ARRIVE Guidelines

The ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines were developed to improve standards of reporting the results of animal experiments. The PREPARE guidelines provide guidance for planning animal research and testing, from day one.

The latest version of the ARRIVE guidelines (ARRIVE 2.0, published in July 2020) consists of two checklists: the Essential 10 (the basic minimum of information to include in a manuscript) and the Recommended set (topics which add context to the study described).

There is a questionnaire to check compliance manually with the Essential 10 list. An automated compliance checker will be available from SciScore in 2024 and on the ARRIVE website from 2025. An operationalised checklist was developed by the IICARUS team in connection with a trial to improve compliance with ARRIVE.

The PREPARE guidelines have a similar multi-language checklist for use when planning experiments, with comprehensive webpages containing links to international resources for each topic on the checklist.

A comparison between PREPARE and ARRIVE can be read here and a 3-minute cartoon film illustrating the complementary role of planning and reporting guidelines can be accessed here.

The new version of ARRIVE does not mention the 3R concept (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) specifically. Norecopa recommends a 3-step approach for scientists conducting animal studies:

1. PREPARE: Use the PREPARE guidelines from day 1 of planning, to implement the 3Rs and identify all the factors which can affect the validity of their research
2. REPORT: Use reporting guidelines like ARRIVE, the Gold Standard Publication Checklist or other other reporting guidelines to write a manuscript which has the best chances of being accepted by a journal
3. FLAG: Make sure that any advances in the 3Rs which were made during the study are prominently mentioned in the manuscript, preferably in the title and/or abstract, since many databases only index these parts of a paper.

Promotion material for these three steps, together with a fourth important approach (CARE - ensuring a Culture of Care at the facility) is available here.


References

• Kilkenny C, Browne WJ, Cuthill IC, Emerson M, Altman DG (2010): Improving Bioscience Research Reporting: The ARRIVE Guidelines for Reporting Animal Research. PLoS Biol 8(6): e1000412. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000412
• Hair K, Macleod MR, Sena ES, and on behalf of the IICARus Collaboration (2019): A randomised control trial of an Intervention to Improve Compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines (IICARus). Res Integr Peer Rev 4, 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0069-3
• Percie du Sert N, Hurst V, Ahluwalia A, Alam S, Avey MT, Baker M, Browne WJ, Clark A, Cuthill IC, Dirnagl U, Emerson M, Garner P, Holgate ST, Howells DW, Karp NA, Lazic SE, Lidster K, MacCallum CJ, Macleod M, Pearl EJ, Petersen O, Rawle F, Peynolds P, Rooney K, Sena ES, Silberberg SD, Steckler T and Wurbel H (2020): The ARRIVE guidelines 2.0: updated guidelines for reporting animal research. PLoS Biol. 18(7): e3000410. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000410

• Percie du Sert N, Ahluwalia A,  Alam S, Avey MT, Baker M, Browne WJ, Clark A, Cuthill IC, Dirnagl U, Emerson E, Garner P, Holgate ST, Howells DW, Hurst V, Karp NA, Lidster K, MacCallum CJ, Macleod M, Pearl EJ, Petersen O, Rawle F, Reynolds P, Rooney K, Sena ES, Silberberg SD, Steckler T & Würbel H (2020): Reporting animal research: Explanation and elaboration for the ARRIVE guidelines 2.0. PLoS Biol. 18(7): e3000411. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000411