Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM): Guide

The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) is the primary international scientific society dedicated to discovering the anatomical and functional organization of the human brain through neuroimaging. Operating across magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling, the society serves researchers advancing neuroscience through open-science infrastructure, annual conferences, and specialized academic publishing.

OHBM unites cognitive neuroscientists, physicists, neurologists, and computer scientists to standardize data acquisition and analysis pipelines. Through initiatives such as the COBIDAS reporting guidelines, the open-access journal Aperture Neuro, and collaborative hackathons, OHBM shapes how modern brain mapping data is generated, analyzed, and shared across international laboratories.

What Is OHBM?

Founded to provide an international forum for brain mapping researchers, OHBM organizes scientific exchange across functional neuroimaging modalities. The society supports basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience by coordinating working groups, publishing methodological standards, and hosting the annual International Conference on Human Brain Mapping.

Unlike clinical neurology associations focused on medical treatments, OHBM focuses on the methodology, computational analysis, and technological developments required to image brain structure and connectivity. Its community spans experimental psychology, biomedical engineering, statistics, and high-performance computing, working with data platforms like OpenNeuro and BIDS to ensure reproducible research.

Who Runs OHBM and What It Covers

OHBM is organized as an international non-profit society governed by an elected Council and managed by professional executive staff headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota. The governing Council consists of elected leadership tracks including Chair, Chair-Elect, Past Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Program Chair, and Education Chair, supported by an international Scientific Advisory Board.

The society originated in 1995 when an inaugural meeting of brain imaging researchers convened in Paris, France, organized by Bernard Mazoyer, Per Roland, and Rudiger Seitz. Following a second gathering in Boston in 1996 organized by Jack Belliveau, David Kennedy, and Bruce Rosen, the organization formally incorporated in 1997 during the Copenhagen meeting, where David Van Essen chaired the committee that drafted the society’s original bylaws.

OHBM actively supports research across multiple neuroimaging and physiological modalities:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI and fMRI): Structural morphometry, functional blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) imaging, and arterial spin labeling.
• Diffusion Imaging and Tractography: White matter architecture mapping using pipelines evaluated with tools like dcm2niix.
• Electrophysiology (EEG and MEG): High-temporal-resolution electromagnetic source imaging and oscillatory dynamics.
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET): Molecular and radiotracer imaging of neurotransmitter receptors and metabolic pathways.
• Preclinical Imaging and Genetics: Animal model neuroimaging, neuroepidemiology, and imaging genomics.

Much of OHBM’s community-driven work operates through Special Interest Groups (SIGs) established by the Council:

• Open Science SIG (OSSIG): Organizes the annual OHBM Brainhack preceding each annual meeting, delivers educational courses such as Brainhacking 101, and advocates for reproducible workflows.
• Student and Postdoc SIG: Provides career development, mentoring, travel award information, and networking forums for early-career investigators.
• Sustainability and Environmental Action SIG (SEA-SIG): Evaluates the carbon footprint of neuroimaging research and conference travel, promoting sustainable laboratory and meeting models.
• Diversity and Inclusivity Committee: Oversees global equity initiatives and equitable representation across programs.
• Cerebellum SIG: Focuses on cerebellar functional anatomy, harmonization of cerebellar imaging methods, and clinical biomarker development.
• Brain-Art SIG: Explores the intersection of scientific visualization and artistic interpretation of human brain architecture.

OHBM Annual Meeting and Abstract Submissions

The centerpiece of the society’s calendar is the OHBM Annual Meeting, held in rotating global destinations across Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America. Recent and scheduled host cities include Seoul (2024), Brisbane (2025), Bordeaux (2026), Toronto (2027), and Yokohama (2028).

At OHBM 2026 in Bordeaux, France, researchers gathered at Palais 2 l’Atlantique following a three-day OHBM Brainhack. The annual meeting provides oral symposia, educational courses covering advanced topics such as connectome-constrained neuro-AI and multi-echo fMRI, keynote lectures, and thousands of peer-reviewed poster presentations.

Researchers submitting an OHBM abstract must comply with rigorous structural requirements established by the Program Committee. Submissions are reviewed through a peer evaluation process, and accepted abstracts are published in the official conference Abstract Book.

Submission Parameter	OHBM Specification	Author Requirements
Maximum Length	650 words total	Includes Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion, and figure captions combined.
Required Structure	4 mandatory sections	Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion must each be explicitly populated.
Figure Allowance	Up to 2 figures	Maximum file size 2 MB per image file; captions count toward word limit.
References	Up to 5 citations	Numbered sequentially in AMA format; citations do not count toward word count.
Submission Fee	$45 USD (nonrefundable)	Fee waivers available for authors residing in eligible UNESCO list countries.
Presentation Policy	In-person required	At least one author must register for and attend the Annual Meeting in person.
Participation Limits	1 Course + 1 Scientific Session	Applies to Educational Courses, Symposia, and Roundtable Discussions.
Notification Timeline	By February	Decisions issued early to accommodate international travel and visa schedules.

In addition to traditional poster abstracts, OHBM features program formats including Educational Courses, Symposia, Roundtable Discussions, and pilot tracks such as Registered Reports, which allow study designs and analysis protocols to undergo peer review before data collection begins.

Publishing Ecosystem: Aperture Neuro and Official Journals

OHBM maintains a dedicated publishing ecosystem designed to support both traditional scientific papers and modern, non-traditional research outputs such as open code libraries, shared datasets, and computational protocols.

Aperture Neuro (ISSN-L: 2957-3963) is the official open-access journal owned by OHBM. Designed to address the limitations of conventional journal formats, Aperture Neuro publishes research under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license using single-blind peer review. Key aspects of the journal include:

• Non-Traditional Research Outputs: In addition to full research reports, the platform solicits code notebooks, dataset descriptions, analysis protocols, tutorials, and replication studies.
• Direct Community Integration: Publishes special collections created in partnership with OHBM committees and SIGs, such as the Open Datasets series co-developed with the Open Science SIG.
• Annual Meeting Abstract Book: Serves as the permanent, citable archival home for the annual conference abstract books, including OHBM 2026 Bordeaux.
• Review and Production Efficiency: Operates with transparent median turnaround times, including a median of 49 days to first peer-reviewed decision, 106 days to final decision, and 146 days from submission to publication.
• Ethical Standards: Formally adheres to publishing standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the Council of Science Editors.

In parallel, the journal Human Brain Mapping (ISSN: 1065-9471, electronic ISSN: 1097-0193), published by John Wiley & Sons, serves as a long-standing venue for comprehensive neuroimaging studies. Works published in these venues frequently interact with computational methods examined across neuroscience and psychology, evaluating cognitive functions through quantitative structural and functional imaging.

Community Standards and Open Science: COBIDAS

One of OHBM’s most consequential contributions to research practice is the development of methodological reporting standards through the Committee on Best Practice in Data Analysis and Sharing (COBIDAS). Formed to address replication challenges in high-dimensional neuroimaging data, COBIDAS established comprehensive reporting guidelines for human brain mapping research.

The landmark COBIDAS MRI report—published in Nature Neuroscience by Thomas Nichols and colleagues (2017)—established a checklist of over 100 reporting items covering experimental design, MRI acquisition parameters, preprocessing pipelines, statistical modeling, and data sharing. The framework provides explicit reporting criteria for:

• Preprocessing Documentation: Complete specification of spatial realignment, slice-timing correction, co-registration, tissue segmentation, and spatial normalization parameters executed in software such as SPM12 or FreeSurfer.
• Statistical Modeling: Exact details of general linear model design matrices, hemodynamic response function convolutions, motion regressor inclusion, and multiple comparison correction methods (family-wise error rate or false discovery rate).
• Data and Code Transparency: Deposit of raw or minimally processed data in public repositories, release of custom analysis scripts, and digital object identifier (DOI) citations for analytical software versions.

The COBIDAS framework has since expanded to cover magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography (COBIDAS MEEG), creating standardized benchmarks for neurophysiology reporting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the word limit for an OHBM abstract?

An OHBM annual meeting abstract has a strict limit of 650 words. This word count encompasses the text across all four required sections—Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion—as well as any figure captions. Author lists, affiliations, and up to 5 citations do not count toward this limit.

Where was the OHBM 2026 Annual Meeting held?

The OHBM 2026 Annual Meeting was held at Palais 2 l’Atlantique in Bordeaux, France, from June 14 to June 18, 2026. The main conference was preceded by the three-day OHBM Brainhack from June 11 to June 13, 2026.

What is Aperture Neuro?

Aperture Neuro is the official open-access journal of OHBM (ISSN-L: 2957-3963). It publishes peer-reviewed research articles, dataset and protocol papers, computational notebooks, and replication studies under a CC BY 4.0 license, and hosts the annual conference abstract book.

What is the COBIDAS checklist in neuroimaging?

The COBIDAS checklist is a standardized reporting guideline developed by OHBM’s Committee on Best Practice in Data Analysis and Sharing. It outlines necessary reporting parameters for MRI, fMRI, and MEEG experiments to ensure methodological transparency and computational reproducibility.

Sources

• Organization for Human Brain Mapping. About OHBM: Mission, History, and Officers. https://www.humanbrainmapping.org/AboutOHBM/ (2026).
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Annual Meeting FAQ & Content Submission Guidelines. https://www.humanbrainmapping.org/ohbm-annual-meeting-faq/ (2026).
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Aperture Neuro Mission & Publishing Metrics. https://www.humanbrainmapping.org/aperture-neuro/ (2026).
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping. OHBM Leadership and Governance Council. https://www.humanbrainmapping.org/OHBMLeadership/ (2026).
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Special Interest Groups Directory. https://www.humanbrainmapping.org/OHBMSigs/ (2026).
• Nichols, T. E., Das, S., Eickhoff, S. B., Evans, A. C., Glatard, T., et al. Best practices in data analysis and sharing in neuroimaging using MRI. Nature Neuroscience 20(3): 299–303. DOI: 10.1038/nn.4500 (2017).
• Crossref Metadata & OpenAlex API. Human Brain Mapping (ISSN 1097-0193) and Aperture Neuro (ISSN-L 2957-3963) Bibliometrics (2026).