Resources

On this page, Preclinical Data Forum will collect best practice resources to encourage robust, reproducible preclinical research.
Global Preclinical Data Forum encourages all colleagues to submit information on such links and references for publication on our contact page.

Guidelines

Du Sert, NP, Hurst, V, Ahluwalia, A, Alam, S, Altman, DG, Avey, MT, Baker, M, Browne, W, Clarke, A, Cuthill, IC, Dirnagl, U, Emerson, M, Garner, P, Howells, DW, Karp, NA, MacCallum, CJ, Macleod, M, Petersen, O, Rawle, F, Reynolds, P, Rooney, K, Sena, ES, Silberberg, SD, Steckler, T, Würbel, H, Holgate, ST (2018). Revision of the ARRIVE guidelines: rationale and scope. BMC Open Science, 2: e000002.
Everitt, JI, Berridge, BR (2017). The role of the IACUC in the design and conduct of animal experiments that contribute to translational success. ILAR J; 58(1):129-134.

Lemmon, VP, Ferguson, AR, Popovich, PG, Xu, XM, Snow, DM, Igarashi, M, Beattie, CE, Bixby, JL, MIASCI Consortium (2014). Minimum information about a spinal cord injury experiment: A proposed reporting standard for spinal cord injury experiments. J Neurotrauma, 31, 1354-61.

Nosek, BA, Alter, GC, Banks, D, Borsboom, SD, Bowman SD, Breckler SJ, Buck S, Chambers CD, Chin G, Christensen G, Contestabile M, Dafoe A, Eich E, Freese J, Glennerster R2 Goroff D, Green DP, Hesse B, Humphreys M, Ishiyama J, Karlan D, Kraut A, Lupia A, Mabry P, Madon TA, Malhotra N, Mayo-Wilson E, McNutt M, Miguel E, Paluck EL, Simonsohn U, Soderberg C, Spellman BA, Turitto J, VandenBos G, Vazire S, Wagenmakers EJ, Wilson R, Yarkoni T (2015). SCIENTIFIC STANDARDS. Promoting an open research culture. Science; 26;348(6242):1422-5.

Simera, I., Moher, D., Hirst, A. Hoey, J, Schulz, KF, Altman, DG (2010). Transparent and accurate reporting increases reliability, utility, and impact of your research: reporting guidelines and the EQUATOR Network. BMC Med 8, 1-6.

Vogt, L, Reichlin, TS, Nathues, C, Würbel, H (2016). Authorization of animal experiments is based on confidence rather than evidence of scientific rigor. PLoS Biol. 14(12):e2000598

Publishing

Chambers, C. (2019). What’s next for registered reports? Nature. 573(7773):187-189
Iqbal SA, Wallach JD, Khoury MJ, Schully SD, Ioannidis JP (2016). Reproducible research practices and transparency across the biomedical literature. PLoS Biol. 14(1):e1002333.
Jamieson, KH, McNutt, M, Kiermer, V, Sever, R (2019). Signaling the trustworthiness of science. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 116(39):19231-19236.
Landis, SC, Amara, SG, Asadullah, K, Austin, CP, Blumenstein, R, Bradley, EW, Crystal RG, et al (2012). A call for transparent reporting to optimize the predictive value of preclinical research. Nature. 490, 187-191.
O’Brien, BC, Harris, IB, Beckman, TJ, Reed, DA, Cook, DA (2014). Standards for reporting qualitative research: A synthesis of recommendations. Academic Medicine, 89, 1-7.
Prager, EM, Chambers, KE, Plotkin JL, McArthur, DL, Bandrowski, AE, Bansal, N, Martone, ME, Bergstrom, HC, Bespalov, A, Graf, C (2019). Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing. J Neurosci Res, 97, 377-390.
Ramirez FD, Jung RG, Motazedian P, Perry-Nguyen D, Di Santo P, MacDonald Z, Clancy AA, Labinaz A, Promislow S, Simard T, Provencher S, Bonnet S, Graham ID, Wells GA, Hibbert B (2020). Journal Initiatives to Enhance Preclinical Research: Analyses of Stroke, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine. Stroke. 51(1):291-299

Research Policy and Ethics

Maynard, OM, Munafò MR (2018). Nudging transparent behavioural science and policy. Behav Public Policy, 2 198-206.
Perrin, S (2014). Preclinical research: Make mouse studies work. Nature. 507(7493):423-5.

Plemmons DK, Baranski EN, Harp K, Lo DD, Soderberg CK, Errington TM, Nosek BA Esterling KM (2020). A randomized trial of a lab-embedded discourse intervention to improve research ethics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 117(3):1389-1394
Pound, P, Bracken, MB (2014). Is animal research sufficiently evidence based to be a cornerstone of biomedical research? BMJ 2014; 348:g3387

Training

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) – Enhancing Scientific Reproducibility in Biomedical Research Through Transparent Reporting: Proceedings of a Workshop
National Institute of Health – National Institute on Drug Abuse – Recommendations for Preclinical Research: SFN / NIH Training Modules to Enhance Rigor and Reproducibility in Neuroscience Research:

Publications

NIH Publications

NIH Rigor & Reproducibility Publications

Data Governance

Lin, D., Crabtree, J., Dillo, I. et al. The TRUST Principles for digital repositories. Sci Data 7, 144 (2020)

Experimental Design

Clayton, JA, Arnegard, ME (2018). Taking cardiology clinical trials to the next level: A call to action. Clinical Cardiology. 41, 179-184. Published online: doi: 10.1002/clc.22907.
Dimagl, U, Przesdzing, I (2016). A pocket guide to electronic laboratory notebooks in the academic life sciences. F100Res; 5: 2.
Fontoura-Andrade, JL, Amorim, RF, Sousa, JB (2017). Improving reproducibility and external validity. The role of standardization and data reporting of laboratory rat husbandry and housing. Acta Cir Bras, 32, 251-262.
Giraldo, O, Garcia, A, Corcho, O (2018). A guideline for reporting experimental protocols in life sciences. PeerJ, 6, e4795.
Kilkenny C, Parsons N, Kadyszewski E, Festing MF, Cuthill IC, Fry D, Hutton J, Altman DG (2009). Survey of the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting of research using animals. PLoS One; 4(11):e7824
Kimmelman, J, Mogil, JS, Dirnagl, U (2014). Distinguishing between exploratory and confirmatory preclinical research will improve translation. PloS Biol; 12(5): e1001863.
Lorsch, JR, Collins, FS, Lippincott-Schwartz, J (2014). Fixing problems with cell lines. Science. 346, 1452-1453.
Petyuk, VA, Gatto, L, Payne, SH (2019). Reproducibility and transparency by design. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, 18, S202-S204.
Ramirez FD, Motazedian P, Jung RG, Di Santo P, MacDonald ZD, Moreland R, Simard T, Clancy AA, Russo JJ, Welch VA, Wells GA, Hibbert B (2017). Methodological Rigor in Preclinical Cardiovascular Studies: Targets to Enhance Reproducibility and Promote Research Translation. Circ Res. 120(12):1916-1926

Experimental Methods

Arrowsmith, CH, Audia, JE, Austin, C, Baell, J, Bennett, JB, Bountra, C, et al. (2015). The promise and peril of chemical probes. Nat. Chem Biol. 11, 536541.
Bandrowski, AE, Martone, ME. (2016) RRIDs: A simple step toward improving reproducibility through rigor and transparency of experimental methods. Neuron, 90, 434-436.
du Sert NP, Bamsey I, Bate ST, Berdoy M, Clark RA, Cuthill IC, Fry D, Karp NA, Macleod M, Moon L, Stanford SC, Lings B (2017). The experimental design assistant. PLoS Biol 15(9): e2003779
Knudtson, KL, Carnahan, RH, Hegstad-Davies, RL, Fisher, NC, Hicks, B, Lopez, PA, Meyn, SM, Mische, SM, Weis-Garcia, F, White, LD, Sol-Church, K (2019). Survey on scientific shared resource rigor and reproducibility. J Biomol Tech, 30, 36-44.
National Research Council (US) Institute for Laboratory Animal Research. Guidance for the Description of Animal Research in Scientific Publications. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011.
Svenson, KL, Paigen, B (2019). Recommended housing densities for research mice: filling the gap in data-driven alternatives. FASEB J. 33(3):3097-3111.

Sex as a Biological Variable

Becker, JB, Clayton, JA, Miller, LR, et al (2016). Considering sex as a biological variable in preclinical research. FASEB J. fj.201600781R.
Becker, JB, Koob, GF (2016). Sex Differences in Animal Models: Focus on Addiction. Pharmacological Reviews. 68(2), 242-63.
Brooks, CE, Clayton, JA (2016). Sex/gender influences on the nervous system: Basic steps toward clinical progress. Journal of Neuroscience Research. 95: 14–16.
Clayton, JA, Collins, FS (2014). Policy: NIH to balance sex in cell and animal studies. Nature. 509, 282-283.
Clayton, JA (2016). Studying both sexes: a guiding principle for biomedicine FASEB J. Vol.30, No.2, pp:519-524. (February 2016) Published online: doi:10.1096/fj.15-279554.
Miller LR, Marks C, Becker JB, Hurn PD, Chen WJ, Woodruff T, McCarthy MM, Sohrabji F, Schiebinger L, Wetherington CL, Makris S, Arnold AP, Einstein G, Miller VM, Sandberg K, Maier S, Cornelison TL, Clayton JA (2017). Considering sex as a biological variable in preclinical research. FASEB J. 31(1):29-34.
Ramirez FD, Motazedian P, Jung RG, Di Santo P, MacDonald Z, Simard T, Clancy AA, Russo JJ, Welch V, Wells GA, Hibbert B (2017). Sex bias Is Increasingly Prevalent in Preclinical Cardiovascular Research: Implications for Translational Medicine and Health Equity for Women: A Systematic Assessment of Leading Cardiovascular Journals Over a 10-Year Period. Circulation. 135(6):625-626.

Statistics

Alawbathani, S., Batool, M., Fleckhaus, J. et al. A teaching tool about the fickle p value and other statistical principles based on real-life data. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Arch Pharmacol (2021)
Gosselin, R-W (2019). Statistical analysis must improve to address the reproducibility crisis: The Access to Transparent Statistics (ACTS) call to action. BioEssays, 42, 1900189.
Hampton JO, MacKenzie DI, Forsyth DM (2019). How many to sample? Statistical guidelines for monitoring animal welfare outcomes. PLoS One. 2019 Jan 30;14(1):e0211417.
Hildebrandt, T, Prenoveau JM (2020). Rigor and reproducibility for data analysis and design in the behavioral sciences. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 126, 103552.
Ioannidis, JPA (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PloS Med 2: e124.
Nguyen, TV, Rivadeneira, F, Civitelli, R (2019). New guidelines for data reporting and statistical analysis: helping authors with transparency and rigor in research. JBMR, 34, 1981-1984.
Stodden, V (2015). Reproducing statistical results. Annual Review of Statistics and its Application, 2, 1-19.

Transparency and Reproducibility

Baxter, MG, Burwell, RD (2017). Promoting transparency and reproducibility in behavioral neuroscience: Publishing replications, registered reports and null results. Behavi Neurosci, 131, 275-276.
Collins, FS, Tabak, LA (2014). Policy: NIH plans to enhance reproducibility. Nature. 505, 612–613.
Dirnagl, U (2019). Rethinking research reproducibility. EMBO J 38: e101117
Gulinello, M, Mitchell, HA, Chang, Q, O’Brien, TW, Zhou, Z, Abel, T, Wang, L, Corbin, JG, Veeraragavan, S, Samaco, RC, Andrews, NA, Fagiolini, M, Cole, TB, Burbacher, TM, Crawley, JN (2018). Rigor and reproducibility in rodent behavioral research. Neurbiol Learn Mem, 165. 106780.
Hewitt, JA, Brown, LL, Murphy, SJ, Grieder, F, Silberberg SD (2017). Accelerating Biomedical Discoveries through Rigor and Transparency. ILAR J. 58(1):115-128.
Koroshetz, WJ, Behrman, S, Brame, CJ, Branchaw, JL, Brown, EN, Clark, EA, Dockterman, D, Elm, JJ, Gay, PL, Green, KM, His, S, Kaplitt, MG, Kolber, BJ, Kolodkin, AJ, Lipscombe, D, Macleod MR, McKinney, CC, Munafò, MR, Oakley, B, Olimpo, JT, Du Sert, NP, Raman, IM, Riley, C, Shelton, AL, Uzzo, SM, Crawford, DC, Silberberg, SD (2020). Framework for advancing rigorous research. eLife, 9: e55915.
Mische, SH, Fisher, NC, Meyn, SM, Church, KS, Hegstad-Davies, RL, Weis-Garcia, F, Adams, M, Ashton, JM, Delventhal, KM, Dragon, JA, Holmes, L, Jagtap, P, Mason, CE, Palmblad, M, Searle, BC, Turck, CW, Knudtson, KL (2020). A review of the scientific rigor, reproducibility and transparency studies conducted by the ABRF research groups. J Biomol Tech, pii: jbt.20-3101-003.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science. Washington DC: The National Academies Press. Https://doi.org/10.17226/25303
Nosek, Brian A., and Timothy M. Errington. 2020. “What Is Replication?.” PloS Biol 18: e3000691

Materials

Consensus Preclinical Checklist (PRECHECK): Experimental Conditions – Rodent Disclosure Checklist
Reduction by Prior Animal Informed Research (RePAIR) – RePAIR is a statistical method that uses previously obtained information (Bayesian framework) to decrease the number of animals to perform well-powered research.
AlzPED – Developed by the National Institute for Aging, AlzPED is a publicly available, searchable, data resource that aims to increase the transparency, reproducibility and translatability of preclinical efficacy studies for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Organizations

Organizations that Promote Reproducible Research

United States Sponsor:

European Sponsor: