found that the published RCT data on antidepressants are compatible with a near-constant treatment effect, and thus the hope for personalized antidepressant treatments may be unwarranted. The analysis was based on a dataset of RCTs on antidepressants shared through Mendeley. The article was published in 2020 as a preprint on medRxiv (DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.20.19015677). Applicant: Constantin Volkmann, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication A unified connectomic target for deep brain stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder receives an Open Data Reuse Award. The authors established that different deep brain stimulation targets used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder act by activating the same neural network. For this, they combined observations from own experiments with a normative connectome derived from an open database provided by the Human Connectome Project. The article was published in 2020 in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16734-3). Applicant: Ningfei Li, Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Section, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Distinct immune evasion in APOBEC-enriched, HPV-negative HNSCC receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse Award. The authors identified a new subgroup of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with a distinct immunogenic phenotype, which could potentially mediate responses to immunotherapy. The findings were predominantly based on openly available datasets, accessible through The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus. The article was published in 2020 in the journal "International Journal of Cancer" (DOI: 10.1002/ijc.33123). Applicant: Damian Rieke, Medizinische Klinik m. S. Hämatologie, Onkologie und Tumorimmunologie (CBF), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Using Bayes theorem to estimate positive and negative predictive values for continuously and ordinally scaled diagnostic tests receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse Award. The author showed that using a Bayesian framework, the positive and negative predictive values for a depression diagnosis can be improved as compared to dichotomous scores. The findings were based on openly available datasets, accessible through the Harvard Dataverse repository. The article was published in 2021 in the journal "International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research" (DOI: 10.1002/mpr.1868). Applicant: Felix Fischer, Department for Psychosomatic Medicine, Clinic for Internal Medicine and Dermatology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Electrocorticography is superior to subthalamic local field potentials for movement decoding in Parkinson’s disease receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse Award. The authors’ comparison of two data sources for the decoding of movement was based on several openly available datasets, available through Harvard Dataverse and the Parkinson’s Disease Progression Marker Initiative. The authors also shared all derivative data and code openly on Github. The article was published in 2022 in the journal "eLife" (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.75126). Applicant: Wolf-Julian Neumann, Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurology, Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Section, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication A Unified Functional Network Target for Deep Brain Stimulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse Award. The authors identified brain areas whose activity is modulated by successful deep brain stimulation interventions in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. For this, in addition to data collected by themselves, the authors used a large dataset from the Brain Genomics Superstruct Project to calculate a normative functional connectome. This dataset was available with defined and permissive access path and terms of use. The article was published in 2021 in Biological Psychiatry (DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.04.006). Applicant: Ningfei Li, Department of Neurology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Subthalamic and pallidal deep brain stimulation: are we modulating the same network? receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse Award. The authors analyzed brain areas activated by deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's Disease and observed that for the two areas most commonly stimulated, the networks of areas connected with these show substantial overlap between themselves. This indicates that the stimulation of both areas might ultimately stimulate the same network. For this, in addition to data collected by themselves, the authors used a large dataset from the Brain Genomics Superstruct Project, which provides a normative functional connectome. This dataset was available with defined and permissive access path and terms of use. The article was published in 2022 in "Brain" (DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab258). Applicant: Lukas Goede, Department of Neurology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Mapping dysfunctional circuits in the frontal cortex using deep brain stimulation receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse award. The article describes the networks in frontal cortex which are associated with a positive therapeutic outcome of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in four different neurological disorders. This analysis is based on both an extensive multi-site sample of DBS locations and clinical outcomes, collected by the authors, and on a large connectome, which is available under liberal reuse terms. Thus, the study exemplifies how reused data can be integrared with self-collected data to generate new knowledge. The article was published in 2024 in the journal Nature Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01570-1). Applicant: Barabara Hollunder, Department of Neurology with Experimental Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The publication Tensor denoising of quantitative multi-parameter mapping receives a QUEST Open Data Reuse award. The authors have used a publicly available dataset to demonstrate an improved method for denoising human magnetic resonance brain imaging. This method can be used to improve the temporal and/or spatial resolution of quantitative multi-parameter mapping. The authors clearly reference the reused dataset, which has been shared under an open license. The article was published in 2024 in the journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (DOI: 10.1002/mrm.30050). Applicant: Helge Herthum, Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

The QUEST 1,000 € Open Data Reuse Award

Information for your application

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QUEST Center

The QUEST 1,000 € Open Data Reuse Award

Criteria to be eligible

Awarded publications

QUEST Center