What is PRISM?

PRISM (Psychological Research Information Sstructure for Metadata) is a validation and metadata framework for psychological experiment datasets. It extends the BIDS standard to support modalities common in psychological research—like surveys, biometrics, and eyetracking—while ensuring your data remains fully compatible with existing BIDS tools.

PRISM is an Add-On, Not a Replacement

Important

PRISM does not replace BIDS—it enhances it. Your PRISM-validated datasets will still work with fMRIPrep, MRIQC, and all other BIDS apps.

Aspect	BIDS	PRISM
Focus	Neuroimaging (MRI, EEG, MEG)	Psychological experiments
Surveys	Limited support	Full support with item descriptions
Biometrics	Basic physio	ECG, EMG, respiration with metadata
Eyetracking	Emerging support	Complete schema validation
Scoring	Not included	Recipe system for questionnaire scoring
Export	Raw data focus	SPSS export with value labels

How PRISM Stays BIDS-Compatible

PRISM uses a .bidsignore file to tell BIDS validators to skip PRISM-specific files. This means:

• ✅ Standard BIDS apps (fMRIPrep, MRIQC) work normally

• ✅ Your MRI data validates against the BIDS standard

• ✅ PRISM-specific files (surveys, recipes) are organized alongside your data

• ✅ One dataset, one folder structure, maximum compatibility

Key Benefits

1. 🔍 Validation

Catch errors before they become problems:

• Structured error codes (PRISM001–PRISM999) with clear explanations

• Auto-fix for common issues

• Severity levels: Errors, warnings, and suggestions

• BIDS validation can run alongside PRISM validation

2. 📝 Self-Documenting Data

Every data file has a sidecar JSON with complete metadata:

{
  "SurveyName": "Beck Depression Inventory",
  "Items": [
    {
      "ItemID": "BDI01",
      "Question": {
        "en": "Sadness",
        "de": "Traurigkeit"
      },
      "ResponseOptions": {
        "0": "I do not feel sad",
        "1": "I feel sad much of the time",
        "2": "I am sad all the time",
        "3": "I am so sad I can't stand it"
      }
    }
  ]
}

This makes your data:

• Understandable without external documentation

• Reusable by other researchers

• FAIR-compliant (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)

3. 📊 Questionnaire Scoring

Calculate scores automatically with recipes:

{
  "RecipeName": "BDI Total Score",
  "Scoring": {
    "BDI_total": {
      "operation": "sum",
      "items": ["BDI01", "BDI02", "BDI03", "..."]
    }
  }
}

4. 📤 SPSS-Ready Export

Export your scored data directly to SPSS (.save) with:

• Variable labels

• Value labels (e.g., 1 = “Male”, 2 = “Female”)

• Proper data types

5. 🌐 Web Interface

PRISM Studio provides a user-friendly interface for:

• Creating and managing projects

• Converting Excel/CSV/SPSS data

• Validating datasets

• Running scoring recipes

• Browsing the survey library

Supported Modalities

Modality	File Extension	Description
survey	.tsv + .json	Questionnaires, assessments
biometrics	.tsv + .json	ECG, EMG, respiration, skin conductance
eyetracking	.tsv + .json	Gaze data, fixations, saccades
physiological	.tsv.gz + .json	Continuous physio recordings
events	.tsv + .json	Stimulus presentation logs
anat/func/dwi/fmap	Standard BIDS	MRI data (validated by BIDS)
eeg	Standard BIDS-EEG	EEG data (validated by BIDS)

Project Structure (YODA Layout)

PRISM encourages the YODA principles for reproducible research:

my_study/
├── dataset_description.json
├── participants.tsv
├── participants.json
├── sub-001/
│   └── survey/
│       ├── sub-001_task-bdi_survey.tsv
│       └── sub-001_task-bdi_survey.json
├── code/                       # Analysis scripts
├── analysis/                   # Results and derivatives
└── project.json               # Project metadata

Next Steps

• Installation – Get PRISM running in 5 minutes

• Quick Start – Your first PRISM project

• Workshop – Hands-on exercises with example data