Abstract
Calls to improve the translation potential of animal-based research have been increasing over the past decade. Recent suggestions for improving research quality have emphasized the statistical basics underpinning experimental conduct, especially with respect to experimental design and inference.
In this Special Issue of Laboratory Animals, we are pleased to present 16 papers that guide the reader through basic issues related to the application of statistical methods to animal research. Our objective was to assemble a collection of biostatistics notes targeted to non-statistician researchers. We encouraged submissions to be written in an accessible style: non-technical, not heavily mathematical and, above all, directly applicable to laboratory research with animals. However, the topics will be applicable (and valuable) for other areas of quantitative science, not only laboratory animal research.
The selection process was highly competitive and included rigorous peer review. This effort would not have been possible without the generous contributions of the applied statisticians and researchers (listed below) who provided thoughtful and constructive reviews that greatly improved the quality of the submitted papers. We also thank several individuals who, although unable to review themselves, provided names of other potential reviewers. Finally, we thank the American Statistical Association for providing a community platform that enabled us to greatly increase the public visibility of our call-out.
The selected articles cover four main topic areas: experimental design methodology, statistical testing and inference, statistical modelling and analysis techniques, and miscellaneous practical issues in statistical research (including pilot studies, simulation studies and incorporation of planned heterogeneity). We encourage researchers to read the articles and apply the lessons learned to their own research. The benefits will be seen in better quality research, more informative results, and less waste of animals in unproductive experiments.
With many thanks to our reviewers: Bridget Balkaran, Yihan Bao, Niall Bolger, Karl Broman, Luc Duchateau, Kent Eskridge, Ben Fitzpatrick, Mary Fortune, Miguel Fudolig, Heather Gordish, Ed Graceley, Servan Gruniger, Shawn Harris, Gavin Jarvis, Stanley Lazic, Ting-Fang Lee, Fulvio Magara, Nicholas Miceli, Teresa Neeman, Esther Pearl, Jorge Quiroz, Quentin Read, Reiko Roelofs, Frederic Schütz, Nathaniel Stephens, Bernadetta Tardigan, Jorge Tendeiro, Christopher Tong, Yu Wang, Christine Wells, Max Xue, and Yahui Zhang.
