Organization:Animal Study Registry

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Short description: Research study registry

Animal Study Registry is an online registry for the preregistration of research studies involving animals.[1][2][3][4] Animal Study Registry was launched in January 2019 and can be used by scientists worldwide.

History

The reproducibility of animal test results in biomedical research has been questioned repeatedly in the past.[5][6][7] Discussions about this replication crisis have already reached the public. In clinical research, the call for transparency led to the introduction of clinical trial registries that disclose the experimental design of clinical trials before the study is conducted. In order to increase the transparency and the quality in the field of preclinical and basic research, the establishment of so-called centralized animal study registries was suggested.[8][9] The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), as a scientifically independent research institution, has decided to provide an international freely accessible platform for the pre-registration of studies involving animal experiments.

Goal

The causes for the replication crisis in biomedical research are being intensively discussed within the scientific community.[5][6] The publication bias was identified as one main reason for the lack of reproducibility of research results. This means, only significant and novel results are published while null results are never revealed, which leads to a distorted view of the state of research.[6]  Furthermore, poor study design, poor statistical planning and incomplete method description were, among others, identified as further reasons for non-reproducibility.[6]

The purpose of Animal Study Registry is to register animal experiments with detailed information on methods, working hypotheses and biometric planning prior to the start of the study. Registration of the study plan could reduce the publication bias and prevent practices like data dredging. Indeed, Scientists would have to justify in the future why they differed from the original project planning or why some results were not published. The detailed query of the methods as well as the statistical planning supports the scientists in the study preparation and can thus increase the quality of as well as the reproducibility of the animal experiments. Results from animal experiments that are not published or whose informative value is impaired due to poor study quality can lead to animal experiments being unnecessarily repeated.

References

  1. "Animal Study Registry". http://www.animalstudyregistry.org. 
  2. Bert, Bettina; Heinl, Céline; Chmielewska, Justyna; Schwarz, Franziska; Grune, Barbara; Hensel, Andreas; Greiner, Matthias; Schönfelder, Gilbert (2019-10-15). "Refining animal research: The Animal Study Registry" (in en). PLOS Biology 17 (10): e3000463. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000463. ISSN 1545-7885. PMID 31613875. 
  3. Heinl, Céline; Chmielewska, Justyna; Olevska, Anastasia; Grune, Barbara; Schönfelder, Gilbert; Bert, Bettina (2020-01-07). "Rethinking the incentive system in science: animal study registries". EMBO Reports 21 (1): e49709. doi:10.15252/embr.201949709. ISSN 1469-221X. PMID 31867805. 
  4. Olevska, Anastasia; Bert, Bettina; Ebrahimi, Lida; Schönfelder, Gilbert; Heinl, Céline (2021-04-05). "Ensuring Reproducible Research Requires a Support Infrastructure: The Value of Public Registries to Publishers" (in en-US). Science Editor 44 (1): 4–7. doi:10.36591/SE-D-4401-4. https://www.csescienceeditor.org/article/ensuring-reproducible-research-requires-a-support-infrastructure-the-value-of-public-registries-to-publishers/. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Ioannidis, John P.A.; Trikalinos, Thomas A. (2007-04-10). "The appropriateness of asymmetry tests for publication bias in meta-analyses: a large survey". CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal 176 (8): 1091–1096. doi:10.1503/cmaj.060410. ISSN 0820-3946. PMID 17420491. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Baker, Monya (2016-05-26). "1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility". Nature News 533 (7604): 452–454. doi:10.1038/533452a. PMID 27225100. Bibcode2016Natur.533..452B. 
  7. Arrowsmith, John (2011-04-29). "Trial watch: Phase II failures: 2008–2010". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 10 (5): 328–329. doi:10.1038/nrd3439. ISSN 1474-1784. PMID 21532551. 
  8. Kimmelman, Jonathan; Anderson, James A. (2012-06-07). "Should preclinical studies be registered?". Nature Biotechnology 30 (6): 488–489. doi:10.1038/nbt.2261. ISSN 1546-1696. PMID 22678379. 
  9. Strech, Daniel; Silva, Diego S.; Wieschowski, Susanne (2016-11-10). "Animal Study Registries: Results from a Stakeholder Analysis on Potential Strengths, Weaknesses, Facilitators, and Barriers". PLOS Biology 14 (11): e2000391. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2000391. ISSN 1545-7885. PMID 27832101.