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Introduction and aims

Welcome to Norecopa's Refinement Wiki.

The aim of the Wiki is to provide a platform where methods for the refinement of animal experiments can be published.

The Wiki aims to fill the gap between peer-reviewed scientific publications and more anecdotal evidence which is shared on social media and email discussion forums but not always archived.

We foresee a number of uses:

1.     Rapid dissemination of refinement techniques where resources or interest in writing fullscale scientific papers are unavailable

2.     Identification of experts on specific techniques

3.     As a hub to identify collaborators when investigating the effects of a potential refinement strategy in a multi-lab study

4.     Creation of pages encouraging colleagues to share experiences or develop new strategies to solve a problem

We hope that this Wiki will help to accelerate the introduction of refinement methods. It is up to the community to judge whether this initiative is worthwhile.

The administrative work is led by Adrian Smith, Secretary of Norecopa.

Using the Refinement Wiki

Like most Wikis, the Refinement Wiki does not have a Table of Contents. Use the search engine at the top right corner to locate pages about the topic of interest. If no such page exists, you can create your own page if you are a registered contributor.

Searches using the main search engine on Norecopa's website will retrieve hits from the Refinement Wiki, but not vice versa.

Hint: Click on the Norecopa star in the top left corner to return to this main page, from wherever you are in the Wiki.

Evidence base

The content of this Wiki is NOT curated by Norecopa's staff - responsibility for content lies with the registered users who have contributed to it. Comments about the content of a page can be left on the page's Discussion page, whereas comments directly to a contributor can be left on the their Discussion page (also known as their Talk page).

It is up to the contributor to describe the evidence base for the refinement when it is included in the Wiki. If the refinement has been published, the reference should be given. If it has only been presented at a scientific meeting, or is a preliminary or observational finding, the contributor's username should be added - either on the same page or on the Discussion tab. How to do this is described in the user manual (see below).

Would you like to contribute?

Please send an email to Adrian Smith, describing your relationship to the research animal community.

Contributor rights are given to all bona fide members of this community, regardless of species with which they are working. We specifically encourage contributions about species for whom existing knowledge is limited.

It is not possible to edit or create pages unless you are logged in as a registered contributor.

You do not need special computing skills to contribute to the Wiki.

Click here to download a simple instruction manual for editing the Wiki (version 15rev).

Three simple rules:

1. Refresh each page when you view it, even if you have no plans of editing it. Otherwise you may be shown an earlier version that was saved in your computer's cache.
2. Use the "Save changes..." button at the top right of each page before you leave a page after editing it.
3. Check that you really are in the Edit (or Edit source) mode before attempting to add material - because after saving changes you will be placed in the Read mode.

If you need further help, contact Adrian Smith.

Acknowledgements

The idea of creating a Refinement Wiki came from Susanna Louhimies, whom we thank for her encouragement and valuable comments at all stages of this process.

We gratefully acknowledge a donation from the Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance's Animal Protection Fund which financed installation of the software to run this Wiki.

We would like to thank all those users who have contributed to the development of this Wiki, and in particular the team of 12 laboratory animal specialists who tried out the test version.