Statistical Consulting

Animal Research (studies involving animals)

Animal Research (studies involving animals)

Statistical methods consultation

To improve the quality of animal research, we offer statistical methods consultation. This includes advice on study design, on sample size calculation, on methods for data analysis and on reporting for publications, dissertations and theses in the context of animal research. For master students we suggest that the supervisor joins the meeting.

We encourage you to consult us during the planning phase, so that potential improvements on research questions, study design and absolutely necessary numbers of test animals (3R principles: Reduction) can be made.

We provide an hour appointment that is free of charge for animal researchers of UZH (e.g., members of Faculty of Science, Medical Faculty, Vetsuisse Faculty, University Medicine inc. USZ, Centers of Competence, etc.). This consultation is per license (not per researcher or per group) in the case of "application for license to perform animal experiment in Kanton Zurich". Note that

"this 1h-consultation is NOT A VERIFICATION of experimental design & the planned statistical analysis of your application (Form A, Section 31)".

We use and encourage to employ the free software R. Unfortunately, we can only provide limited help with other statistical softwares.

Please register in a timely manner and use the registration form below. Typically we will contact you within two business days to set up an appointment. The meeting can be either online (Teams, Zoom, etc.) or onsite (building Y27 Irchel Campus).

Other services

We also offer Contractual Consulting and Contractual Data Analysis with a standardized fee, for internal and external UZH. Send an email to Dr. Bernadetta Tarigan for details.

Request Animal Research Consultation

Our resources (kept up-to-date)

Statistical Notes

* Planning and Sample Size Estimation

* ANOVA Repeated Measures in Time

* Comparing Survival Curves

* Roadmap statistical methods

* Comparing two means

 

Biostatistics Courses

* Diverse topics and tailor-made

* Basic Statistics for Animal Experimentation: two days continuing education 14.-15.03.24 and 31.10.-01.11.24 at Irchel UZH (LTK-M13)

External resources

Books

* Statistical experiment design for animal research (open-access)

* Experimental design and reproducibility in preclinical animal studies (Springer 2021, UZHLibrary-access)

 

Guidelines

* PREPARE: planning

* ARRIVE: reporting

 

Interesting readings

* Confirmatory vs Exploratory

* A plea for preregistration

 

Preregistrations

* PRECLINICALTRIALS.EU

* Animal Study Registry

* COS Preregistrations

* COS Registered Reports