For ethics committees, IACUCs & research funders

Plan before you report

ARRIVE and PREPARE are named in the same breath, as if interchangeable. They are not — and the difference is where oversight has its greatest leverage.

Damien Huzard, PhD · Neuronautix · 2 July 2026

We cannot improve our research by better reporting alone.

— Norecopa, on the case for planning guidelines

The problem

Most flaws are baked in before the first word is written

A large share of published animal research cannot be reliably reproduced. Better reporting exposes those problems; it cannot prevent them. Reporting checklists act at the manuscript stage — long after the design, the sample size, and the husbandry were fixed.

Two guidelines, one lifecycle

ARRIVE reports the study. PREPARE plans it.

PREPARE — before

Purpose: plan the experiment well

Timing: before any animal is used

Steward: Norecopa (Norwegian 3R centre)

Form: a 15-topic study-planning checklist

ARRIVE — after

Purpose: report the experiment fully

Timing: at manuscript submission

Steward: NC3Rs (UK)

Form: 21 items — the Essential 10 + a Recommended Set

ARRIVE 2.0 — the reporting checklist

The Essential 10

1 · Study design

2 · Sample size

3 · Inclusion & exclusion criteria

4 · Randomisation

5 · Blinding

6 · Outcome measures

7 · Statistical methods

8 · Experimental animals

9 · Experimental procedures

10 · Results

Without these ten, a study cannot be independently assessed or reproduced. A Recommended Set adds further context.

PREPARE — the planning checklist

15 topics, three conversations

Formulation of the study

Literature searches · legal & ethical review · harm–benefit and humane endpoints · experimental design & statistics.

Dialogue with the facility

Objectives, timescale & funding · facility evaluation · education & training · health, safety & waste.

Methods

Test substances · animals · quarantine & health monitoring · housing & husbandry · procedures · humane killing / rehoming · necropsy.

What reporting can't see

The items a reporting checklist never asks about

Facility evaluation Staff education & training Scientist–technician dialogue Quarantine & health monitoring Housing & husbandry Humane killing & rehoming Necropsy

Norecopa flags these PREPARE topics as “not typically highlighted in reporting guidelines.” They decide whether an experiment is even worth reporting — and they are exactly where an ethics committee's or funder's questions have the most leverage.

The pathway to better research: ten open-science steps from PREPARE (plan) through INFORM, DESIGN, PLAN, PREREGISTER, CONNECT, EXCHANGE, SHARE to ARRIVE (report) and PUBLISH, with PREPARE and ARRIVE circled at each end.

The payoff

Better planning is better oversight

Better scienceFewer confounds, clearer results, less wasted work — and fewer wasted animals.

Improved animal welfareRefinement is designed in from the start, not retrofitted after a problem appears.

Advancement of the 3RsReplacement, Reduction and Refinement are addressed while they can still change the study.

A safer working environmentHealth, hazard and contingency planning are made explicit before work begins.

Prospective registration (e.g. preclinicaltrials.eu) is the planning-side complement funders and committees can ask for.

Takeaway

Plan before you report.

Ask for a PREPARE-style study plan and prospective registration at the proposal stage; expect ARRIVE-complete reporting at the end. The pathway runs from PREPARE to PUBLISH — reporting is the last mile, not the fix.

Sources: Norecopa PREPARE (norecopa.no/PREPARE) · ARRIVE 2.0 (arriveguidelines.org)
Damien Huzard, PhD · Neuronautix · companion note