Scientific Rigour

Swiss Reproducibility Network

The Swiss Reproducibility Network (SwissRN) is a peer-led consortium that aims to promote and ensure rigorous research practices in Switzerland. I am currently the local node leader for the University of Bern, where we are organizing regular activities to promote scientific rigour and implementation of measures improving reproducibility of scientific research findings. together with the local nodes in Basel and Zürich we are also organizing the ReproducibiliTea journal club.

Research on Reproducibility

My own research on reproducibility focuses primarily on the question how biological variation and heterogeneity in studies involving animals affect reproducibility. This research is closely linked with my interests in animal welfare of research animals, as improving reproducibility of animal experiments reduces inacceptable waste of animals for inconclusive research. In addition, I have authored several articles explaining and promoting the correct use of certain statistical techniques.

Selected References

Tillmann, K. E., Schaer, R., Mueller, F. S., Mueller, K., Voelkl, B., Weber-Stadlbauer, U., and Pollak, D. D. (2024). Differential effects of purified low molecular weight Poly (I: C) in the maternal immune activation model depend on the laboratory environment. Translational Psychiatry, 14(1), 300.

Jaric, I., Voelkl, B., Amrein, I., Wolfer, D. P., Novak, J., Detotto, C., Weber-Stadlbauer, U., Meyer, U., Manuella, F., Mansuy, I. M. and Würbel, H. (2024). Using mice from different breeding sites fails to improve replicability of results from single-laboratory studies. Lab animal, 53(1), 18-22.

Arroyo-Araujo, M., Voelkl, B., Laloux, C., Novak, J., Koopmans, B., Waldron, A. M., Seiffert, I., Stirling, H., Aulehner, K., Janhunen, S. K., Ramboz, S., Potschka, H., Holappa, J., Fine, T., Loos, M., Boulanger, B., Würbel, H. and Kas, M. J. (2022). Systematic assessment of the replicability and generalizability of preclinical findings: Impact of protocol harmonization across laboratory sites. PLoS Biology, 20, e3001886.

Drude et al. (2022). Planning preclinical confirmatory multicenter trials to strengthen translation from basic to clinical research - a multi-stakeholder workshop report. Translational Medicine Communications, 7: 24.

Voelkl, B. and Würbel, H. (2021). A reaction norm perspective on reproducibility. Theory in Biosciences, 140, 169-176.

Voelkl, B., Würbel, H., Krzywinski, M. and Altman, N. (2021). The standardization fallacy. Nature Methods, 18, 5-7.

Voelkl, B., Altman, N.S., Forsman, A., Forstmeier, W., Gurevitch, J., Jaric, I., Karp, N.A., Kas, M.J., Schielzeth, H., Van de Casteele, T. and Würbel, H. (2020). Reproducibility of animal research in light of biological variation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 21, 384-393.

Voelkl, B. (2019): Multiple testing: correcting for alpha error inflation with false discovery rate (FDR) or family-wise error rate? Animal Behaviour, 155, 173-177.

Voelkl, B., Vogt, L., Sena, E. and Würbel, H. (2018): Reproducibility of preclinical animal research improves with heterogeneity of study samples. PLoS Biology, 16(2), e2003692.

Voelkl, B. and Würbel, H. (2016): Reproducibility crisis: Are we ignoring reaction norms? Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 37, 509-510.