COLAAB member Emily Trunnell of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will discuss "Addressing animal methods bias in scientific publishing" (Abstract Number 253) in Session #74: Bias, Reporting and Assessment – How to replace, reduce and refine animal experiments by looking at the available data.
There is a growing consensus among researchers, policymakers, and regulators that advancing the development and use of innovative nonanimal research methods is essential for improving biomedical translation and reducing and replacing the use of animals in science. Despite the availability of such methods in many applications, confidence is still being established and uptake has been slow due to a variety of barriers. This presentation will provide an overview of one significant barrier, animal methods bias: the preference for animal-based methods or lack of adequate expertise to properly evaluate nonanimal methods, which results in unfair assessments of animal-free research and potentially serious career consequences. It will include anecdotal, survey, and bibliometric evidence of animal methods bias in the context of publishing and funding peer review. It will also discuss the formation and ongoing efforts of the Coalition to Illuminate and Address Animal Methods Bias (COLAAB), an international collaboration of researchers and advocates. The COLAAB aims to build concrete evidence of the characteristics and consequences of animal methods bias and to develop and implement solutions for overcoming it. Illuminating and addressing animal methods bias is crucial for reducing barriers for researchers using nonanimal approaches and for advancing the important shift away from animal use in biomedical research and testing.