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ItemRecommendation (Kilkenny et al., 2010) TITLE 1 Provide as accurate and concise a description of the content of the article as possible.ABSTRACT 2 Provide an accurate summary of the background, research objectives, including details of the species or strain of animal used, key methods, principal findings and conclusions of the study.

In the last decade the number of bioscience journals has increased enormously, with many filling specialised niches reflecting new disciplines and technologies. The emergence of open-access journals has revolutionised the publication process, maximising the availability of research data. Nevertheless, a wealth of evidence shows that across many areas, the reporting of biomedical research is often inadequate, leading to the view that even if the science is sound, in many cases the publications themselves are not “fit for purpose”, meaning that incomplete reporting of relevant information effectively renders many publications of limited value as instruments to inform policy or clinical and scientific practice [1–21]. A recent review of clinical research showed that there is considerable cumulative waste of financial resources at all stages of the research process, including as a result of publications that are unusable due to poor reporting [22]. It is unlikely that this issue is confined to clinical research [2–14,16–20].

British Journal of Pharmacology (BJP) is pleased to publish a new set of guidelines for reporting research involving animals, simultaneously with several other journals; the ‘ARRIVE’ guidelines (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments). This editorial summarizes the background to the guidelines, gives our view of their significance, considers aspects of specific relevance to pharmacology, re‐states BJP's guidelines for authors on animal experiments and indicates our commitment to carrying on discussion of this important topic. We also invite feedback via the British Pharmacological Society website.

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