Welfare Science

Open Science in Animal Welfare Research

Open science practices including data sharing, pre-registration, and open access publication improve the quality and impact of animal welfare research.

Key Facts

Reproducibility crises have affected multiple areas of biological science including welfare research
Pre-registration of studies reduces publication bias and inflated effect sizes
Open data sharing allows welfare researchers to meta-analyse across studies
Open access publication maximises the reach and policy impact of welfare findings
Collaborative open science platforms are emerging specifically for animal welfare research

Welfare Considerations

Open science practices improve the reliability and usefulness of welfare research, helping ensure that welfare recommendations are based on the best available evidence. Supporting open science is therefore a welfare priority.

What You Can Do

Support funding for open access animal welfare research publications
Engage with welfare research organisations adopting pre-registration and open data policies
Advocate for open data sharing requirements in publicly funded welfare research
Learn to critically evaluate welfare research quality and reproducibility
Share high-quality open access welfare science with the public and policymakers