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Preregistration templates for toxicology and environmental health

Paul Whaley, PhD

Editor-in-Chief, Evidence-Based Toxicology

29 February 2024, EBT Special Issue Launch Webinar

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About Me

Editor-in-Chief of Evidence-Based Toxicology, co-chair of EBTC’s Open Science Working Group

You’ve heard about preregistration templates in general, but why get our journal involved?

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We have the same challenges

In toxicology we do not have a rich tradition of discussion, about whether our publishing practices are sufficiently supportive of our scientific goals

  • A bit slow on systematic review & evidence mapping
  • Protocols, even for systematic reviews, are rare
  • Preregistration of animal studies struggling to get going
  • Preregistration of in vitro / in silico studies is even slower
  • Ambivalence about replication crisis and response

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But we complain a lot about research 😉

How many of us think that toxicological research is generally being done well enough?

  • Are we given enough information about study methods?
  • Are journals contributing to publication bias?
  • Are authors being selective in the results they report?
  • Do we know how much research is redundant?

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EBT created to address these challenges

The first open science journal for toxicology and environmental health research. Mission to

  1. Publish manuscripts utilizing or advancing evidence-based methods in toxicology and environmental health
  2. Implement innovative open science practices in its handling of submissions
  3. Demonstrate the value of open science practices to the environmental health community

Official journal of the Evidence-Based Toxicology Collaboration, partnering with T&F

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EBT’s key editorial policies

Intended to improve publishing by putting science before impact and increasing transparency and accountability

  • Preprints required
  • Public manuscript evaluation and peer-review
  • Decisions based on rigour, not results
  • High open data standards, aiming at top 1% of TOP
  • Option to publish methods before collecting data

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Improving publishing is complicated

Strong editorial policies help. But so does experimenting with different publishing formats

  • Involved in world’s first RCT of editorial policy
  • Consider protocols for any study design
  • Very open to methods papers of any type
  • Here, an opportunity to try “Preregistration Templates”

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Preregistration templates a good philosophical fit

  • We encourage publication of methods before collecting data
  • Difficult to do without examples and templates showing how
  • Templates an opportunity for credit for work that may otherwise go unrewarded

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Ideas for templates

!

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How does it work, again? 🤔

Anyone with a method that someone else might use should create a preregistration template

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Just to give you the general concept

  • Minimum information for registering the existence of a planned human epidemiological study
  • Planning the analysis of data generated in cell culture studies for assessing the toxicity of chemical exposures
  • A comprehensive study methods and data analysis plan for epidemiological studies that seek to comply with Good Epidemiology Practice

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If there’s a checklist, there’s a template

Interpret guidelines and reporting standards into templates

  • Regulatory compliance? GIVIMP?
  • Guideline studies, make those easier?
  • Good epidemiology practice
  • Animal study guidance, e.g. ARRIVE
  • Systematic review, evidence mapping

If necessary and helpful, they will be high impact

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Did someone say “reward”?

  • The best template (or templates) will be recognised with a cash prize at SOT 2025!
  • Submit your toxicology or environmental health Preregistration Template to �EBT before end of 2024

https://bit.ly/EBTprereg

Image by DALL-E2, OpenAI

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Thank you for listening!

  • Read the editorial
  • Submit your template
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Join an EBTC Working Group