Today, the Society welcomes publication of the updated ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines, “ARRIVE 2.0”, which aim to improve the reporting of research using animals.
Ten years on from the publication of the original guidelines, the update recognises challenges with compliance that have ultimately limited their impact. The new guidelines aim to be more accessible, offering two checklists: the ‘Essential 10’ and the ‘Recommended set’ to support researchers in reducing bias and improving reproducibility, respectively.
The original guidelines were widely endorsed by the scientific community, including by the British Journal of Pharmacology. The journal has published an editorial to accompany the release of ARRIVE 2.0.
Editor in Chief, Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, said:
BJP has been and remains a strong advocate of the principles of ARRIVE; that is the need for transparency in animal experimentation to enable reproducibility. The new ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines reiterate this critical need but also come with an ‘Explanation and Elaboration’ document that helps researchers understand better the requirements and provides excellent examples of best practice. Our editorial highlights the key issues for pharmacology and identifies six essential criteria of the ARRIVE 2.0 that are mandatory for publication in BJP.
The guidelines are in line with the Society’s longstanding commitment to education and training in the use of research animals. The Society acted as a steward of the cross-sector Integrative Pharmacology Fund (IPF) and committed central funding for training courses in partnership with The Physiological Society. In 2016, the Society published an evaluation of the fund
[1], which whilst recognising its successes, also highlighted a lack of consistency in undergraduate education. To help address this, the Society led work to develop a
curriculum that aspires to inform all undergraduate programmes that use data or literature derived from research animals and, this year, also launched a
training resource to support experimental design.
President-Elect, Professor Clive Page, said:
It’s great to see the updated guidelines and the continued commitment of the British Journal of Pharmacology to upholding these standards. High quality experimental design and reporting underpins the generation of meaningful data and helps minimise unnecessary studies. The ability to do this well clearly has its roots in education and training. I am proud of the Society’s work in this area, including a new project in partnership with The Physiological Society to support educators with delivery of their teaching. By continuing to invest in education and training, we hope to support the researchers of tomorrow - and the long-term impact of ARRIVE 2.0.