Behavioral Observation Research Interactive Software (BORIS)

1. Quantitative aspects of the study of an imal and human behaviour are increasingly relevant to test hypothesesand find empirical support for them. At the same time, photo and video cameras can store a large number ofvideo recordings and are often used to monitor the subjects remotely. Researchers frequently face the need tocode considerable quantities of video recordings with relatively flexible software, often constrained by species-specific options or exact settings. 2. BORIS is a free, open-source and multiplatform standalone program that allows a user-specific coding envi-ronment to be set for a computer-based review of previously recorded videos or live observations. Being open touser-specific settings, the program allows a project-based ethogram to be defined that can then be shared withcollaborators, or can be imported or modified. 3. Projects created in BORIS can include a list of observations, and each observation may include one or twovideos (e.g. simultane ous screen ing of visual stimuli and the subject being tested; reco rdings from different sidesof an aquarium). Once the user has set an ethogram, including state or point events or both, coding can be per-formed usin g previously assigned keys on the computer keyboard . BORIS allows definitio n of an unlimited num-ber of events (states/point events) and subjects. 4. Once the coding process is completed, the program can extract a time-budget or single or grouped observa-tions automatically and present an at-a-glance summary of the main behavioural features. The observation dataand time-budget analysis can be exported in many common formats (TSV, CSV, ODF, XLS, SQL and JSON).The observed events can be plotted and exported in various graphic formats (SVG, PNG, JPG, TIFF, EPS and PDF).