Improving Bioscience Research Reporting: The ARRIVE Guidelines for Reporting Animal Research

The Perspective section provides experts with a forum to comment on topical or controversial issues of broad interest.
In the last decade the number of bioscience journals has increased enormously, with many filling specialised niches reflecting new disciplines and technologies.
The emergence of open-access journals has revolutionised the publication process, maximising the availability of research data. Nevertheless, a wealth of evidence shows that across many areas, the reporting of biomedical research is often inadequate, leading to the view that even if the science is sound, in many cases the publications themselves are not ''fit for purpose,'' meaning that incomplete reporting of relevant information effectively renders many publications of limited value as instruments to inform policy or clinical and scientific practice . A recent review of clinical research showed that there is considerable cumulative waste of financial resources at all stages of the research process, including as a result of publications that are unusable due to poor reporting [bib_ref] Avoidable waste in the production and reporting of research evidence, Chalmers [/bib_ref]. It is unlikely that this issue is confined to clinical research [bib_ref] Can Animal Models of Disease Reliably Inform Human Studies, Van Der Worp [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Publication Bias in Reports of Animal Stroke Studies Leads to Major Overstatement..., Sena [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Quality of reporting of clinical trials of dogs and cats and associations..., Sargeant [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Survey of the Quality of Experimental Design, Statistical Analysis and Reporting of..., Kilkenny [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Methodological quality and completeness of reporting in clinical trials conducted in livestock..., Sargeant [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Good laboratory practice. Preventing introduction of bias at the bench, Macleod [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Do in vivo experimental models reflect human cerebral small vessel disease? A..., Hainsworth [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Animal models and the prediction of efficacy in clinical trials of analgesic..., Rice [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Animal welfare: reporting details is good science, Sherwin [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] An assessment of recently published gene expression analyses: reporting experimental design and..., Jafari [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Translation of research evidence from animals to humans, Hackam [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Comparison of treatment effects between animal experiments and clinical trials: systematic review, Perel [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] What can systematic review and meta-analysis tell us about the experimental data..., Macleod [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Where is the evidence that animal research benefits humans, Pound [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Assessment of ecological effects due to forest harvesting: approaches and statistical issues, Bennett [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Microbial biodiversity: Approaches to experimental design and hypothesis testing in primary scientific..., Morris [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Reporting animal use in scientific papers, Smith [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Assessment of statistical procedures used in papers in the, Mccance [/bib_ref].
Failure to describe research methods and to report results appropriately therefore has potential scientific, ethical, and economic implications for the entire research process and the reputation of those involved in it. This is particularly true for animal research, one of the most controversial areas of science. The largest and most comprehensive review of published animal research undertaken to date, to our knowledge, has highlighted serious omissions in the way research using animals is reported [bib_ref] Survey of the Quality of Experimental Design, Statistical Analysis and Reporting of..., Kilkenny [/bib_ref]. The survey, commissioned by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), a UK Government-sponsored scientific organisation, found that only 59% of the 271 randomly chosen articles assessed stated the hypothesis or objective of the study, and the number and characteristics of the animals used (i.e., species/strain, sex, and age/weight). Most of the papers surveyed did not report using randomisation (87%) or blinding (86%) to reduce bias in animal selection and outcome assessment. Only 70% of the publications that used statistical methods fully described them and presented the results with a measure of precision or variability [bib_ref] Survey of the Quality of Experimental Design, Statistical Analysis and Reporting of..., Kilkenny [/bib_ref]. These findings are a cause for concern and are consistent with reviews of many research areas, including clinical studies, published in recent years .

## Good reporting is essential for peer review and to inform future research
Scrutiny by scientific peers has long been the mainstay of ''quality control'' for the publication process. The way that experiments are reported, in terms of the level of detail of methods and the presentation of key results, is crucial to the peer review process and, indeed, the subsequent utility and validity of the knowledge base that is used to inform future research. The onus is therefore on the research community to ensure that their research articles include all relevant information to allow in-depth critique, and to avoiding duplicating studies and performing redundant experiments. Ideally scientific publications should present sufficient information to allow a knowledgeable reader to understand what was done, why, and how, and to assess the biological relevance of the study and the reliability and validity of the findings. There should also be enough information to allow the experiment to be repeated [bib_ref] Guidelines for the design and statistical analysis of experiments using laboratory animals, Festing [/bib_ref]. The problem therefore is how to ensure that all relevant information is included in research publications.

## Using reporting guidelines measurably improves the quality of reporting
Evidence provided by reviews of published research suggests that many researchers and peer reviewers would benefit from guidance about what information should be provided in a research article. The CONSORT Statement for randomised controlled clinical trials was one of the first guidelines developed in response to this need [bib_ref] The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of..., Moher [/bib_ref]. Since publication, an increasing number of leading journals have supported CONSORT as part of their instructions to authors [bib_ref] Endorsement of the CON-SORT statement by high impact medical journals: survey of..., Altman [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Endorsement of the CONSORT Statement by high impact factor medical journals: a..., Hopewell [/bib_ref]. As a result, convincing evidence is emerging that CONSORT improves the quality and transparency of reports of clinical trials [bib_ref] Reporting in randomized clinical trials improved after adoption of the CONSORT statement, Kane [/bib_ref].
Following CONSORT, many other guidelines have been developed-there are currently more than 90 available for reporting different types of health research, most of which have been published in the last ten years (see http://www. equator-network.org and references [bib_ref] EQUATOR: reporting guidelines for health research, Altman [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] A catalogue of reporting guidelines for health research, Simera [/bib_ref]. Guidelines have also been developed to improve the reporting of other specific bioscience research areas includ-ing metabolomics and gene expression studies [bib_ref] Good publication practice for pharmaceutical companies, Wager [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Minimum information about a microarray experiment (MIAME) -toward standards for microarray data, Brazma [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Proposed minimum reporting standards for data analysis in metabolomics, Goodacre [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] The ORION statement: guidelines for transparent reporting of outbreak reports and intervention..., Stone [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] A systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of animal experiments with..., Peters [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] The REFLECT statement: Methods and processes of creating reporting guidelines for randomised..., O&apos;connor [/bib_ref]. Several organisations support the case for improved reporting and recommend the use of reporting guidelines, including the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Council of Science Editors, the Committee on Publication Ethics, and the Nuffield Council for Bioethics.

## Improving the reporting of animal experiments-the arrive guidelines
Most bioscience journals currently provide little or no guidance on what information to report when describing animal research [bib_ref] Reporting ethical matters in The Journal of Physiology: standards and advice, Drummond [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Journal editorial policies, animal welfare, and the 3Rs, Osborne [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Improving the quality of publications on animal experiments to make systematic reviews..., Hooijmans [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Publications should include an animal welfare section, Wurbel [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Specification of laboratory animal use in scientific articles: Current low detail in..., Alfaro [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Animal definition: a necessity for the validity of animal experiments?, O Brink [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Editorial policies and animal welfare, Boisvert [/bib_ref]. Our review found that 4% of the 271 journal articles assessed did not report the number of animals used anywhere in the methods or the results sections [bib_ref] Survey of the Quality of Experimental Design, Statistical Analysis and Reporting of..., Kilkenny [/bib_ref]. Reporting animal numbers is essential so that the biological and statistical significance of the experimental results can be assessed or the data reanalysed, and is also necessary if the experimental methods are to be repeated. Improved reporting of these and other details will maximise the availability and utility of the information gained from every animal and every experiment, preventing unnecessary animal use in the future. To address this, we led an initiative to produce guidelines for reporting animal research. The guidelines, referred to as ARRIVE (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments), have been developed using the CONSORT Statement as their foundation [bib_ref] The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of..., Moher [/bib_ref].
The ARRIVE guidelines consist of a checklist of 20 items describing the minimum information that all scientific publications reporting research using animals should include, such as the number and specific characteristics of animals used (including species, strain, sex, and genetic background); details of housing and husbandry; and the experimental, statistical, and analytical methods (including details of methods used to reduce bias such as randomisation and blinding). All the items in the checklist have been included to promote high-quality, comprehensive reporting to allow an accurate critical review of what was done and what was found.
Consensus and consultation are the corner-stones of the guideline development process [bib_ref] Guidance for developers of health research reporting guidelines, Moher [/bib_ref]. To maximise their utility, the ARRIVE guidelines have been prepared in consultation with scientists, statisticians, journal editors, and research funders. We convened an expert working group, comprising researchers and statisticians from a range of disciplines, and journal editors from Nature Cell Biology, Science, Laboratory Animals, and the British Journal of Pharmacology (see Acknowledgments). At a one-day meeting in June 2009, the working group agreed the scope and broad content of a draft set of guidelines that were then used as the basis for a wider consultation with the scientific community, involving researchers, and grant holders and representatives of the major bioscience funding bodies including the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and The Royal Society (see [fig_ref] Table 1: Professor David Balding, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, Imperial College, London... [/fig_ref]. Feedback on the content and wording of the items was incorporated into the final version of the checklist. Further feedback on the content utility of the guidelines is encouraged and sought.
The ARRIVE guidelines (see [fig_ref] Table 2: Animal Research [/fig_ref] can be applied to any area of bioscience research using laboratory animals, and the inherent principles apply not only to reporting comparative experiments but also to other study designs. Laboratory animal refers to any species of animal undergoing an experimental procedure in a research laboratory or formal test setting. The guidelines are not intended to be mandatory or absolutely prescriptive, nor to standardise or formalise the structure of reporting. Rather they provide a checklist that can be used to guide authors preparing manuscripts for publication, and by those involved in peer review for quality assurance, to ensure completeness and transparency.

## Improved reporting will maximise the output of published research
These guidelines were developed to maximise the output from research using animals by optimising the information that is provided in publications on the design, conduct, and analysis of the experiments.
The need for such guidelines is further illustrated by the systematic reviews of animal research that have been carried out to assess the efficacy of various drugs and interventions in animal models [bib_ref] Do in vivo experimental models reflect human cerebral small vessel disease? A..., Hainsworth [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Animal models and the prediction of efficacy in clinical trials of analgesic..., Rice [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Comparison of treatment effects between animal experiments and clinical trials: systematic review, Perel [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Methodological quality of systematic reviews of animal studies: a survey of reviews..., Mignini [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Pooling of animal experimental data reveals influence of study design and publication..., Macleod [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Does animal experimentation inform human healthcare? Observations from a systematic review of..., Roberts [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Nimodipine in animal model experiments of focal cerebral ischemia: a systematic review, Horn [/bib_ref]. Well-designed and -reported animal studies are the essential building blocks from which such a systematic review is constructed. The reviews have found that, in many cases, reporting omissions, in addition to the limitations of the animal models used in the individual studies assessed in the review, are a barrier to reaching any useful conclusion about the efficacy of the drugs and interventions being compared [bib_ref] Can Animal Models of Disease Reliably Inform Human Studies, Van Der Worp [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Publication Bias in Reports of Animal Stroke Studies Leads to Major Overstatement..., Sena [/bib_ref].
Driving improvements in reporting research using animals will require the collective efforts of authors, journal editors, peer reviewers, and funding bodies. There is no single simple or rapid solution, but the ARRIVE guidelines provide a practical resource to aid these improvements. The guidelines will be published in several leading bioscience research journals simultaneously [bib_ref] Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments: The ARRIVE guidelines, Kilkenny [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments: The ARRIVE guidelines, Kilkenny [/bib_ref] [bib_ref] Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments: The ARRIVE guidelines, Kilkenny [/bib_ref] , and publishers have already endorsed the guidelines by including them in their journal Instructions to Authors subsequent to publication. The NC3Rs will continue to work with journal editors to extend the range of journals adopting the guidelines, and with the scientific community to disseminate the guidelines as widely as possible (http://www.nc3rs.org.uk/ARRIVE).

# Acknowledgments
The NC3Rs gratefully acknowledges the expertise and advice that all the contributors have given to developing the guidelines. We would particularly like to acknowledge the contribution of the other members of NC3Rs Reporting Guidelines Working Group (note that the working group members and authors who contributed to these guidelines were advising in their personal capacity and their input does not necessarily represent the policy of the organisations with which they are associated): Provide as accurate and concise a description of the content of the article as possible.
ABSTRACT 2 Provide an accurate summary of the background, research objectives (including details of the species or strain of animal used), key methods, principal findings, and conclusions of the study.

# Introduction
Background 3 a. Include sufficient scientific background (including relevant references to previous work) to understand the motivation and context for the study, and explain the experimental approach and rationale. b. Explain how and why the animal species and model being used can address the scientific objectives and, where appropriate, the study's relevance to human biology.

## Objectives 4
Clearly describe the primary and any secondary objectives of the study, or specific hypotheses being tested. Housing and husbandry 9 Provide details of: a. Housing (e.g., type of facility, e.g., specific pathogen free (SPF); type of cage or housing; bedding material; number of cage companions; tank shape and material etc. for fish). b. Husbandry conditions (e.g., breeding programme, light/dark cycle, temperature, quality of water etc. for fish, type of food, access to food and water, environmental enrichment). c. Welfare-related assessments and interventions that were carried out before, during, or after the experiment.

# Methods
Sample size 10 a. Specify the total number of animals used in each experiment and the number of animals in each experimental group. b. Explain how the number of animals was decided. Provide details of any sample size calculation used.
c. Indicate the number of independent replications of each experiment, if relevant.
Allocating animals to experimental groups 11 a. Give full details of how animals were allocated to experimental groups, including randomisation or matching if done. b. Describe the order in which the animals in the different experimental groups were treated and assessed.

## Experimental outcomes 12
Clearly define the primary and secondary experimental outcomes assessed (e.g., cell death, molecular markers, behavioural changes).
Statistical methods 13 a. Provide details of the statistical methods used for each analysis. b. Specify the unit of analysis for each dataset (e.g. single animal, group of animals, single neuron). c. Describe any methods used to assess whether the data met the assumptions of the statistical approach.

# Results

## Baseline data 14
For each experimental group, report relevant characteristics and health status of animals (e.g., weight, microbiological status, and drug-or test-naive) before treatment or testing (this information can often be tabulated).
Numbers analysed 15 a. Report the number of animals in each group included in each analysis. Report absolute numbers (e.g. 10/20, not 50% a ). b. If any animals or data were not included in the analysis, explain why.
Outcomes and estimation 16 Report the results for each analysis carried out, with a measure of precision (e.g., standard error or confidence interval).
Adverse events 17 a. Give details of all important adverse events in each experimental group. b. Describe any modifications to the experimental protocols made to reduce adverse events.
[table] Table 1: Professor David Balding, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, Imperial College, London UK; Dr Colin Dunn Editor Laboratory Animals (Royal Society of Medicine press); Dr. Stella Hurtley, Senior Editor Science; Professor Ian McGrath Editor-in-Chief British Journal of Pharmacology (Wiley Blackwell publishers); and Dr. Clare Stanford, Department of Psychopharmacology, University College, London UK. We would also like to thank NC3Rs grant holders, the Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Parkinson's Disease Society, British Heart Foundation and their grant holders and funding committee members who provided feedback on the guidelines; and Dr. Kathryn Chapman and Dr. Vicky Robinson (both NC3Rs) for their help with the manuscript. Funding bodies consulted. [/table]
[table] Table 2: Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo experiments: The ARRIVE guidelines. [/table]