Two years later: journals are not yet enforcing the ARRIVE guidelines on reporting standards for pre-clinical animal studies

There is growing concern that poor experimental design and lack of transparent reporting contribute to the frequent failure of pre-clinical animal studies to translate into treatments for human disease. In 2010, the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines were introduced to help improve reporting standards. They were published in PLOS Biology and endorsed by funding agencies and publishers and their journals, including PLOS, Nature research journals, and other top-tier journals. Yet our analysis of papers published in PLOS and Nature journals indicates that there has been very little improvement in reporting standards since then. This suggests that authors, referees, and editors generally are ignoring guidelines, and the editorial endorsement is yet to be effectively implemented.The authors received no specific funding for this work. We acknowledge the support, in the form of Dr. Lidster's salary, of the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript