The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2009 Nov 30;4(11):e7824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007824.
For scientific, ethical and economic reasons, experiments involving animals should be appropriately designed, correctly analysed and transparently reported. This increases the scientific validity of the results, and maximises the knowledge gained from each experiment. A minimum amount of relevant information must be included in scientific publications to ensure that the methods and results of a study can be reviewed, analysed and repeated. Omitting essential information can raise scientific and ethical concerns. We report the findings of a systematic survey of reporting, experimental design and statistical analysis in published biomedical research using laboratory animals. Medline and EMBASE were searched for studies reporting research on live rats, mice and non-human primates carried out in UK and US publicly funded research establishments. Detailed information was collected from 271 publications, about the objective or hypothesis of the study, the number, sex, age and/or weight of animals used, and experimental and statistical methods. Only 59% of the studies stated the hypothesis or objective of the study and the number and characteristics of the animals used. Appropriate and efficient experimental design is a critical component of high-quality science. Most of the papers surveyed did not use randomisation (87%) or blinding (86%), to reduce bias in animal selection and outcome assessment. Only 70% of the publications that used statistical methods described their methods and presented the results with a measure of error or variability. This survey has identified a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to improve experimental design and reporting in publications describing research using animals. Scientific publication is a powerful and important source of information; the authors of scientific publications therefore have a responsibility to describe their methods and results comprehensively, accurately and transparently, and peer reviewers and journal editors share the responsibility to ensure that published studies fulfil these criteria.
出于科学、伦理和经济方面的原因，涉及动物的实验应进行适当的设计、正确的分析和透明的报告。这可以提高研究结果的科学有效性，并最大限度地从每个实验中获取知识。科学出版物中必须包含最低限度的相关信息，以确保研究方法和结果可以进行审查、分析和重复。省略必要的信息可能会引起科学和伦理方面的关注。我们报告了一项系统调查的结果，该调查涉及使用实验室动物进行的已发表的生物医学研究中的报告、实验设计和统计分析。在英国和美国的公共资助研究机构中，我们在 Medline 和 EMBASE 上搜索了关于活大鼠、小鼠和非人类灵长类动物的研究报告。从 271 篇出版物中收集了关于研究的目标或假设、使用的动物数量、性别、年龄和/或体重以及实验和统计方法的详细信息。只有 59%的研究报告了研究的假设或目标以及使用的动物数量和特征。适当和高效的实验设计是高质量科学的关键组成部分。大多数接受调查的论文都没有使用随机化（87%）或盲法（86%）来减少动物选择和结果评估中的偏倚。只有 70%使用统计方法的出版物描述了他们的方法，并以误差或变异性的度量值呈现了结果。这项调查确定了一些需要解决的问题，以改进描述使用动物的研究的出版物中的实验设计和报告。科学出版物是信息的强大而重要的来源；因此，科学出版物的作者有责任全面、准确和透明地描述他们的方法和结果，同行评审员和期刊编辑也有责任确保发表的研究符合这些标准。
