Identifying trends in reporting on the ethical treatment of insects in research

Abstract

Transparent reporting on the ethical treatment of research animals (e.g., implementation of the 3Rs, replace, reduce, and refine) is recommended when publishing in peer-reviewed literature. This is meant to foster public trust, safeguard animal welfare, and generate reproducible science. However, entomologists are not expected to engage in such reporting, as their research is not subject to legislated ethical review. Recently, however, entomologists have reported increased concern about the ethical treatment of insects in research, and associated reproducibility and public trust issues. To what degree are these increasing concerns reflected in changes in practices? We surveyed 15 high-impact journals that publish on insects over 20 years to collect data on reporting related to the ethical treatment of insects in research, including animal reduction methods, analgesics/anesthesia statements, and information regarding sacrifice. Out of 1359 sampled papers, no studies reported any methods to reduce animal use. Over 20 years, we found an increase in the proportion of papers reporting insect death and a decrease in the papers reporting significant invasive handling. 84% of papers with significant animal handling or death did not report the use of any anesthetics. We also found an increase in animal-treatment-specific ethics statements (from 0% to 8%), largely driven by the journal Animal Behaviour. We end by 1) making recommendations for entomologists looking to improve their reporting practices and 2) providing tools to improve transparent reporting of information related to the ethical treatment of insects in research.