AFTER years of defensiveness, a siege mentality and the stonewalling of any criticism, a quiet revolution is under way in animal research.
What has triggered this change of heart? It's partly down to the economic climate plus fewer new medicines - despite increased investment in research - and the removal of much of the threat from animal rights extremism, in the UK at least.
Until recently the only criticism of animal research came from antivivisection groups who persistently complained about a lack of transparency. Now criticism is coming from researchers too, with the recognition that not all aspects of animal experimentation are as robust as they should be and that something needs to change.
That is why we have published new guidelines aimed at improving the quality of reporting on animal experiments in research papers (see "New animal experiment guidelines issued"). These have been met with support, ...
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