Abstract
BackgroundIn view of the inadequacy and incompleteness of currently-reported animal experiments and their overall poor quality, we retrospectively evaluated the reporting quality of animal experiments published in Chinese journals adhering to the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines.ResultsThe databases CNKI, WanFang, VIP, and CBM were searched from inception until July 2018. Two appropriately-trained reviewers screened and extracted articles independently. The ARRIVE guidelines were used to assess the quality of the published reports of animal experiments. The compliance rate of every item was analyzed relative to their date of publication. A total of 4342 studies were included, of which 73.0% had been cited ≤5 times. Only 29.0% (1261/4342) were published in journals listed in the Chinese Science Citation Database. The results indicate that the compliance rate of approximately half of the sub-items (51.3%, 20/39) was less than 50%, of which 65.0% (13/20) was even less than 10%.ConclusionsThe reporting quality of animal experiments in Chinese journals is not at a high level. Following publication of the ARRIVE guidelines in 2010, the compliance rate of the majority of its requirements has improved to some extent. However, less attention has been paid to the ethics and welfare of experimental animals, and a number of specific items in the Methods, Results, and Discussion sections continue to not be reported in sufficient detail. Therefore, it is necessary to popularize the ARRIVE guidelines, advocate researchers to adhere to them in the future, and in particular promote the use of the guidelines in specialized journals in order that the design, implementation, and reporting of animal experiments is promoted, to ultimately improve their quality.
Highlights
There are a number of limitations to this study: 1 it was based only on the evaluation of animal experimentation published in Chinese journals
In summary, the “yes” compliance rate for Chinese animal experiments based on the 39 sub-items in the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines is not at a high level
A randomized controlled trial conducted by Hair et al [35] indicated that low compliance during the implementation of the ARRIVE guidelines may be due to the fact that journals only require authors to submit lists when they contribute, rather than editors having to review them according to the lists, hindering any improvement in the quality of experimental animal study reporting
Summary
Increasing numbers of studies have shown that [4,5,6,7], even in animal experiments published in top journals, the quality of reporting remains unsatisfactory. In order to improve the quality of animal experimental reports, based on the CONSORT Statement [10], the NC3Rs developed the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines, which were published in 2010. Since 2010, researchers outside China have studied the quality of animal experimental reports published in published in international journals based on the ARRIVE guidelines [12,13,14], whereas in China, similar research has only been published by Liu et al [15] their research is limited to specific diseases. No studies have explored whether publication of the ARRIVE guidelines has improved the quality of animal experimental reports
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