Animal research

General Guidelines

All submissions involving animals will be reviewed by ScienceBank to ensure that the requirements outlined in this policy are met.

Author checklist:

• Evidence of approvals from the Authors’ Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
• Adherence to ARRIVE guidelines
• Adherence to recommendations Weatherall report (non-human primate research)
• Declaration of why ethical approval is not required

Evidence of Approvals and Experiments

• Authors must obtain approval for experiments involving animals from their Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent body.
• ScienceBank will require Authors to provide details of the name of the IACUC or equivalent ethics committee, permit numbers, and other details about experiments at the submission stage of the manuscript.
• ScienceBank Editorial teams reserve the right to request additional information or to reject the manuscript if appropriate information is not provided or if the information provided lacks the standard to publish on ScienceBank.

ARRIVE Guidelines

The ARRIVE guidelines (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) are a checklist of information to include in publications describing Animal Research. Authors are recommended to use these guidelines to ensure that the correct standards of reporting are employed helping to deliver the adequate interpretation, reproduction, and utilization of data. ScienceBank Editorial may further elaborate on the ARRIVE guidelines to support Authors in different areas of animal research to achieve the highest standard of research, reporting, and ethics.

Research Involving Non-human Primates

The use of non-human primates is one of the most controversial areas of biological and medical research. ScienceBank requires that non-human primate studies must be performed following the recommendations of the Weatherall report. In particular, Authors must include details of animal welfare and steps taken to alleviate suffering and improve conditions in all published papers that involve non-human primate research.

Declaring Why Approval is Not Required

Some research involving animals may not be subject to approval by a specific committee. At a minimum, Authors are required to declare the nature of the experiment and why approval is not required. It is strongly recommended that Authors who want to publish their work in ScienceBank contact the ScienceBank team before submission to ensure that their understanding of non-approval meets ScienceBank’s requirements.