ArticleScientific reports2020
Improving reproducibility in animal research by splitting the study population into several 'mini-experiments'.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of the development and application of home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats.BMC biology · 2023Pooled it
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- Molnupiravir is effective against hepatitis E virus infection in an animal model.Hepatology communications · 2026Article
- Mechanisms underlying end-organ injury in sleep apnoea.The European respiratory journal · 2026Review
- Effects of enrichment removal on cognitive judgement bias of mice: a comparison of two paradigms.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Nanoformulated Phytochemicals Against Pancreatic Cancer: Emerging Advances in Therapeutic Strategies.International journal of nanomedicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Bioprinted platform for parallelized screening of engineered microtissues in vivo.Cell stem cell · 2025Article
- Testing the reproducibility of ecological studies on insect behavior in a multi-laboratory setting identifies opportunities for improving experimental rigor.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Current status of next-generation vaccines against mpox virus: a scoping review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- The welfare of farmed Nile tilapia: a review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Review
- Unravelling Secondary Brain Injury: Insights from a Human-Sized Porcine Model of Acute Subdural Haematoma.Cells · 2024Article
- A novel piglet model of esophageal stricture following variable segmental esophageal resection and re-anastomosis.Animal models and experimental medicine · 2024Article
- Companion dogs flexibly and spontaneously comprehend human gestures in multiple contexts.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Non-Invasive Monitoring of Corticosterone Levels in Mouse Urine with Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Half the price, twice the gain: How to simultaneously decrease animal numbers and increase precision with good experimental design.Laboratory animals · 2024Article
- Nisin lantibiotic prevents NAFLD liver steatosis and mitochondrial oxidative stress following periodontal disease by abrogating oral, gut and liver dysbiosis.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2024Article
- Chronic paternal alcohol exposures induce dose-dependent changes in offspring craniofacial shape and symmetry.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- Impact of quality and transparency in scientific writing on the reduction of animal usage in experimental protocols: a review based in pertinent literature.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In light of the hotly discussed 'reproducibility crisis', a rethinking of current methodologies appears essential. Implementing multi-laboratory designs has been shown to enhance the external validity and hence the reproducibility of findings from animal research. We here aimed at proposing a new experimental strategy that transfers this logic into a single-laboratory setting. We systematically introduced heterogeneity into our study population by splitting an experiment into several 'mini-experiments' spread over different time points a few weeks apart. We hypothesised to observe improved reproducibility in such a 'mini-experiment' design in comparison to a conventionally standardised design, according to which all animals are tested at one specific point in time. By comparing both designs across independent replicates, we could indeed show that the use of such a 'mini-experiment' design improved the reproducibility and accurate detection of exemplary treatment effects (behavioural and physiological differences between four mouse strains) in about half of all investigated strain comparisons. Thus, we successfully implemented and empirically validated an easy-to-handle strategy to tackle poor reproducibility in single-laboratory studies. Since other experiments within different life science disciplines share the main characteristics with the investigation reported here, these studies are likely to also benefit from this approach.
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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.