EDUCATIONAL CORNER
A qualitative study of the barriers to using blinding in in vivo experiments and suggestions for improvement
December 22, 2023In animal experiments, blinding is a methodological strategy to reduce the risk that scientists, animal care staff, or other staff involved…
Read MoreAdvanced methods and implementations for the meta-analyses of animal models: Current practices and future recommendations
December 22, 2023Meta-analytic techniques have been widely used to synthesize data from animal models of human diseases and conditions, but these analyses often…
Read MoreDesigning, conducting, and reporting reproducible animal experiments
December 22, 2023In this review, Emma Wilson and colleagues aim to engage researchers in the discussion on research reproducibility and to provide the…
Read MoreGood Research Practice online course
December 22, 2023We are thrilled to announce that we have completed the development of our Good Research Practice online course and it will…
Read MoreSex as a biological variable in preclinical research: Unforeseen and abused degree of freedom
December 21, 2023In many fields of biomedical research, in vivo studies traditionally involved the use of male subjects. The situation recently started to…
Read MoreR script: Sex as a biological variable in preclinical research
December 21, 2023This is the script which is mentioned in the article HERE.
Read MoreAI-enabled image fraud in scientific publications
November 2, 2022Destroying image integrity in scientific papers may result in serious consequences. Inappropriate duplication and fabrication of images are two common misconducts…
Read MoreCell line authentication: a necessity for reproducible biomedical research
November 2, 2022Immortalized or continuous cell lines are invaluable tools in basic and preclinical research. However, the widespread use of misidentified cell lines…
Read MoreLaunch of the online version of the “Research Quality Transparency” Tool
November 2, 2022This tool was originally developed by an EQIPD Consortium Taskforce and is now implemented online with support from a SBIR award…
Read MoreBlind spots on western blots: a meta-research study highlighting opportunities to improve figures and methods reporting
June 16, 2022Western blotting is a standard laboratory method used to detect proteins and assess their expression levels. Unfortunately, poor western blot image…
Read MorePreregistration of animal research protocols: development and 3-year overview of preclinicaltrials.eu
June 16, 2022Although commonly acknowledged and applied in clinical research since 2000, preregistration of animal studies is not yet the norm. In 2018…
Read MoreIllustrating the role of PPV, power and sample size with an R script
March 8, 2022This is the R Script referenced in the blog post LINK # ratio of true to not-true relationships tnott
Read MoreReference Collection to push back against “Common Statistical Myths”
December 20, 2021In this wiki, the author provides an easy to navigate list of references that may be used to argue against some common…
Read MoreA 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreOctopus: The primary research record
May 28, 2020Created in partnership with the UK Reproducibility Network, the Octopus platform is free to use and publishes all kinds of scientific…
Read MoreUsing Microsoft OneNote as an ELN
May 28, 2020Electronic research data documentation can be achieved with either comprehensive software applications or “do-it-yourself” solutions. Whereas the first is often quite…
Read MoreSample Size Matters – An App Exploring Sample Size and Power
March 31, 2020Problems with statistical analysis and data visualization in published papers (REF1, REF2, REF3, REF4) have led to calls to improve training for biomedical scientists….
Read MoreThe Embassy of Good Science – An online platform fostering research integrity
March 31, 2020By Iris Lechner The field of research integrity is growing substantially. An increasing number of guidelines and initiatives to foster responsible research…
Read MoreBiological vs technical replicates: Now from a data analysis perspective: R script
March 31, 2020This is the R Script referenced in the blog post LINK ## “Effortlessly Read Any Rectangular Data”library(readit) …
Read MoreBiological vs technical replicates: Now from a data analysis perspective
March 31, 2020We have discussed this topic several times before (HERE and HERE). There seems to be a growing understanding that, when reporting an experiment’s…
Read MoreIs N-Hacking Ever OK? A simulation-based study
January 2, 2020After an experiment has been completed and analyzed, a trend may be observed that is “not quite significant”. Sometimes in this…
Read MoreThoughts on How Institutions Can Promote a Culture of Research Integrity
November 22, 2019By Dr. Michael Lauer (NIH) Link to web page
Read MoreToward Good In Vitro Reporting Standards
November 22, 2019Many areas of biomedical science have developed reporting standards and checklists to support the adequate reporting of scientific efforts, but in…
Read MoreNew Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology focusing on Good Research Practice
November 22, 2019The Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology is one of the most authoritative and influential book series in pharmacology. It provides critical and…
Read Morefiddle: the file drawer data liberation effort tool
August 12, 2019fiddle is a free, open source “matchmaking” tool designed to help researchers to identify the publication format that will work best for…
Read MoreWant to learn about EQIPD?
August 7, 2019A series of videos is published about EQIPD by the ECNP network. The first video gives a brief introduction by Dr…
Read MoreUpdated review of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) published by LabsExplorer
May 22, 2019LabsExplorer has recently published an updated review on electronic lab notebooks. The first review was published in 2017 (LINK) giving a…
Read MoreMANILA – A web tool for designing reproducible and transparent preclinical intervention studies
May 22, 2019Teemu D. Laajala1,21: University of Turku, Turku (Finland), Department of Mathematics and Statistics2: University of Colorado, Denver (CO, US), Anschutz Medical…
Read MoreFAIRsharing as a community approach to standards, repositories and policies
May 22, 2019We say we need standards, but do we use them?The scientific community, funders and publishers endorse the concept that common data…
Read MoreWithin-subject study designs: Latin Square?
March 11, 2019In within-subject study designs (also known as the cross-over), subjects may be given sequences of treatments with the intent of studying…
Read MoreWhy we need to report more than ’Data were Analyzed by t-tests or ANOVA’
March 11, 2019In this article,Weissgerber et al. present findings suggesting that scientific publications are often lacking sufficient information about the statistical methods used,…
Read MoreVisualization of Biomedical Data
March 11, 2019The rapid increase in volume and complexity of biomedical data requires changes in research, communication, and clinical practices. This includes learning…
Read MoreWorkshop at ERA-NET Neuron meeting
January 30, 2019ERA-NET Neuron organised a workshop research data quality on January 22nd, 2019 in Bonn. PAASP Team members, Anton Bespalov and Martin…
Read MoreCollection of resources for the use of R in study design and analysis
December 20, 2018In the recent report on „Digital tools and services to support research replicability and verifiability”, Caroline Skirrow and Markus Munafó have argued that…
Read MoreDigital tools and services to support research replicability and verifiability
December 20, 2018Digital tools hold promise for improving replicability and verifiability of scientific research. In this paper, the availability and use of such…
Read MorePower analysis for two-sided t-test
December 20, 2018The example below does not require any additional R packages to be installed (i.e. runs with the basic R installation).This example…
Read MoreUseful Tools and Resources November 2018
November 17, 2018A new video resource for introductory training on the 3Rs The NC3R published a new educational video on the 3Rs (replacement,…
Read MoreSimple changes of individual studies can improve the reproducibility of the biomedical scientific process as a whole
November 17, 2018Today, the probability of successfully publishing negative/null results in biomedical research is lower than that for positive results. For instance, negative…
Read MoreNew tutorial video by the NC3R
September 14, 2018The NC3R published a new educational video on the 3Rs (replacement, refinement and replacement) on their web page. It is a…
Read MoreNC3R Workshop: ‘Improving peer review of in vivo research proposals’
September 10, 2018On May 9th, 2018, a workshop hosted by the NC3Rs about „Improving peer review of in vivo research proposals“ and included…
Read More“How to pick an electronic laboratory notebook?
September 10, 2018Commentary about the Nature-Toolbox article by Roberta Kwok (August 6th, 2018) Laboratory Notebooks (LN) play a key role in research since…
Read MoreGenetic and transcriptional evolution alters cancer cell line drug response
September 10, 2018In this paper, published in Nature, the authors analysed how different cancer cells are – not so much from the original…
Read MoreA repository for protocols – protocols.io
August 22, 2018Lenny Teytelman wrote in a Nature – World View article about the necessity to share experimental protocols to be able to…
Read MoreUnambiguous identification of antibodies, cell lines and organisms around the globe: A call for the Research Resource ID
August 21, 2018Unambiguous identification of antibodies, cell lines and organisms around the globe: A call for the Research Resource ID The reproducibility crisis…
Read MoreFAIR and ALCOAplus – data management principles
August 13, 2018Data recording practices play a central element in research and can vary largely from lab to lab and researcher to researcher….
Read MoreBayes’ Theorem: How do we weigh evidence to make decisions?
July 20, 2018In this clearly and graphically explained educational video, Amber Biology offers an intuitive introduction to Bayes’ Theorem, using biomarkers and ovarian cancer…
Read MoreFour simple ways to increase power without increasing the sample size
July 9, 2018Underpowered experiments have three problems: true effects are harder to detect, the true effects that are detected tend to have inflated…
Read MoreRecommendations for the Design and Analysis of In Vivo Electrophysiology Studies
July 9, 2018Recommendations for the Design and Analysis of In Vivo Electrophysiology Studies The Journal of Neuroscience has recently released a series of…
Read MoreNewly developed ‘Harmonized animal research reporting principles’ (HARRP) published
July 9, 2018The International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has recently published Harmonized Animal Research Reporting Principles (HARRP), the first step of…
Read MoreNew research platform Springer Nature Experiments
July 9, 2018On 2018 July 25th, the SpringerProtocols.com platform will be deactivated and replaced by the new research platform Springer Nature Experiments, a…
Read MoreHow to grow a healthy lab
June 6, 2018A healthy research environment is fundamental to good science. However, this is an aspect that is rarely discussed. That’s partly because…
Read MoreWhat exactly is N in cell culture and animal experiments?
June 6, 2018“Accurate Design of in vitro experiments – Why does it matter?” was the name of a previous post (LINK) from our…
Read MoreImproving Reproducibility in Research – a Healthcare Triage series
March 30, 2018This episode is part of Healthcare Triage’s series on Improving Reproducibility in Research. The Introduction to the series can be found…
Read MoreAll preclinical trials should be registered in advance in an online registry
February 27, 2018The Food and Drug Administration Act of 2007 established requirements for the preregistration of clinical trials and also set penalties for…
Read MoreAbstract Sifter: a comprehensive front-end system to PubMed
February 27, 2018In this article, Nancy Baker and colleagues introduce the Abstract Sifter, a Microsoft Excel based application that enhances existing search capabilities…
Read MoreSimple statistics
February 1, 2018This website was published by Tom MacWright and contributers to provide a library of statistical methods in readible JavaScript. This detailed…
Read MorePAASP and Phinnex
December 19, 2017PAASP, Henrich Pharma Consulting and Global Clinical Trials (GCT) are the founding members of the Pharma Innovation Excellence (PHINNEX) consortium What…
Read MoreThe Experimental Design Assistant
November 10, 2017Addressing the common problems that researchers encounter when designing and analyzing animal experiments will improve the reliability of in vivo research….
Read MoreSimple Randomisation
October 11, 2017A randomization tool for the daily routine The case study in this Newsletter illustrates very well the importance of study subject…
Read MoreBlock randomisation
October 11, 2017In this section we provide information about useful tools for designing and analyzing experiments – instruments and equipment, which we at…
Read MoreTools and resources – September 2017
September 28, 2017In this Newsletter issue, we introduce helpful resources for educational and training purposes, which were recently published and which all address…
Read MoreUseful Tools in Newsletter September 2017
September 19, 2017In this Newsletter issue, we introduce helpful resources for educational and training purposes, which were recently published and which all address…
Read MoreWebinar bei Martin Michel
January 30, 2017Prof. Dr. Martin Michel presented the November Cohen Veterans Bioscience Webinar on November 16th from 12 pm noon – 1 pm ET. Martin…
Read MoreAccurate design of in vitro experiments – why does it matter?
August 24, 2016Good statistical design is a key aspect of meaningful research. Elements such as data robustness, randomization and blinding are widely recognized…
Read MoreSearching for significance
August 20, 2016To examine associations between urinary chemical concentrations and adult health status, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) measured…
Read MoreBlock randomization: R code
July 22, 2016There are a variety of free online tools that can be easily accessed to address various data analysis needs, such as…
Read MoreE-Learning tools and MOOCs II
May 22, 2016E-learning platforms and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are picking up momentum in popularity and are an emerging new model for…
Read MoreE-learning tools and MOOCs
April 22, 2016E-learning platforms and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are picking up momentum in popularity and are an emerging new model for…
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