What is "neuroinformatics"

n. (context biology computing English) The science that studies the neural system by use of computational models

Neuroinformatics is a research field concerned with the organization of neuroscience data by the application of computational models and analytical tools. These areas of research are important for the integration and analysis of increasingly large-volume, high-dimensional, and fine-grain experimental data. Neuroinformaticians provide computational tools, mathematical models, and create interoperable databases for clinicians and research scientists. Neuroscience is a heterogeneous field, consisting of many and various sub-disciplines (e.g., cognitive Psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and behavioral genetics). In order for our understanding of the brain to continue to deepen, it is necessary that these sub-disciplines are able to share data and findings in a meaningful way; Neuroinformaticians facilitate this.

Neuroinformatics stands at the intersection of neuroscience and information science. Other fields, like genomics, have demonstrated the effectiveness of freely-distributed databases and the application of theoretical and computational models for solving complex problems. In Neuroinformatics, such facilities allow researchers to more easily quantitatively confirm their working theories by computational modeling. Additionally, neuroinformatics fosters collaborative research—an important fact that facilitates the field's interest in studying the multi-level complexity of the brain.

There are three main directions where neuroinformatics has to be applied:

1. the development of tools and databases for management and sharing of neuroscience data at all levels of analysis,
2. the development of tools for analyzing and modeling neuroscience data,
3. the development of computational models of the nervous system and neural processes.

In the recent decade, as vast amounts of diverse data about the brain were gathered by many research groups, the problem was raised of how to integrate the data from thousands of publications in order to enable efficient tools for further research. The biological and neuroscience data are highly interconnected and complex, and by itself, integration represents a great challenge for scientists.

Combining informatics research and brain research provides benefits for both fields of science. On one hand, informatics facilitates brain data processing and data handling, by providing new electronic and software technologies for arranging databases, modeling and communication in brain research. On the other hand, enhanced discoveries in the field of neuroscience will invoke the development of new methods in information technologies (IT).

Neuroinformatics is a scientific journal published by Springer under the imprint Humana Press. As the title indicates it publishes articles about neuroinformatics.

The journal is indexed in a wide range of bibliographic databases, e.g., PubMed. The Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports impact factor was reported to be just above 3 in 2012, while Google Scholar reported its h5-index to be 20 in December 2013. It has 3 Editors-in-Chiefs: Giorgio A. Ascoli, Erik De Schutter and David N. Kennedy.

A competing journal is Frontiers in Neuroinformatics published by Frontiers Media. That journal is fully open access. Neuroinformatics also has an open access option.