An initiative to facilitate well-informed decision-making in laboratory animal research: report of the First International Symposium on Systematic Reviews in Laboratory Animal Science

Most of us are overloaded with information. Even when we have time to read some of the information that arrives on our computers daily, it is difficult to identify which information will be most useful and to recall the most up-to-date findings when we need them. This is where systematic reviews come in. A systematic review focuses on a specific research question and tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high-quality research evidence relevant to the question. These reviews are standard practice in clinical studies, but are not yet widely conducted in the field of laboratory animal science. Given that many studies using laboratory animals are aimed at improving human health (and health care), it seems logical that research using animals is reviewed in a similar way and adheres to similar high-quality standards. Apparently, this is not the case yet. In order to highlight the importance of systematic reviews for the field of laboratory animal science, we launched the First International Symposium on Systematic Reviews in Laboratory Animal Science in Nijmegen (The Netherlands).