Table 1.

Checklist on compliance with requirements for reporting experiments involving animals or animal tissue

The Checklist below has been developed to guide authors with respect to the nature and level of information that BJP expects in manuscripts that describe experiments that involve the use of animals.

Good science and good animal welfare standards go hand-in-hand and these requirements will assist in improving dissemination of good practice.The rationale is to encourage full disclosure of relevant information that would allow the study to be independently replicated and to enable editors and reviewers to judge whether the ethical quality of the work adheres to the standards that the journal requires (see Author Guidelines; British Journal of Pharmacology, 2015).

If the author is using a well-established and previously described methodology, much of the information can be communicated by reference to published work, but it is essential that the necessary detail is present in the work cited, i.e. don't cite a paper that in turn cites another and so on; cite only the original source. If the methodology, has been modified, this needs to be explained.

If a novel methodology has been developed by the author and shown to have the potential to replace animals, to reduce the number of animals required or to reduce the severity of the procedure (refinement), this should also be explained.

Note that the appropriate number of animals used needs to satisfy experimental design and statistical power requirements (see generic checklist ‘Compliance with Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis requirements’, discussed in a separate editorial (Curtis et al., 2015). An underpowered study is wasteful of animals since it does not provide an answer to the questions posed and must be repeated using more animals. Standard equipment does not need to be described unless a specific model is essential for the study. Equally, standard animal housing and care does not need to be explained in detail as long as these meet the standards required by relevant local guidance or law. Authors will be aware what aspects of their technical approach are important to the quality of their data; these details need to be included.

Some information is mandatory: Details about any legislation or guidance that the work is covered by (including any ethical approval that has been obtained); details about the animals that have been used (e.g. source, species, strain, age, sex); details of what happens to the animals (e.g. drug administration, provision of analgesia or anesthesia, any welfare assessment protocols and humane endpoints, method of killing). Additionally, it should be possible to trace what happens to all animals used in the study (i.e. the numbers need to add up).

A template is provided for inserting this information. The task should not be overly onerous or take up too much space in the manuscript. It will not be included in the word count if it causes the total to exceed the maximum allowed. Instructions will be found in the Author Guidelines (British Journal of Pharmacology, 2015)

Please include in the Methods of your paper a section called ‘Compliance with requirements for studies using animals’. This is provided in the template. Include all items and if any are ‘not applicable’ explain this briefly.

Full disclosure is required1.

Methods Section:

Validity Provide a scientific justification for the animal species and model selected for study, making reference to relevance to human biology/therapeutics if appropriate..

Ethical statement Indicate the nature of the ethical review permissions, relevant legislation (e.g. Animals [Scientific Procedures] Act 1986), and national or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals, that cover the research.

Animals Provide details of source, species, strain, sex, range of age and weight of animals and any additional data that are relevant to the study, for example genetic status, health status, any re-use or continued-use, etc.

Experimental procedures Provide precise details of all experimental procedures (e.g. drug formulation, dose, site and route of administration, anaesthesia and analgesia used, surgical procedures including asepsis, and method of killing). Provide details of any specialist equipment used, including supplier(s).

Housing and husbandry Provide details of: Housing (type of facility e.g. specific pathogen free [SPF]; type of cage or housing; bedding material; number of cage companions; tank shape and material etc. for fish). Husbandry conditions (e.g. breeding programme, light/dark cycle, temperature, quality of water etc., for fish, type of food, access to food and water, environmental enrichment). Welfare-related assessments, measurements and interventions (e.g. humane end points) that were carried out prior to, during, or after the experiment.

Numbers analysed The ‘Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis’ section requires reporting the number of animals in each group included for analysis: if any animals or data were not included in the analysis, explain why.

Discussion Section: include these aspects here

Interpretation & scientific implications Describe any novel aspects of your experimental methods and/or experimental findings that may have implications for the replacement, refinement or reduction (the 3Rs) of the use of animals in research.

Generalisability/translation Comment on whether, and how, the findings of this study are likely to translate to clinical relevance.

¹Disclosure in this context is for transparency, to allow others to repeat the study exactly, to demonstrate that globally recognized norms of animal ethical treatment are followed, and should be sufficiently detailed to allow peer review to verify compliance. Much of the information can be communicated by reference to published work, but it is essential that the necessary detail is present in the work cited, i.e. don't cite a paper that in turn cites another and so on.