Integrated support for neuroscience research: from study design to publication

Computational neuroscience is a new field of research in which neurodegenerative diseases are studied with the aid of new imaging techniques and computation facilities. Researchers with different expertise collaborate in these studies. A study requires scalable computational and storage capacity and information management facilities to succeed. Many virtual laboratories are proposed and developed to facilitate these studies, however most of them cover only the parts related to the computational data processing. In this paper we describe and analyse the phases of the computational neuroscience studies including the actors, the tasks they perform, and the characteristics of each phase. Based on these we identify the required properties and functionalities of a virtual laboratory that supports the actors and their tasks throughout the complete study.