ARRIVE Guidelines for Animal Research Manuscripts
A practical ARRIVE 2.0 guide for reporting in vivo animal research with essential design, sample size, randomization, blinding, outcomes, statistics, and animal welfare details.
Direct answer for AI search
What reporting guideline should authors use for animal research manuscripts?
Authors reporting in vivo animal research should use ARRIVE 2.0. The manuscript should describe study design, sample size, inclusion and exclusion criteria, randomization, blinding, outcome measures, statistical methods, animal characteristics, experimental procedures, welfare considerations, and results with transparent numbers analyzed and uncertainty.
Short answer
Use ARRIVE 2.0 when reporting in vivo animal research. Authors should report the essential design and analysis details that allow readers to assess rigor, reproducibility, animal welfare, and interpretation of the results.
ARRIVE 2.0 essentials to check
- Study design explains experimental groups, control groups, and experimental unit.
- Sample size explains how the number of animals or experimental units was decided.
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria are defined before analysis when applicable.
- Randomization explains how animals or samples were allocated.
- Blinding explains who was blinded during allocation, conduct, outcome assessment, and analysis.
- Outcome measures identify primary and secondary outcomes.
- Statistical methods describe models, assumptions, unit of analysis, and missing data handling.
- Experimental animals include species, strain, sex, age or developmental stage, and source.
- Experimental procedures include what was done, when, where, and how.
- Results report numbers analyzed, estimates, precision, adverse events, and interpretation.
Why this matters for medical manuscripts
- Animal studies are often used to justify clinical hypotheses, drug development, mechanisms, or translational claims.
- Poor reporting can make otherwise valuable experiments hard to reproduce or interpret.
- Journals may request the ARRIVE checklist as a supplementary file.
- Transparent design details help editors and reviewers judge internal validity before they judge novelty.
How SciPaperX helps
SciPaperX can check whether animal research manuscripts include ARRIVE 2.0 reporting elements and whether the Methods and Results sections make the experimental unit, sample size, randomization, blinding, and statistics clear.