A Dose of Reality: How 20 Years of Incomplete Physics and Dosimetry Reporting in Radiobiology Studies May Have Contributed to the Reproducibility Crisis

Abstract

Purpose: A large proportion of preclinical or translational studies using radiation have poor replicability. For a study involving radiation exposure to be replicable, interpretable, and comparable, its experimental methodology must be well reported, particularly in terms of irradiation protocol, including the amount, rate, quality, and geometry of radiation delivery. Here we perform the first large-scale literature review of the current state of reporting of essential experimental physics and dosimetry details in the scientific literature.

Methods and materials: For 1758 peer-reviewed articles from 469 journals, we evaluated the reporting of basic experimental physics and dosimetry details recommended by the authoritative National Institute of Standards and Technology symposium.

Results: We demonstrate that although some physics and dosimetry parameters, such as dose, source type, and energy, are well reported, the majority are not. Furthermore, highly cited journals and articles are systematically more likely to be lacking experimental details related to the irradiation protocol.

Conclusions: These findings show a crucial deficiency in the reporting of basic experimental details and severely affect the reproducibility and translatability of a large proportion of radiation biology studies.