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Reproducibility

Research-reporting standards fall short

Nature volume 492, page 41 (2012)Cite this article

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More than 150 journals and many research-funding charities have endorsed the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting research that uses animal models (C. Kilkenny et al. PLoS Biol. 8, e1000412; 2010), but we find that they are being largely ignored. This could undermine data reproducibility and model credibility, and might obstruct translation into human therapy (S. Landis et al. Nature 490, 187–191; 2012).

For example, of 180 papers on multiple sclerosis listed on PubMed in the past 6 months, we found that only 40% used appropriate statistics to compare the effects of gene-knockout or treatment. Appropriate statistics were applied in only 4% of neuroimmunological studies published in the past two years in Nature Publishing Group journals, Science and Cell (details available from D.B. on request). Many journals are therefore failing to ensure that the basics of experimental design and data analysis are respected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen Mary, University of London, UK

    David Baker, Katie Lidster & Ana Sottomayor

  2. Free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Sandra Amor

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  1. David Baker
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  2. Katie Lidster
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  3. Ana Sottomayor
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  4. Sandra Amor
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Correspondence to David Baker.

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Baker, D., Lidster, K., Sottomayor, A. et al. Research-reporting standards fall short. Nature 492, 41 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/492041a

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