Kirstine Færgemand Præstegaard

Implementing 3R initiatives benefit animal welfare and science.
Investigations suggest researchers will rely on recommendations
from peers regarding 3R initiatives. A simple 3R implementation
pathway may hence be through communication of 3R approaches
in published primary literature. This nationwide study investigated
the extent to which the 3Rs were reported in peer-reviewed pre-
clinical animal research. Progression was investigated by compar-
ing reporting in the years 2009 (before ARRIVE guidelines) and
2018.
A systematic search retrieved all relevant studies with at least
one affiliation to a Danish university. Five hundred publications
were included by random sampling.
The reporting of 3R initiatives was low with limited improve-
ments. Searching for the 3R concept as a word retrieved no results
in 2009. This increased to 3.2% in 2018. Publications reporting 3R
Abstracts 29
related sentences increased from 7.6% in 2009 to 30.8% in 2018,
hereof reporting of reduction increased from 2.4% to 8.0%, refine-
ment increased from 5.2% to 14.4%, and replacement was not
reported at all. Poor reporting of details was prominent. In the
publications reporting on reduction, the used methods were only
mentioned in 0.4% of the publications in 2009 and 4.4% in 2018.
Refinement methods were only mentioned in respectively 3.6%
and 8.4% of the studies.
Reporting of 3R initiatives in preclinical publications is current-
ly insufficient to guide researchers on 3R implementation. We
advise that 3R reporting is enforced in combination with additional
strategies e.g., education and interdisciplinary collaboration in
order to stimulate the understanding of the benefits of 3Rs meth-
ods and how to apply them.