Sequentially Constrained Randomization in Preclinical Animal Studies.

ABSTRACT: Randomization is a key component to scientific inquiry as it facilitates unbiased estimation of treatment effects via balancing of measured and unmeasured prognostic variables across treatment groups. Recent reports have noted that randomization is lacking in animal studies, threatening internal validity. Animal studies often involve rodents (mice or rats) sent in small batches to laboratories or bred on site in litters. Randomizing half of each batch to treatment and half to control (simple randomization) is a viable strategy to implementing randomization in animal studies, however experimenters may be concerned about chance imbalances, given the smaller sample sizes utilized in animal studies, in key prognostic variables, eg, baseline weight. Constrained randomization, wherein key progno

SUBMITTER: Rigdon J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12560233 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature