Meta-analysis of variation suggests that embracing variability improves both replicability and generalizability in preclinical research.

ABSTRACT: The replicability of research results has been a cause of increasing concern to the scientific community. The long-held belief that experimental standardization begets replicability has also been recently challenged, with the observation that the reduction of variability within studies can lead to idiosyncratic, lab-specific results that cannot be replicated. An alternative approach is to, instead, deliberately introduce heterogeneity, known as "heterogenization" of experimental design. Here, we explore a novel perspective in the heterogenization program in a meta-analysis of variability in observed phenotypic outcomes in both control and experimental animal models of ischemic stroke. First, by quantifying interindividual variability across control groups, we illustrate that the amount of

SUBMITTER: Usui T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8168858 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature