Two years later: journals are not yet enforcing the ARRIVE guidelines on reporting standards for pre-clinical animal studies

Abstract

There is growing concern that poor experimental design and lack of transparent reporting contribute to the frequent failure of pre-clinical animal studies to translate into treatments for human disease. In 2010, the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines were introduced to help improve reporting standards. They were published in PLOS Biology and endorsed by funding agencies and publishers and their journals, including PLOS, Nature research journals, and other top-tier journals. Yet our analysis of papers published in PLOS and Nature journals indicates that there has been very little improvement in reporting standards since then. This suggests that authors, referees, and editors generally are ignoring guidelines, and the editorial endorsement is yet to be effectively implemented.

Figure 1. Inappropriate use of parametric statistics applied to non-parametric data in comparisons of treatments for EAE.

Papers reporting differences between groups of animals with EAE were assessed to determine whether the studies reported the statistical analysis method, and whether they used non-parametric or parametric statistics to analyse non-parametric neurological scoring data (n = 152). Each publication was attributed an impact score according to the 2011 Web of Science impact factor for each journal. Some journals did not yet have an impact factor; papers in these journals were assigned an impact score of zero. The horizontal line shows the median impact score.

Figure 2. Impact of endorsement of ARRIVE guidelines on reporting of EAE studies in PLOS and Nature journals.

Papers reporting differences between groups of animals with EAE were assessed over the two years before and the two years after the endorsement of the ARRIVE guidelines. The data show reporting of various aspects of experimental design in (A) PLOS (n = 46) and (B) Nature journals (n = 30).