About Animal Study Registry

Animal Study Registry is an online registry for scientific studies involving animals conducted around the world. It is operated by the German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R) at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). All registrations are voluntary and free of charge. We strongly believe that our Animal Study Registry will enhance the reproducibility of in vivo biomedical studies and improve the quality of biomedical research by:

  • Preventing selective reporting and encouraging the publication of negative results
  • Supporting thorough planning of the study including the statistical analysis
  • Asking for a detailed description of methods

Preventing selective reporting and encouraging the publication of negative results

Animal Study Registry was launched as a reaction to the reproducibility crisis that biomedical research has been facing in the past decades. Publications like Ioannidis' proclamation "Why most published research findings are false" (Ioannidis, PLoS Med., 2005 Aug; 2(8):e124) raised public awareness of this matter. In a large survey conducted by Nature, 1500 scientists identified selective reporting as the main reason for irreproducible research (Baker, Nature, 2016 May, 533(7604): 452-454).
Animal Study Registry provides scientists a platform to register their in vivo studies with the intention to minimize selective reporting by capturing an exact study plan prior to the start of experiments. The registration allows reviewers or other scientists to compare the initially registered study plan with the final publication.

Thus, a publication referring to a registered study in the Animal Study Registry appears more reliable and the work flow more transparent. This will not only convince your readers but also editors or reviewers. Including the study registration in the review process of your manuscript makes your results easier to follow for reviewers and editors.

Supporting thorough planning of the study including the statistical analysis

Our questionnaire about study design and statistics helps you to plan your in vivo experiments thoroughly. Since this study plan will be registered, this adds motivation to set all the important parameters for a well-designed study already at an early stage and to stick to the plan.

Asking for a detailed description of methods

Have you already tried reproducing published results and realized that decisive details in the method description were missing?
To solve this problem we elaborated a detailed questionnaire that addresses all important method details. This questionnaire will support you to consider all key parameters for your study. If you have to change your method plan after having submitted a registration, you will still be able to state this in the comments, so that your research process becomes fully transparent and easy to follow. We strongly encourage you to explain as well why altering your initial plan was necessary, as for example because of technical problems. Your fellow researches will benefit greatly from this transparent approach.

Registration of your study in Animal Study Registry:
  • recognizes adherence to transparent research practices
  • convinces future reviewers and readers by making your work flow transparent
  • marks your idea as your intellectual property
  • helps you to design a new study

German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R)

The mission of the German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R) at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is to reduce the number of animal experiments wherever possible and to refine all animal experiments that are not avoidable.

We believe that the incomplete publication of results gained from animal experiments strongly contradicts ethical principles. Animal experiments can only be justified by a gain of knowledge for the society. This reasoning is lost if results remain unavailable for the public. The Animal Study Registry is meant to encourage the publication of all results gained from animal experiments and make research more transparent.

We ask researchers to register their study design including a detailed description of methods and statistical planning. However, it is equally important to enter information about all circumstances that may have impact on the results and the reproducibility of the studies. Those are housing conditions, handling and analgesic treatment of animals. This also aims to raise researchers awareness of the well-being of the laboratory animals they use.