The use of animals in medical research is not something that should be undertaken lightly. Careful planning of the design of each individual experiment is crucial, as a little extra time spent planning before an experiment can avoid hours of disappointment afterwards when the data is analysed. Good experimental design can reduce the variability of the data, reduce the risk of conducting an inconclusive study, and reduce the number of animals used. All of these make good science.
It should also be noted that research projects are usually not just single stand-alone experiments. The strategy for conducting a set of experiments as part of an overall research campaign should be planned out with the aim of being as efficient as possible with the available resources (including animals, people, reagents, time and money). Some of the planned experiments might potentially be combined together into a new experiment, which uses less resource than the sum of the individual studies and can even provide you with more information.
Another important choice at the setting of research strategy stage is to set up the criteria for deciding when it is time to stop a research campaign due to success or futility. The decision whether to stop or not should be reviewed regularly, if not after each experiment. Perhaps too many research projects carry on beyond a point where they should reasonably have stopped? This uses more animals than is necessary and can delay the scientist from other more promising avenues for their research. Knowing when to stop is crucial when driving a research project.
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This page is provided by the server of the Laboratory Animal Unit, at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Oslo.