Reports and resources
Here are some selected reports and resources from the RSPCA, or including RSPCA authors. They include reports of meetings and guidance produced by us and in collaboration with others, and papers in which we are lead or co-authors.
We have been publishing for over 30 years, so if you are looking for an older publication than those listed here please contact us at animalsinscience@rspca.org.uk.
Ethical review
Information sheets for AWERB members
- Cage cleaning: mice and rats (2020)
- Culture of Care (2020)
- Humane killing (2020)
- Visiting the animal unit (2020)
- Being an effective lay member of an AWERB (2020)
- Environmental enrichment for zebrafish (2021)
- Refined methods of genotyping (2021)
Resources for AWERBs
- Report from the 2024 Oxford AWERB Hub meeting: Maximising the effectiveness of your AWERB
- Introduction to scientist-AWERB engagement pack
- Dos and don'ts for scientists
- Dos and don'ts for AWERB members
- Dos and don'ts for AWERB chairs
- Activities: Understanding different perspectives
- AWERB Survey for Scientists
- Developing induction materials for AWERB members (2017, with LASA Education, Training and Ethics Section)
- Developing inductions for AWERBs run fully or partly online (2021, with LASA Education, Training and Ethics Section)
- Delivering Effective Ethical Review: The AWERB as a 'Forum for Discussion' (2017, with IAT, LASA, LAVA, ESRC, University of Nottingham)
- RSPCA/LASA guiding principles on good practice for AWERBs (2015, with LASA Education, Training and Ethics Section)
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A resource book for lay members of ethical review and similar bodies worldwide (2015)
RSPCA/LASA/IAT/LAVA AWERB-UK meetings
Effective ethical review
- How to be an AWERB champion - report of a workshop at IAT Congress 2017
- How to become involved with the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB) - report of a workshop held at the 2015 IAT Congress
- Ethical review of projects involving non-human primates funded under the European Union's 7th Research Framework Programme (2013)
- Cephalopod research and EU Directive 2010/63/EU: Requirements, impacts and ethical review (2013, not open access)
- Ethical review of animal experiments: Current practice and future directions (2011)
- Lay members and animal technologists - working together to enhance the ERP (2010)
- The value of looking back: improving science and welfare through retrospective review (poster with LASA)
- Notes from a Lay Members Forum - an inaugural meeting, November 1999 (2000)
Culture of care
- Promoting a Culture of Care (2020)
- Communication and the Culture of Care poster (2019) on behalf of The International Culture of Care Network
- 3Rs-related and objective indicators to help assess the Culture of Care (2019)
- Assessing the Culture of Care: A survey of Culture of Care Network members (2017)
- Communicating the Culture of Care - how to win friends and influence people (2016)
- Good Science, Good Sense and Good Sensibilities: The Three Ss of Carol Newton (2016)
- Raising concerns about laboratory animal welfare: report of a workshop at IAT Congress (2014)
Avoiding and replacing animal use
Severe suffering
General guidance
- Avoiding mortality in animal research and testing (2019)
- The RSPCA focus on severe suffering project (2016)
- A 'road map' toward ending severe suffering of animals used in research and testing (2014)
- Discussion paper: Reducing severe suffering (2013)
- Refinement - Lessons from the 2012 Olympics (2013)
- Focus on Severe Suffering Infographic (2020)
Specific procedures
- Refining rodent models of spinal cord injury (2020)
- Applying refinement to the use of mice and rats in rheumatoid arthritis research (2015)
- Refinement of animal models of sepsis and septic shock (2015, not open access)
- Reducing suffering in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) (2013, not open access)
- Reducing suffering in animal models and procedures involving seizures, convulsions and epilepsy (2013, not open access)
Welfare and severity assessment
- Progress in assessing animal welfare in relation to new legislation: Opportunities for behavioural researchers (2014, not open access)
- Identifying and managing distress, suffering and pain in cephalopods, including anesthesia, analgesia and humane killing (2013, not open access)
- Guidance on the severity classification of scientific procedures involving fish (2011, Working Group convened by Norecopa)
- A guide to defining and implementing protocols for the welfare assessment of laboratory animals (2011, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW, published version)
- Guide to defining and implementing welfare assessment protocols (2010, full version)
- Refinement through better animal monitoring: How behavioural researchers can contribute (2010; p153-4)
Housing and care
Rodents and rabbits
- Applying the 3Rs: A case study on evidence and perceptions relating to rat cage height in the UK (2019)
- The 9 to 5 Rodent 'Time for Change' Scientific and animal welfare implications of circadian and light effects on laboratory mice and rats (2018, not open access)
- To group or not to group? Good practice for housing male laboratory mice (2017)
- Refining rabbit care: a resource for those working with rabbits in research (2008, with UFAW)
- Refining rodent husbandry - the mouse (1998)
Fish
- Zebrafish enrichment posters (2021)
- Enrichment for laboratory Zebrafish - a review of the evidence and the challenges (2021)
- Zebrafish behaviour and welfare posters - supporting evidence and references (2020)
- Refining handling for small laboratory fishes (2019)
- Report of a Meeting on Contemporary Topics in Zebrafish Husbandry and Care (2016)
- Guidance on the housing and care of zebrafish, Danio rerio (2011)
Amphibians
Other species
- Refining housing, husbandry and care for animals used in studies involving biotelemetry (2014)
- Refinements in husbandry, care and common procedures for non-human primates (2009, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW)
- Husbandry refinements for rats, mice, dogs and non-human primates used in telemetry procedures (2005, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW)
- Refining dog husbandry and care (2004, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW)
- Laboratory birds: refinements in husbandry and procedures (2001, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW)
Refining procedures
General
Biotelemetry
- Refinements in telemetry procedures (2003, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW)
Vaccine studies
- Three Rs approaches in the production and quality control of fish vaccines (2011, not open access)
- Application of the 3Rs to challenge assays used in vaccine testing (2010, with BVAAWF/FRAME/UFAW)
- Advancing animal welfare and the 3Rs in the batch testing of veterinary vaccines (2008)
- Batch safety testing of veterinary vaccines - potential welfare implication of injection volumes (2008)
Humane killing
- A Good Death? Report of the second Newcastle meeting on laboratory animal euthanasia (2016, meeting funded by the NC3Rs)
- Newcastle consensus meeting on carbon dioxide euthanasia of laboratory animals (2006, meeting funded by Laboratory Animals Limited, NC3Rs, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne)
Genetically altered animals and biotechnology
- GA passports: the key to consistent animal care (2010, RSPCA GA Passport Working Group report)
- Sharing and archiving of genetically altered mice: opportunities for reduction and refinement (2008, RSPCA Resource Sharing Working Group report)
- GA Passports Workshop Report - IAT Congress 2013
- 3Rs initiatives for GA mice (2010)
Non-human primates
- RSPCA Response to the Bateson Report (2011)
- Special protection for primates - the need for faster progress (2010)
- RSPCA Response to 'Working Mandate' on the need for non-human primates in research (2008)
- RSPCA Response to the Weatherall Report (2007)
- RSPCA Submission to the Weatherall Committee (2005)
Research standards
- The role of the Three Rs in improving the Planning and Reproducibility of animal experiments (2019)
- PREPARE: guidelines for planning animal research and testing (2017, initiated by Norecopa)
- Animal 'models': How a mechanistic approach can reduce suffering and improve translatability (2017, not open access)
- Implementing guidelines on reporting research using animals (ARRIVE etc.): new requirements for publication in the British Journal of Pharmacology (2015)
- Where research integrity & scientific reporting converge, animal welfare stands to benefit: Integrity in the Global Research Arena (2015)
- Facts and demonstrations: exploring the effects of enrichment on data quality (2014)
- Results of the GR8/RSPCA global survey on the effects of enrichment on data quality (2014)
- Reporting enrichment in research papers (2012)
- An approach to minimize dog use in regulatory toxicology: production of a best practice guide to study design (2004)
Publication standards
RSPCA welfare meeting reports
Rodents and rabbits
- 2022 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group Meeting
- 2021 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2020 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2019 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2018 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2017 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2016 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2015 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent and Rabbit Welfare Group meeting
- 2014 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
- 2013 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
- 2012 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
- 2011 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting - harms and benefits of new technologies
- 2010 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting - the effects of husbandry on welfare and promoting good practice
- 2009 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting - focusing on 50 years of the 3Rs and welfare assessment
- 2008 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
- 2007 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
- 2006 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
- 2005 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group meeting
Cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and chickens
Wild animals
Other papers and articles
Training
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Guiding principles to help deliver the ethics learning outcomes of module 2 for personal licensees (2020, with LASA)
- Guiding Principles on Record Keeping for Personal Licence Holders (2017, with LASA Education, Training and Ethics Section)
- Guiding Principles for Preparing for and Undertaking Aseptic Surgery (2017, with LASA Education, Training and Ethics Section)
- Guiding principles for supervision and assessment of competence as required under EU and UK legislation (2016, with LASA Education, Training and Ethics Section)
Openness
Regulation
- Are standards for lab animals really `the highest possible¿? (2013, Huffington Post)
- Transposition of the EU Directive: Backwards, forwards or the status quo? (2012, pp 14-16)
- Lab animals are left waiting for words to be turned into actions (2012, Huffington Post)
Other
- Everyday 3Rs for animal technologists - an RSPCA workshop at Congress 2019
- Developing a Collaborative Agenda for Humanities and Social Scientific Research on Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare (2016)
- Public expectations of the NVS. Conference paper, Laboratory Animal Veterinary Association Annual Conference 2015