Data Sharing and Reproducibility: Systems for increasing research rigor

Improve rigor, reproducibility, and translatability of discovery research.

2030 3.H In Progress DN 2021 AD Summit: 2.G, 2.H and 3.C Blog: AlzPED: Raising the standards for preclinical testing of Alzheimer’s drug candidates Blog: Hands-on training to set the standard for Alzheimer’s drug discovery, May 8-12 Data Sharing and Reproducibility 2024

  • Embed requirements for providing documentation on the provenance of reagents and protocols and validation of research tools in basic research studies.
  • Build systems/processes for transparent sharing of experimental results from early-stage target validation studies.

Summary of Key Accomplishments

Rigor, reproducibility, and open science are fundamental to the NIA’s mission and commitment to the development of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related-Dementias. Alzheimer's Disease Preclinical Efficacy Database (AlzPED) is a NIA-funded publicly available, searchable, data resource intended to increase the transparency, reproducibility and translatability of preclinical efficacy studies for Alzheimer’s disease treatment. AlzPED helps to identify the critical data, design elements and methodology missing from studies. This web-based portal houses, shares, mines, and disseminates preclinical efficacy data to academic and industry scientists involved in preclinical therapy development. The goal of AlzPED is to improve the predictive power of preclinical testing in animal models. Through AlzPed, researchers have the capability to enhance their knowledge about rigorous study design and requirements for transparent reporting and conduct systematic analyses of preclinical efficacy studies. NIA assessed trends in AlzPED for nine key study design elements for rigor and reproducibility over five-year periods between 2000 and 2021. There were steady and significant improvements in experimental design. Critical design elements reported included conflict-of-interest statements, genetic background, and sex of the animal model used in the study. These findings highlight the importance of tracking and improving trends for underreported critical elements such as power calculation, and inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The key accomplishments summary is current as of September 2025.