Community Perspectives on Data Sharing and Standardisation in Human Movement Sciences: Findings from the ISB Congress 2025

Abstract

Introduction & Purpose: Despite increasing pressure from funding bodies to share research data openly, the biomechanics community faces critical gaps in standardised frameworks for data sharing and interpretation. This study presents comprehensive community feedback gathered during two dedicated sessions at the 30^th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB Stockholm, 2025) to identify current practices, barriers, and needs regarding data sharing and kinematics standardisation (Ortigas-Vásquez et al., 2025).

Methods: 95 international researchers participated in reverse Q&A sessions with systematic polling on data sharing infrastructure, joint kinematics standardisation, and implementation priorities. Questions addressed satisfaction with current practices, experienced benefits and challenges, motivations, industry involvement, funding models, data format priorities, and actionable steps for improving comparability.

Results: 60% reported dissatisfaction with the data sharing landscape, while 75% were not entirely satisfied with existing ISB recommendations. Significant benefits from shared datasets included easier cross-lab collaboration (59%), improved research efficiency (53%), and training resources (46%). However, critical barriers emerged: lack of standardised data formats and coordinate systems (51%), institutional policies (41%), and data privacy concerns (46%, ranked as the top challenge by 30%). Notably, 46% identified insufficient methodology reporting as the biggest barrier to comparing joint motion data.

Infrastructure needs centred on three priorities: (1) 77% supported industry partners acting as both contributors and users; (2) institutional subscriptions (62%) and professional society memberships (58%) were favoured funding models; (3) marker-based optical motion capture (52%), markerless systems (43%), and fluoroscopy (30%) were prioritised for standardisation. Regarding implementation, 65% ranked establishing detailed reporting checklists as the top actionable step, followed by best practice guidelines (17%) and shared reference datasets (8%). On harmonisation value, 83% believed harmonisation is extremely worthwhile, though only 39% viewed implementation as fully achievable.

Conclusion: This systematic community assessment revealed urgent needs for: (1) standardised metadata and reporting checklists embedded in editorial policies; (2) post-processing harmonisation tools to accommodate methodological diversity; (3) field-specific trusted research environments with clear industry engagement models; and (4) practical implementation strategies minimising workflow disruption. These findings inform ongoing development of new ISB recommendations and are complemented by the MoveD initiative’s guidelines for Swiss movement laboratories (Haas et al., 2024), providing an evidence-based foundation for transforming fragmented data practices into a unified, interoperable ecosystem.

References

Ortigas-Vásquez, A., Taylor, W. R., Thewlis, D., Moissenet, F., Schallig, W., Haas, M., Kruger, K., Henninger, H., Rainbow, M., Graf, E., Sauer, A., & Arndt, A. (2025). Community perspectives on joint kinematics reporting and data sharing: Findings from the XXX Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics, Stockholm 2025 [Report]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16924851

Haas, M. C., Sommer, B. B., Van Rekum, S., Moerman, F., Graf, E. S. (2024). MoveD –Open research data guidelines for movement laboratories [Standard]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14179954