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Free and Open Software

Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) is a free and open source software that we have been developing in-house and sharing openly since 1991. It is now one of the most popular tools for processing brain data globally, and supports a wide array of third party extensions expanding the core functionality to different imaging modalities, non-human brains, advanced analysis methods and clinical applications.

Since 2015, the Society for Human Brain Mapping has published best practice recommendations for data analysis and sharing in neuroimaging. A common theme that has emerged is the use of the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) standard, a framework to standardise the organisation and description of neuroimaging data, designed to help facilitate open science, promote data-reuse and improve reproducibility.

Whilst SPM already supports some BIDS-related functionalities, these standards are still being developed and more work is required. Our aim is to further integrate the SPM software into tools for reproducibility, develop more extensions to support the BIDS standard, improving compatibility across programming languages, and integrate these changes into our existing training program.