NEWS from the PAASP network          – New series of EQIPD lectures – Read more         …

A poor understanding of what results from statistical tests do and do not mean and an over-reliance on p-values is seen…

We are all aware of the challenges modern science is facing. And we, like most readers of this newsletter, are working…

Many publications leave it to readers to guess whether reported data are based on independent biological replicates (e.g. number of animals)…

by Plinio Cabrera Casarotto, PhD,Editor-in-Chief JRepNeurosci The replicability of results is a cornerstone of science. We can only rely on the outcomes…

Science Forum: Improving preclinical studies through replications Assessment of transparency indicators across the biomedical literature: How open is open? Von Botswana…

Research on memory reconsolidation has been booming in the last two decades, with numerous high-impact publications reporting promising amnestic interventions in…

Software is increasingly essential in most research, and much of this software is developed specifically for and during research. To make this…

The way in which we assess researchers has been under the radar in the past few years. Critics argue that current…

Image data are universal in life sciences research. Their proper handling is not. A significant proportion of image data in research…

Selectively publishing ‘positive’ results distorts the available evidence for scientific claims. For the past decade, scientists from different fields have been…

In 2018, the EU has launched the European Brain Research Area (EBRA) project – a catalysing platform designed to coordinate brain…

PAASP is a member of the science and industry cluster BioRN focusing on the Rhein-Neckar area. The cluster has a get-together with…

Sandrine Bongiovanni and Mathias Baumann (Novartis), Fiona Ducrey (Sanofi), Thomas Steckler and Anja Gilis (Janssen), Anton Bespalov (PAASP), Lee Monk (UCB),…

EQIPD has prepared and recorded a series of lectures introducing its novel Quality System. In these presentations, project coordinator Professor Malcolm Macleod provides…

Cohen Veterans Bioscience and ECNP announced on March 8th the “Negative Data Award 2021. Applicants are asked to submit a published…

Western blotting represents a powerful technique for the semi-quantitative determination of protein expression and the detection of protein modifications like phosphorylation…

NEWS from the PAASP network Successful adaption of the EQIPD Quality System to specific research needs – Read more PAASP publication: Guidelines…

Spreadsheets are widely used as a digital tool to capture, organize, process and archive information. However, to organize the information provided…

Communicating science is difficult. We were told to tell exciting stories around our scientific discoveries – and it is certainly true…

In one of the recent Nature issues, there was a piece called “France’s reforms: the costs of competitiveness”. In a nutshell,…

Since the seminal paper by Laura Bohn 20 years ago, expectations have built up that biased mu-opioid receptor agonists will deliver what we…

Collaboration on the road to better preclinical research Research integrity: nine ways to move from talk to walk Compliance Services for…

Scientific claims in biomedical research are typically derived from statistical analyses. However, misuse or misunderstanding of statistical procedures and results permeate…

In biomedical research, limitations in the design and reporting of experiments are known to cause avoidable waste of time and resources….

Many researchers remain tempted to draw causal conclusions from observational data despite acknowledging that mere association is not causation because causal…

Preprints increase accessibility and can speed scholarly communication if researchers view them as credible enough to read and use. Preprint services…

Some causes for the problem of not being able to reproduce the work of others can be addressed when publishing scientific…

While 90% of scientists surveyed by Nature feel that there is a “reproducibility crisis” in science (Baker, 2016), and major media…

Martin – once again – made it into the Clarivate List of Highly Cited Researchers 2020. This list recognizes true pioneers in…

The BIOtech network Rhein-Neckar (BioRN) held its annual (digitally) conference virtually on November 20th. The network brings together a mix of…

PAASP and the Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral Core (INBC) at the University of Heidelberg aim to establish a quality framework for Core Facilities…

The PAASP team has published an article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, together with research groups from the Fraunhofer IME-TMP and the…

The EQIPD Quality System is the result of a collaborative effort between several people and organizations, yet it cannot address all…

The GOT-IT team, consisting of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute, Charité and PAASP, announces the publication of their guidelines for target validation…

The Global Preclinical Data Forum (GPDF), a jointly sponsored U.S. and European initiative, funded by Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) and the…

PAASP NEWS GPDF, CVB and ECNP announced the Winner of the 2020 Best Negative Data Prize – Read more Funding opportunities: Accelerating Publication…

We have written repeatedly (LINK, LINK) about the border between the fields of Good Research Practice and Research Integrity being more nuanced…

When antibodies mislead: the quest for validation Von Maus zu Mensch durch das Tal des Todes (in German) Researchers’ Perceptions of…

Recently, a petition was offered to the European Commission calling for an immediate ban on animal testing. Although a Europe-wide moratorium…

The long-term accessibility of research data is fundamental in the economy of the research production process. However, the availability of data…

The reproducibility crisis has emerged as an important concern across many fields of science. Systems biology modelling, which involves mathematical representation…

Please following this LINK to our Editorial “Enhancing quality in preclinical data: Of hot science and cool quality”, which was just published in…

EQIPD (European Quality In Preclinical Data) is a project that was funded by the Innovative Medicine Initiative with the vision to enable a…

We are happy to announce that PAASP is part of the PEERS (Platform for the Exchange of Experimental Research Standards) initiative, which is supported by…

To address the bias toward the publication of novel positive results, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and…

Most of our readers are biologists but nevertheless we are occasionally exposed to medicinal chemistry literature describing novel research tools, lead…

A recent report by Tiwari et al. investigated the reproducibility rate in systems biology modelling by reproducing the mathematical representation of 455 kinetic…

A. Background & Definitions Microsoft Office (incl. Word, Excel and PowerPoint) offers the possibility to create a digital signature (digital ID) as…

library(scales)library(ggplot2) ## sample sizen1 <- 8n2 <- 16n3 <- 32n4 <- 64 ## iterations m <- 500yfig <- vector()xfig <- vector()facetfig…

There is currently no generic tool for producing figures to display and explore the risk‐of‐bias assessments that routinely take place as…

It is often observed and discussed that there are substantial inter-individual differences that can overshadow effects of otherwise effective treatments.  These…

In a recent case before the US District Court in the District of Nevada, the judge ruled six method-of-use patents to…

Our stu Over the past several years, more and more journals have revised their guides for authors and included specific instructions…

Five better ways to assess science $48 Billion Is Lost to Avoidable Experiment Expenditure Every Year Opinion: Surgisphere Fiasco Highlights Need…

Biases at the level of study design, conduct, data analysis and reporting have been recognized as major contributing factors to poor…

For neuroscience and brain research to progress, it is critical to differentiate between experimental manipulations which have no effect and those…

The way in which we assess researchers has been under the radar in the past few years. Critics argue that current…

Understanding the variability of criteria and thresholds for promotion and tenure applied across institutions requires a systematic empirical assessment. Therefore, the…

Context-dependent biological variation presents a unique challenge to the reproducibility of results in experimental animal research, because organisms’ responses to experimental…

For knowledge to benefit research and society, it must be trustworthy. Trustworthy research is robust, rigorous, and transparent at all stages…

Staff at QED Biomedical Ltd have conducted research to demonstrate how sample bias in patient- derived tumour tissue samples with somatic…

Since several months, there is a Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director (ACD) that is charged with…

NEWS          – PAASP US receives a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant – Read more         …

One of our colleagues sent us this interesting image from a national TV station. Even though the topic is very sad…

NEWS The Global Preclinical Data Forum announces the 2020 Negative Data Prize – Read more Dr. Thomas Steckler joins the PAASP Advisory…

SuperPlots: Communicating reproducibility and variability in cell biology Against pandemic research exceptionalism Pseudoscience and COVID-19 — we’ve had enough already Spin…

The Global Preclinical Data Forum (GPDF), a partnership of Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB), a non-profit research biotech, and the European College…

Created in partnership with the UK Reproducibility Network, the Octopus platform is free to use and publishes all kinds of scientific…

Electronic research data documentation can be achieved with either comprehensive software applications or “do-it-yourself” solutions. Whereas the first is often quite…

Being able to trust the experimental data is critical for experimental research. This is certainly also true for Western Blotting as…

PLOS has launched a major survey targeting researchers in North America and Europe: The goal is to deepen the understanding of…

In this Editorial, published in Biologie in unserer Zeit, Martin C. Michel and Ralf Dahm discuss threats and opportunities related to…

Several initiatives have set out to increase transparency and internal validity of preclinical studies. While many of the points raised in…

To test the reproducibility and robustness of results obtained in the neuroimaging field, 70 independent teams of neuroimaging experts from across…

There has been a lot in the news recently about using antibody tests to detect people who have had Covid-19 and…

Various modern technologies are known to bear risks to the human health. In many cases, the society learns about these risks…

A “Conflict of Interest (CoI)” is a very special situation of which we are usually reminded about when a famous scientist…

A mathematician, a physicist, and a statistician went hunting for deer. When they chanced upon one buck lounging about, the mathematician…

Problems with statistical analysis and data visualization in published papers (REF1, REF2, REF3, REF4) have led to calls to improve training for biomedical scientists….

By Iris Lechner The field of research integrity is growing substantially. An increasing number of guidelines and initiatives to foster responsible research…

The first official meeting of the Preclinical Data Forum took place in Berlin in 2014 and one of the central seminars was given…

Comment on Walsh et al. “The statistical significance of randomized controlled trial results is frequently fragile: a case for a Fragility…

Preregistration of exploratory research: Learning from the golden age of discovery What Research Institutions Can Do to Foster Research Integrity When…

Preprint usage is growing rapidly in the life sciences; however, questions remain on the relative quality of preprints when compared to…

There is a pressing need to increase the rigor of research in the life and biomedical sciences. To address this issue,…

The reproducibility crisis triggered worldwide initiatives to improve rigor, reproducibility, and transparency in biomedical research. There are many examples of scientists,…

There is an ongoing debate regarding the robustness and credibility of published scientific research. In this article, the authors argue that…

Inappropriate practices of science, such as HARKing, p-hacking, and selective reporting of positive results, have been suggested as causes of irreproducibility….

Commentary provided by Claudia Kurreck (Department of Experimental Neurology, Charité -Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany) The performance of audits and assessments is always a…

Like everyone else we are with a great concern given the current coronavirus situation and the beginning of a global experiment:…

Coronavirus: The need for solid, robust data – Read more Featured Publication: Improving quality of preclinical academic research through auditing: A feasibility study…

This is the R Script referenced in the blog post LINK

We have discussed this topic several times before (HERE and HERE). There seems to be a growing understanding that, when reporting an experiment’s…

A funny way to show the importance of describing your study/experiment in most detail and to be transparent and precise so…

In one of the last Newsletter issues (LINK), we wrote about the uncertainties which sometimes exist when trying to find the…

Good research practices are often said to work against the current success model in science (based on positive results, number and…

It has been proposed repeatedly that adding samples based on results of initial experiments is a form of p-hacking (see e.g. new…

Measuring Transparency and Reproducibility of Biomedical Articles Causal claims about correlations reduced in press releases following academic study of health news…

After an experiment has been completed and analyzed, a trend may be observed that is “not quite significant”. Sometimes in this…