Reproducibility, the

Missing R? Really?
ILAR Roundtable J une 4-5, 2014
Stuart Zola, PhD
Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University
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Experiments should be designed so that
they are resilient to the variations that
occur inside and outside the laboratory.
If A causes B:
A should cause B this year and next year
A should cause B when a different graduate student or
postdoctoral fellow enters the lab
A should cause B when performed in cell culture and in
animals
A should cause B when mice are ordered in different seasons
A should cause B when a new deionized water system has
been installed
A should cause B during finals week, March Madness, or the
World Cup
Miller, 2014, Toxicology Sciences
How we treat and analyze the data are just
as important as how the experiment is
executed
Is our current standard of p<.05 for significance
sufficient or should we aim for .005 - .001?
Cost of higher level significance would be offset
by the reduced wasted resources chasing down
spurious findings
Three major components of reproducibility
that are considered by journals
1. Methods must be accurately described in a
way that allows replication of the studies
2. The statistical analyses must be accurately
described and appropriately used
3. Potential conflicts of interest must be
disclosed
Discussion