Welfare Science

Welfare Science: Open Science and Animal Welfare Data

Open science practices including data sharing and pre-registration can improve the quality and reliability of animal welfare research, benefiting both science and animals.

Key Facts

Publication bias in animal welfare research may overstate intervention effectiveness
Pre-registration of welfare studies reduces selective reporting of positive results
Open data sharing allows replication and meta-analysis of welfare interventions
Many welfare studies are funded by industry with potential conflicts of interest
Open access publishing improves reach of welfare science to practitioners

Welfare Considerations

Poor research quality in welfare science can lead to ineffective interventions being adopted at scale while genuinely effective interventions are missed. Open science reforms improve the reliability of welfare science and therefore the quality of welfare improvements based on that science.

What You Can Do

Support open access animal welfare research publications
Advocate for pre-registration of welfare intervention studies
Donate to independent welfare research not funded by industry
Engage with welfare science through open access journals and preprints