Because animal methods bias can result in publication delays or even manuscript rejection, authors who use nonanimal modeling systems should take preventive steps to avoid these negative outcomes. The first step to counter animal methods bias is to anticipate its potential to occur. Preregistration is the process of specifying a research plan before conducting the study and submitting it to a registry or as a registered report to be peer-reviewed and published in a journal. It can improve research quality, transparency, and reproducibility, potentially increasing the likelihood of a final manuscript’s acceptance. Preregistration enables researchers to demonstrate their goals and justify their methods before data are collected or analyzed and allows early input from peers. It is already mandatory for clinical trials.
Because nonanimal methods are relatively novel compared with animal-based approaches, confidence in their ability to model human biology and clinical characteristics is still being established within the scientific community. Preregistration’s effect on research quality, transparency, and reproducibility makes it particularly beneficial in the context of nonanimal methods as trust continues to build in these novel approaches. Furthermore, because it strengthens the justification for a study’s design prospectively, preregistration can bolster a nonanimal-based study against unjustified reviewer critiques about the methods used. It may even prevent peer reviewers from requesting animal experiments to validate findings as it establishes a complete research plan to which authors can refer. Preregistration allows a more complete scientific record of a study, whereby sharing and publishing negative results is encouraged. Historically, negative results have been disfavored by the publishing system and missing in published scientific literature. Reporting negative results is of immense value during subsequent studies when authors must justify experiments and make the case for not performing or repeating animal experiments for further validation.
Preregistration resources
Center for Open Science information about preregistration
How to submit a preregistration to the Open Science Framework registry
Center for Open Science information about registered reports
Center for Open Science Registered Reports journals database