To the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Leadership and the OHBM community,

We, the undersigned members of the neuroimaging and open science communities, appeal to the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) to preserve the Open Science Room (OSR) of the Open Science Special Interest Group (OSSIG) as a dedicated physical space at the annual OHBM meeting. OHBM has been at the forefront of advancing open science practices in neuroimaging and beyond. As an OSSIG event, the OSR provides an inclusive space for researchers at all levels to engage with tools, workflows, and conversations that foster transparency, reproducibility, and innovation in the neuroimaging community. 

However, the OSR’s future is at risk. This year, the OHBM Program Committee has restricted OSR sessions to off-hours; before 9 am, at lunch, or after the main program, and has withdrawn access to the room previously reserved for the OSR. These changes forced the OSSIG to move the OSR into the poster hall as a last-minute workaround for the 2025 conference. While feasible this year, this is not a sustainable solution. Without dedicated space and sufficient venue time, as we had in past years, the OSR cannot continue to serve its role as an adaptive hub for community-driven science. Its loss would diminish OHBM’s commitment to openness and innovation in neuroimaging, which remains highly relevant to non-WEIRD countries and newer research topics.

We recognize OHBM’s efforts to support open science within its main program. However, the OSR remains a uniquely valuable space that fosters peer-led learning, broad participation, and real-time collaboration through curated table talks, designed to equalize participation, and emergent sessions, shaped by spontaneous on-site exchanges, adapting to the evolving needs of the community. These community-led sessions complement OHBM’s other programming while providing benefits that highly structured sessions cannot replace. These benefits lead to greater community involvement during the conference and promote more reliable and efficient research throughout the year by encouraging the ongoing exchange of open science best practices. 

We ask the OHBM leadership to preserve the OSR as a dedicated space with more flexible scheduling within the annual meeting. Supporting the OSR means supporting the open science community and the future of open science in neuroimaging research.

We urge you to support this petition and help preserve the Open Science Room for the benefit of the entire neuroimaging community.

Please find more details on what led us here at https://ohbm.github.io/osr2025/petition/

Sincerely,

The 2025 Open Science Special Interest Group