The animal research community faces important challenges, including hurdles in basic science translation and a major reproducibility crisis. To be able to solve those problems, the community first needs to understand the causes of these issues.
In a new article, Rebecca Walker and colleagues at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Pennsylvania queried the opinion of US biomedical researchers using vertebrate animals on issues of reproducibility, rigor and attrition rates in drug development. Survey responses show that, while most researchers are well aware of problems in each of these areas, there are important differences in researchers’ perspectives depending on the animal model they use, as well as their professional and demographic profiles. The survey was also developed to understand the researchers’ views on oversight standards and public engagement: responses around those themes also point to diverse perspectives within the animal research community.
