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The PREPARE Guidelines Checklist
Planning Research and Experimental Procedures on Animals: Recommendations for Excellence
Adrian J. Smitha, R. Eddie Cluttonb, Elliot Lilleyc, Kristine E. Aa. Hansend & Trond Brattelide
a Norecopa, c/o Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 750 Sentrum, 0106 Oslo, Norway; b Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, U.K.; c Research Animals Department, Science Group, RSPCA, Wilberforce Way, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 9RS, U.K.; d Section of Experimental Biomedicine, Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 8146 Dep., 0033 Oslo, Norway; e Division for Research Management and External Funding, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
PREPARE consists of planning guidelines which are complementary to reporting guidelines such as ARRIVE.
PREPARE covers the three broad areas which determine the quality of the preparation for animal studies:
  1. Formulation of the study
  2. Dialogue between scientists and the animal facility
  3. Quality control of the components in the study
The topics will not always be addressed in the order in which they are presented here, and some topics overlap. The PREPARE checklist can be adapted to meet special needs, such as field studies. PREPARE includes guidance on the management of animal facilities, since in-house experiments are dependent upon their quality. The full version of the guidelines is available on the Norecopa website, with links to global resources, at https://norecopa.no/PREPARE. The PREPARE guidelines are a dynamic set which will evolve as more species- and situation-specific guidelines are produced, and as best practice within Laboratory Animal Science progresses.