A wiki platform to support the organization of research labs
November 3, 2021As part of the PREMIER project, a document sharing system was developed and made freely available as a template to all interested parties…
Read MoreNINDS Rigor Resources
November 3, 2021The National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has been gathering a list of currently available public resources that are, or can…
Read MoreOf peer review and data sharing
November 3, 2021We (preclinical) learn from the Big Brother (clinical). For example, they recognize the risks of bias in study design, conduct and…
Read More“Don’t cut the tree you are sitting on!”
November 3, 2021According to a recent press release from the European parliament, an EU-wide action plan is requested with ambitious and achievable objectives for phasing-out…
Read MoreAdditional Reads in November 2021
November 3, 2021Science Forum: A community-led initiative for training in reproducible research Reproducibility: expect less of the scientific paper Share methods through visual…
Read MoreMethodology over metrics: current scientific standards are a disservice to patients and society
November 3, 2021Although the issues related to poor quality of medical research are well known, the research community fails to properly address them….
Read MoreToward Standardized Guidelines for Investigating Neural Circuit Control of Behavior in Animal Research
November 3, 2021With the advent of tools for recording and manipulating activity with high spatiotemporal resolution in defined neural circuits in behaving animals,…
Read MoreInitial evidence of research quality of registered reports compared with the standard publishing model
November 3, 2021In registered reports (RRs), initial peer review and in-principle acceptance occur before knowing the research outcomes. This combats publication bias and…
Read MoreTechnological advances in preclinical meta-research
November 3, 2021Preclinical systematic reviews are vital; they serve many purposes by assessing the range and quality of the evidence. Through these reviews…
Read MoreeLabFTW as an Open Science tool to improve the quality and translation of preclinical research
November 3, 2021Together with the group of Ulf Kahlert from the University of Düsseldorf, PAASP’s Björn Gerlach published an article in F1000Research on…
Read MorePEERS – An Open Science “Platform for the Exchange of Experimental Research Standards” in Biomedicine
November 3, 2021Do I need to consider the sex of the animals for my study? Is the background noise level likely to vary?…
Read MoreMaterials Design Analysis Reporting (MDAR) Reports via SciScore
November 3, 2021We have recently introduced the Materials, Design, Analysis, and Reporting (MDAR) framework aiming at helping authors, editors, and other interested parties to increase…
Read MoreUKRN: Open research primers
November 3, 2021The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) has designed a new ‘primer series’ to introduce important topics in open and reproducible scholarship.Each primer…
Read MoreMeeting Report: Virtual FENS Regional Meeting 2021
November 3, 2021On 25 August 2021, at the Virtual FENS Regional Meeting, Anton Bespalov and Malgorzata Pietraszek (PAASP) moderated the Special Interest Event…
Read MoreEATRIS Workshop on “Research Quality and Reproducibility”
November 3, 2021European research infrastructures support academic research by providing networking opportunities and informing about current topics. In this context, the ERIC Forum…
Read MoreThe first EQIPD-certified Research Units:
November 3, 2021Concluding the pilot implementation efforts initiated by the EQIPD consortium team, the first four Research Units have implemented the EQIPD Quality…
Read MoreEQIPD Toolbox
November 3, 2021We have made substantial updates to the following EQIPD Toolbox items: 1.4.3.3 Academia-academia: Research as service: The recommendations outlined here are…
Read MoreEQIPD News on webpage
November 3, 2021Besides this Newsletter, you will also find all relevant news and developments related to EQIPD on the eqipd.online website and in the EQIPD Toolbox….
Read MoreNewsletter November 2021
November 3, 2021NEWS EQIPD news News on website – Read more Update on EQIPD Toolbox – Read more EQIPD-certified research units – Read more Workshop on…
Read MoreHow to SOP
October 25, 2021Writing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is a usual procedure for any organization with a quality manage system. However, also an increasing…
Read MoreERIC forum reports on “Research Quality and Reproducibility Workshop”
October 21, 2021European research infrastructures support academic research by providing networking opportunities and informing about current topics. In this context, the ERIC Forum…
Read MoreWebinar at scientist.com
June 21, 2021PAASP network member Christoph Emmerich will introduce the EQIPD framework in the context of scientist.com. Scientist.com is a stakeholder of EQIPD…
Read MoreNewsletter June 2021
June 16, 2021NEWS – New EQIPD paper published – Read more – The MDAR Framework –…
Read MoreA method to streamline p-hacking
June 16, 2021The analytic strategy of p-hacking has rapidly accelerated the achievement of psychological scientists’ goals (e.g., publications & tenure), but has suffered…
Read MoreHow to See More Clearly in the Lab?
June 16, 2021When you can see the world clearly, it’s easy to get where you want to go: You might still get where…
Read MoreAducanumab’s approval is not FDA’s failure, it is our failure
June 16, 2021On June 7, 2021, the FDA approved aducanumab, an amyloid beta-directed monoclonal antibody indicated for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.However, most…
Read MoreAdditional reads in June 2021
June 16, 2021Nonreplicable publications are cited more than replicable ones Good research begins long before papers get written Why indirect contributions matter for…
Read MorePutting the Self in Self-Correction: Findings from the Loss-of-Confidence Project
June 16, 2021Science is often perceived to be a self-correcting enterprise. In principle, the assessment of scientific claims is supposed to proceed in…
Read MoreCreating clear and informative image-based figures for scientific publications
June 16, 2021Scientists routinely use images to display data and images are a critical part of a scientific report or publication.However, many resources…
Read MoreWhat is the optimum design for my animal experiment?
June 16, 2021Within preclinical research, attention has focused on experimental design and how current practices can lead to poor reproducibility. There are numerous…
Read MoreMeta-analysis of variation suggests that embracing variability improves both replicability and generalizability in preclinical research
June 16, 2021The long-held belief that experimental standardization begets replicability has recently been challenged – based on the observation that the reduction of…
Read MoreStandardized and reproducible measurement of decision-making in mice
June 16, 2021Reproducibility of data has never been more at the forefront of scientific endeavour than now. In their latest contribution, the International…
Read MoreThe EQIPD Workshop “Rigor, reproducibility and data management in nonclinical research”
June 16, 2021On 21 April 2021 a virtual EQIPD workshop entitled “Rigor, reproducibility and data management in nonclinical research” was organized in Finland…
Read MoreRoyal Society Open Science welcomes PCI Registered Reports
June 16, 2021The Royal Society Open Science is promoting Registered Reports (RRs) by welcoming the submission of Stage 2 Registered Reports that have been…
Read MoreThe EQIPD principles
June 16, 2021The EQIPD Toolbox now contains a set of principles, which may help scientists, stakeholders and users to better understand what the…
Read MoreThe MDAR Framework – a new tool for life sciences reporting
June 16, 2021Incomplete or imprecise reporting of life sciences research contributes to challenges with reproducibility, replicability, and biomedical applications. For the last three…
Read MoreEQIPD Quality System published
June 16, 2021The manuscript “Introduction to the EQIPD quality system” was recently accepted by and published in eLife. This publication marks an important milestone…
Read MoreNewsletter March 2021
March 30, 2021NEWS from the PAASP network – New series of EQIPD lectures – Read more …
Read MoreA teaching tool about the fickle p-value and other statistical principles based on real-life data
March 30, 2021A poor understanding of what results from statistical tests do and do not mean and an over-reliance on p-values is seen…
Read MoreWANTED – Cartoon artist
March 30, 2021We are all aware of the challenges modern science is facing. And we, like most readers of this newsletter, are working…
Read MorePseudoreplication in Physiology – more means less
March 30, 2021Many publications leave it to readers to guess whether reported data are based on independent biological replicates (e.g. number of animals)…
Read MoreLet’s discuss reproducibility – the new “Journal for Reproducibility in Neuroscience”
March 30, 2021by Plinio Cabrera Casarotto, PhD,Editor-in-Chief JRepNeurosci The replicability of results is a cornerstone of science. We can only rely on the outcomes…
Read MoreAdditional reads in March 2021
March 30, 2021Science Forum: Improving preclinical studies through replications Assessment of transparency indicators across the biomedical literature: How open is open? Von Botswana…
Read MoreReactivation-dependent amnesia for contextual fear memories: Evidence for publication bias
March 30, 2021Research on memory reconsolidation has been booming in the last two decades, with numerous high-impact publications reporting promising amnestic interventions in…
Read MoreTaking a fresh look at FAIR for research software
March 30, 2021Software is increasingly essential in most research, and much of this software is developed specifically for and during research. To make this…
Read MoreAdvancing science or advancing careers? Researchers’ opinions on success indicators
March 30, 2021The way in which we assess researchers has been under the radar in the past few years. Critics argue that current…
Read MoreReproducible image handling and analysis
March 30, 2021Image data are universal in life sciences research. Their proper handling is not. A significant proportion of image data in research…
Read MoreAn excess of positive results: Comparing the standard Psychology literature with Registered Reports
March 30, 2021Selectively publishing ‘positive’ results distorts the available evidence for scientific claims. For the past decade, scientists from different fields have been…
Read MorePREMOS – a new collaboration project involving EQIPD
March 30, 2021In 2018, the EU has launched the European Brain Research Area (EBRA) project – a catalysing platform designed to coordinate brain…
Read MorePresentation at the BioRN Lounge by Martin Michel
March 30, 2021PAASP is a member of the science and industry cluster BioRN focusing on the Rhein-Neckar area. The cluster has a get-together with…
Read MoreEQIPD helps to define quality expectations for Industry-Academia collaborations
March 30, 2021Sandrine Bongiovanni and Mathias Baumann (Novartis), Fiona Ducrey (Sanofi), Thomas Steckler and Anja Gilis (Janssen), Anton Bespalov (PAASP), Lee Monk (UCB),…
Read MoreNew series of EQIPD lectures
March 30, 2021EQIPD has prepared and recorded a series of lectures introducing its novel Quality System. In these presentations, project coordinator Professor Malcolm Macleod provides…
Read MoreNegative Data Award 2021
March 16, 2021Cohen Veterans Bioscience and ECNP announced on March 8th the “Negative Data Award 2021. Applicants are asked to submit a published…
Read MoreCareful interpretation of Western blotting data
February 23, 2021Western blotting represents a powerful technique for the semi-quantitative determination of protein expression and the detection of protein modifications like phosphorylation…
Read MoreNewsletter December 2020
December 18, 2020NEWS from the PAASP network Successful adaption of the EQIPD Quality System to specific research needs – Read more PAASP publication: Guidelines…
Read MoreHow to organize data in a spreadsheet?
December 18, 2020Spreadsheets are widely used as a digital tool to capture, organize, process and archive information. However, to organize the information provided…
Read MoreFive rules for evidence communication
December 18, 2020Communicating science is difficult. We were told to tell exciting stories around our scientific discoveries – and it is certainly true…
Read MoreThe Costs of Competitiveness
December 18, 2020In one of the recent Nature issues, there was a piece called “France’s reforms: the costs of competitiveness”. In a nutshell,…
Read MoreA time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together
December 18, 2020Since the seminal paper by Laura Bohn 20 years ago, expectations have built up that biased mu-opioid receptor agonists will deliver what we…
Read MoreADDITIONAL READS IN DECEMBER 2020
December 18, 2020Collaboration on the road to better preclinical research Research integrity: nine ways to move from talk to walk Compliance Services for…
Read MoreHow often do leading biomedical journals use statistical experts to evaluate statistical methods? The results of a survey
December 18, 2020Scientific claims in biomedical research are typically derived from statistical analyses. However, misuse or misunderstanding of statistical procedures and results permeate…
Read MorePublication rate in preclinical research: a plea for preregistration
December 18, 2020In biomedical research, limitations in the design and reporting of experiments are known to cause avoidable waste of time and resources….
Read MoreUse of causal claims in observational studies: a research on research study
December 18, 2020Many researchers remain tempted to draw causal conclusions from observational data despite acknowledging that mere association is not causation because causal…
Read MoreCredibility of preprints: an interdisciplinary survey of researchers
December 18, 2020Preprints increase accessibility and can speed scholarly communication if researchers view them as credible enough to read and use. Preprint services…
Read MoreThe Rigor and Transparency Index Quality Metric for Assessing Biological and Medical Science Methods
December 18, 2020Some causes for the problem of not being able to reproduce the work of others can be addressed when publishing scientific…
Read MoreThe “replication crisis” in the public eye: Germans’ awareness and perceptions of the (ir)reproducibility of scientific research
December 18, 2020While 90% of scientists surveyed by Nature feel that there is a “reproducibility crisis” in science (Baker, 2016), and major media…
Read MoreGreat distinction for PAASP partner Martin C. Michel
December 18, 2020Martin – once again – made it into the Clarivate List of Highly Cited Researchers 2020. This list recognizes true pioneers in…
Read MoreThe BioRN annual conference
December 18, 2020The BIOtech network Rhein-Neckar (BioRN) held its annual (digitally) conference virtually on November 20th. The network brings together a mix of…
Read MoreNew publication co-authored by PAASP: Survey of Core Facilities shows the importance of communication and management for optimal research quality
December 18, 2020PAASP and the Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral Core (INBC) at the University of Heidelberg aim to establish a quality framework for Core Facilities…
Read MorePAASP publication in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery: Improving target assessment in biomedical research – the GOT-IT recommendations
December 18, 2020The PAASP team has published an article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, together with research groups from the Fraunhofer IME-TMP and the…
Read MoreSuccessful adaption of the EQIPD Quality System to specific research needs
December 18, 2020The EQIPD Quality System is the result of a collaborative effort between several people and organizations, yet it cannot address all…
Read MoreGuidelines for target validation published
November 16, 2020The GOT-IT team, consisting of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute, Charité and PAASP, announces the publication of their guidelines for target validation…
Read MoreThe Global Preclinical Data Forum, Cohen Veterans Bioscience and ECNP announced the Winner of the 2020 Best Negative Data Prize
October 8, 2020The Global Preclinical Data Forum (GPDF), a jointly sponsored U.S. and European initiative, funded by Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) and the…
Read MoreNewsletter October 2020
October 8, 2020PAASP NEWS GPDF, CVB and ECNP announced the Winner of the 2020 Best Negative Data Prize – Read more Funding opportunities: Accelerating Publication…
Read MoreViolation of research integrity by selective citation
October 8, 2020We have written repeatedly (LINK, LINK) about the border between the fields of Good Research Practice and Research Integrity being more nuanced…
Read MoreAdditional reads in October 2020
October 8, 2020When antibodies mislead: the quest for validation Von Maus zu Mensch durch das Tal des Todes (in German) Researchers’ Perceptions of…
Read MoreHow the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the necessity of animal research
October 8, 2020Recently, a petition was offered to the European Commission calling for an immediate ban on animal testing. Although a Europe-wide moratorium…
Read MoreTen simple rules on how to write a standard operating procedure
October 8, 2020The long-term accessibility of research data is fundamental in the economy of the research production process. However, the availability of data…
Read MoreReproducibility in systems biology modelling
October 8, 2020The reproducibility crisis has emerged as an important concern across many fields of science. Systems biology modelling, which involves mathematical representation…
Read MorePAASP Editorial in the Journal Temperature
October 8, 2020Please following this LINK to our Editorial “Enhancing quality in preclinical data: Of hot science and cool quality”, which was just published in…
Read MoreEQIPD: PAASP’s contribution to the new Quality System for preclinical research
October 8, 2020EQIPD (European Quality In Preclinical Data) is a project that was funded by the Innovative Medicine Initiative with the vision to enable a…
Read MorePEERS – the Platform for the Exchange of Experimental Research Standards
October 8, 2020We are happy to announce that PAASP is part of the PEERS (Platform for the Exchange of Experimental Research Standards) initiative, which is supported by…
Read MoreFunding opportunities: Accelerating Publication of Parkinson’s Disease Replication Data
October 8, 2020To address the bias toward the publication of novel positive results, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and…
Read MoreIn vivo veritas
October 5, 2020Most of our readers are biologists but nevertheless we are occasionally exposed to medicinal chemistry literature describing novel research tools, lead…
Read MoreReproducibility in systems biology modelling
August 25, 2020A recent report by Tiwari et al. investigated the reproducibility rate in systems biology modelling by reproducing the mathematical representation of 455 kinetic…
Read MoreSigning digitally with Microsoft
August 17, 2020A. Background & Definitions Microsoft Office (incl. Word, Excel and PowerPoint) offers the possibility to create a digital signature (digital ID) as…
Read MoreR script BestDose
August 17, 2020library(scales)library(ggplot2) ## sample sizen1 <- 8n2 <- 16n3 <- 32n4 <- 64 ## iterations m <- 500yfig <- vector()xfig <- vector()facetfig…
Read MoreRisk‐of‐bias VISualization (robvis): An R package and Shiny web app for visualizing risk‐of‐bias assessments
August 17, 2020There is currently no generic tool for producing figures to display and explore the risk‐of‐bias assessments that routinely take place as…
Read MoreBest-dose analysis – A confirmatory research case
August 17, 2020It is often observed and discussed that there are substantial inter-individual differences that can overshadow effects of otherwise effective treatments. These…
Read MoreFederal judge invalidates patents – but on the basis of a common statistical mistake
August 17, 2020In a recent case before the US District Court in the District of Nevada, the judge ruled six method-of-use patents to…
Read MoreOur study was conducted according to…
August 17, 2020Our stu Over the past several years, more and more journals have revised their guides for authors and included specific instructions…
Read MoreAdditional reads in August 2020
August 17, 2020Five better ways to assess science $48 Billion Is Lost to Avoidable Experiment Expenditure Every Year Opinion: Surgisphere Fiasco Highlights Need…
Read MoreChoice of y-axis can mislead readers
August 17, 2020Biases at the level of study design, conduct, data analysis and reporting have been recognized as major contributing factors to poor…
Read MoreUsing Bayes factor hypothesis testing in neuroscience to establish evidence of absence
August 17, 2020For neuroscience and brain research to progress, it is critical to differentiate between experimental manipulations which have no effect and those…
Read MoreAdvancing science or advancing careers? Researchers’ opinions on success indicators
August 17, 2020The way in which we assess researchers has been under the radar in the past few years. Critics argue that current…
Read MoreAcademic criteria for promotion and tenure in biomedical sciences faculties: cross-sectional analysis of international sample of universities
August 17, 2020Understanding the variability of criteria and thresholds for promotion and tenure applied across institutions requires a systematic empirical assessment. Therefore, the…
Read MoreReproducibility of animal research in light of biological variation
August 17, 2020Context-dependent biological variation presents a unique challenge to the reproducibility of results in experimental animal research, because organisms’ responses to experimental…
Read MoreThe Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity
August 17, 2020For knowledge to benefit research and society, it must be trustworthy. Trustworthy research is robust, rigorous, and transparent at all stages…
Read MoreImpact of tumour heterogeneity and tissue sampling for genetic mutation testing: a systematic review and post hoc analysis
August 17, 2020Staff at QED Biomedical Ltd have conducted research to demonstrate how sample bias in patient- derived tumour tissue samples with somatic…
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