Staying informed on advances in the 3Rs and animal research

This presentation was targeted at the Named Information Officer (NIO), but the content has wider relevance to anyone looking for comprehensive sources of information relevant to the use of animals in research. Adrian Woodhouse, Training Development Manager at Red Kite, gives an overview of the types of information the NIO should be disseminating within their role, as well as highlighting where to look for specific content. Adrian describes numerous web resources, newsletters, journals, forums, training courses and people that can be used to increase your knowledge of best practice and application of the 3Rs in animal research. For the NIO to achieve effective dissemination and uptake by their audience, Adrian emphasises the importance of selectively sharing specific and relevant information and provides some useful tips as to how to do this in practice.

Supporting others to find information, and collating and disseminating information are core activities of the Named Information Officer. However, the recent NC3Rs/LASA HOLTIF survey Supporting the Named Information Officer identified time as a primary challenge of this role, with individuals lacking the time to find and disseminate relevant information. Angela Davies, Librarian at the University of Bradford, demonstrates how anyone looking for information on animal research including 3Rs advances, can use freely available tools and strategies to be more effective and efficient in their searching. In her talk, Angela highlights the importance of first considering what you are looking for, where you might find it, and then doing a scoping search prior to performing your main searches, as this may save you time in the long run. She also shares tips and tricks for refining your literature searches and evaluating and managing the information that you find.

In this presentation Esther, Programme Manager for Experimental Design at the NC3Rs, discusses how to keep up to date most easily with the scientific and grey literature on the 3Rs and animal research. This includes how to set up alerts to receive email updates about publications, signing up to 3Rs related newsletters, subscribing to scientific podcasts and utilising social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter/X and LinkedIn. Esther provides tips from her personal experience on how to get the most out of social media and other alerts for work purposes, ensuring that you continue to receive relevant updates whilst avoiding information overload.

Databases: Pubmed advanced search builder, Google Scholar and CORE scholarly infrastructure for open access papers. 

Resources for searching for alternatives to animal models: The Animal Welfare Information Centre has tips for searching for alternatives, as well as links to relevant databases, and ALTBIB has ready-made customisable Pubmed search strategies related to finding alternatives to animal models. 

Accessing information: Unpaywall and Open Access Button for accessing full texts. 

Finding and following pre-prints: BioRxiv. 

3Rs newsletters: The 3Rs Collaborative, Swedish 3Rs Centre, Danish 3Rs Centre, Charite 3Rs and Norecopa. 

*Slide decks from individual presentations are available on request. Please email: training.engagement@nc3rs.org.uk.