­­­Written Evidence Submitted by

Professor Jonathan Grigg, Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and Deputy Dean for Research Integrity, Queen Mary University of London

(RRE0008)

Evidence on Reproducibility and Research Integrity

Dear Committee Members,

I welcome this review. I wish to point out the Hong Kong Principles (1). I think this an excellent basis for UK future developments in reproducibility and research integrity. One area that needs development is design of animal studies – where there is a risk of selective reporting and unnecessary experiments. In this area, the principles (1) highlights the Experimental Design Assistant developed by The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research. This is an online tool was developed to assist researchers in the design and analysis of animal experiments. It includes dedicated support for randomisation, blinding and sample size calculation. It can also be used to help researchers prepare the experimental design information and analysis plan requested for grant applications.

1)               Moher D, Bouter L, Kleinert S, Glasziou P, Sham MH, Barbour V, Coriat AM, Foeger N, Dirnagl U. The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity. PLoS Biol. 2020 Jul 16;18(7):e3000737. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000737. PMID: 32673304; PMCID: PMC7365391.

              (September 2021)