It’s important to acknowledge & work to address the bioethical, reproducibility, and translational challenges of animal research. Below are some tools and strategies we think can help:
1. When designing (or reviewing) an experiment ask yourself if the research is suitable (i.e., it is scientifically valid and follows the 3Vs: construct, internal, & external validity), necessary (i.e., there are no alternatively methods and the 3Rs have been implemented) and overall reasonable (the potential benefits to society outweigh the harms to the animals; Eggel & Würbel, 2020)
2. To help enhance internal validity, be sure to follow NORECOPA’s PREPARE Checklist (see video below) & use NC3Rs Experimental Design Assistant.
Ensure that you are using good experimental design practices such as a completely randomised or randomized block design (which is generally more powerful), which include factorial designs. This ensures that variation is handled properly. For more information see Festing, 2020 and the Introduction to Experimental Design Course which has been specially designed for animal research. Well designed experiments and proper use of statistics are essential for valid, reproducible, and translational research.
5. Consider pre-registering your study to help ensure the integrity of research outcomes, foster transparency, and mitigate biases. One option for preregistration of animal studies is animalstudyregistry.org.
Some publications on preregistration in animal research include Bert et al. 2019 and Heinl et al. 2022.
For further reading, see the article, “Bioethical, reproducibility, and translational challenges of animal models” by Landi et al. 2021.
