Participant file [Optional]

From the specification –

Template (single session case)

• participants.tsv
• participants.json
• phenotype/[measurement_tool_name].tsv
• phenotype/[measurement_tool_name].json

The purpose of this file is to describe properties of participants such as age, handedness, sex, etc. In case of single session studies this file has one compulsory column ​participant_id​ that consists of sub-​, followed by a list of optional columns describing participants. Each participant needs to be described by one and only one row.

8.11.1 participants.tsv example:

participant_id    age   sex    group
sub-control01    34    M    control
sub-control02    12    F    control
sub-patient01    33    F    patient

If the dataset includes multiple sets of participant level measurements (for example responses from multiple questionnaires) they can be split into individual files separate from participants.tsv. Those measurements should be kept in phenotype/ folder and end with the .tsv extension. They can include arbitrary set of columns, but one of them has to be participant_id with matching sub-[participant_label].

As with all other tabular data those additional phenotypic information files can be accompanied with a JSON file describing the columns in detail. In addition to the column description a section describing the measurement tool (as a whole) can be added under the name MeasurementToolMetadata. This section consists of two keys: "Description - a free text description of the tool, and TermURL a link to an entity in an ontology corresponding to this tool. For example (content of phenotype/acds_adult.json):

{
    "MeasurementToolMetadata": {
        "Description": "Adult ADHD Clinical Diagnostic Scale V1.2",
        "TermURL": "http://www.cognitiveatlas.org/task/id/trm_5586ff878155d"
    },
    "adhd_b": {
        "Description": "B. CHILDHOOD ONSET OF ADHD (PRIOR TO AGE 7)",
        "Levels": {
            "1": "YES",
            "2": "NO" 
        }
    },
    "adhd_c_dx": {
        "Description": "As child met A, B, C, D, E and F diagnostic criteria",
        "Levels": {
            "1": "YES",
            "2": "NO" 
        }
    },
}