How we can make ecotoxicology more valuable to environmental protection

There is increasing awareness that the value of peer-reviewed scientific literature is not consistent, resulting in a growing desire to improve the practice and reporting of studies. This is especially important in the field of ecotoxicology, where regulatory decisions can be partly based on data fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Science of the total environment Vol. 578; pp. 228 - 235
Main Authors:	Hanson, M.L., Wolff, B.A., Green, J.W., Kivi, M., Panter, G.H., Warne, M.St.J., Ågerstrand, M., Sumpter, J.P.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-02-2017
Subjects:	Conservation of Natural Resources Ecotoxicology Peer review Quality Relevance Relevance Risk assessment Reliability Reporting recommendations Reproducibility of Results Research Design Risk Assessment Relevance Publications Quality Risk assessment Peer review Reliability Reporting recommendations
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	There is increasing awareness that the value of peer-reviewed scientific literature is not consistent, resulting in a growing desire to improve the practice and reporting of studies. This is especially important in the field of ecotoxicology, where regulatory decisions can be partly based on data from the peer-reviewed literature, with wide-reaching implications for environmental protection. Our objective is to improve the reporting of ecotoxicology studies so that they can be appropriately utilized in a fair and transparent fashion, based on their reliability and relevance. We propose a series of nine reporting requirements, followed by a set of recommendations for adoption by the ecotoxicology community. These reporting requirements will provide clarity on the the test chemical, experimental design and conditions, chemical identification, test organisms, exposure confirmation, measurable endpoints, how data are presented, data availability and statistical analysis. Providing these specific details will allow for a fuller assessment of the reliability and relevance of the studies, including limitations. Recommendations for the implementation of these reporting requirements are provided herein for practitioners, journals, reviewers, regulators, stakeholders, funders, and professional societies. If applied, our recommendations will improve the quality of ecotoxicology studies and their value to environmental protection.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0048-9697 1879-1026 1879-1026
DOI:	10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.160