SynthesisPLoS biology2016
Where Have All the Rodents Gone? The Effects of Attrition in Experimental Research on Cancer and Stroke.
Synthesis in PLoS biology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 118 citations in OpenAlex.
- Preclinical systematic review of CCR5 antagonists as cerebroprotective and stroke recovery enhancing agents.eLife · 2025Pooled it
- Inhibition of the Nogo-pathway in experimental spinal cord injury: a meta-analysis of 76 experimental treatments.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A methodological review with meta-epidemiological analysis of preclinical systematic reviews with meta-analyses.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Reporting quality in preclinical animal experimental research in 2009 and 2018: A nationwide systematic investigation.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- What has preclinical systematic review ever done for us?BMJ open science · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Outcome heterogeneity and bias in acute experimental spinal cord injury: A meta-analysis.Neurology · 2019Pooled it
- Animal models of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: A machine-assisted systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS biology · 2019Pooled it
- Pre-Clinical Testing of Therapies for Traumatic Brain Injury.Journal of neurotrauma · 2018Guideline
- Rethinking 3R strategies: Digging deeper into AnimalTestInfo promotes transparency in in vivo biomedical research.PLoS biology · 2017Pooled it
- Re: ASGR1 Deficiency Promotes Liver Fibrosis by Enhancing Pro-Inflammatory Arachidonic Acid Metabolism and ALP Secretion.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2026Article
- Exploring the Regenerative Role of Exosomes as a Potential Therapy for Peripheral Nerve Injury: A Systematic Review.Biomolecules & therapeutics · 2026Review
- Review
- Mild and reversible nephrotoxicity following repeated administration of damnacanthal in nude mice.Toxicology reports · 2025Article
- Reporting preclinical gene therapy studies in the field of Niemann-Pick type C disease according to the ARRIVE guidelines.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2025Review
- Effect-Size Discrepancies in Literature Versus Raw Datasets from Experimental Spinal Cord Injury Studies: A CLIMBER Meta-Analysis.Neurotrauma reports · 2024Article
- A call to implement preclinical study registration in animal ethics review.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- ApoE Mimetic Peptides as Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2023Review
- Evidence suggesting that reindeer mothers allonurse according to the direct reciprocity and generalized reciprocity decision rules.PloS one · 2023Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Given small sample sizes, loss of animals in preclinical experiments can dramatically alter results. However, effects of attrition on distortion of results are unknown. We used a simulation study to analyze the effects of random and biased attrition. As expected, random loss of samples decreased statistical power, but biased removal, including that of outliers, dramatically increased probability of false positive results. Next, we performed a meta-analysis of animal reporting and attrition in stroke and cancer. Most papers did not adequately report attrition, and extrapolating from the results of the simulation data, we suggest that their effect sizes were likely overestimated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.