Authorization and welfare

Research involving animals must have appropriate prospective authorization from the responsible animal ethics body and comply with the requirements governing the work. State the approving body, institution, protocol or license number and relevant authorization. If formal approval was not required, explain the basis and the authority responsible for that determination.

Apply the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement: consider suitable alternatives, justify the number of animals and minimize pain, distress and lasting harm while maintaining an informative study.

Reporting and study design

Submit an ARRIVE 2.0 checklist and report the Essential 10 and relevant Recommended Set items. Describe species, strain, sex, age, provenance and relevant health or genetic characteristics. Explain housing and husbandry, experimental procedures, allocation, blinding, sample-size reasoning, exclusions, outcome measures and statistical analysis. Distinguish individual animals from repeated measurements within an animal.

Cancer models and humane endpoints

For tumor-bearing models, report tumor induction or implantation procedures, monitoring frequency, the method of measuring tumor burden and predefined humane endpoints. Explain criteria for intervention or euthanasia, including relevant limits for tumor size, ulceration, body condition, weight loss or impaired function, according to the authorized protocol. Survival experiments require a clear scientific and welfare justification; death as an endpoint must not be treated as interchangeable with a humane surrogate.

Describe anesthesia, analgesia, perioperative care and euthanasia methods where applicable. Explain deviations from the approved protocol and unexpected adverse effects. For xenografts or other models using human-derived material, provide the corresponding source and human research authorization as well as the animal approval.

Assessment

Editors may request protocol information or welfare records relevant to the reported experiments. A study may be declined when the scientific rationale, welfare safeguards or reporting do not permit a defensible assessment. Ethical approval and a completed checklist do not by themselves demonstrate that every procedure was appropriate. See Publication Ethics for handling concerns.