Minimum reporting standards should be expected for preclinical radiobiology irradiators and dosimetry in the published literature

Abstract

The cornerstones of science advancement are rigor in performing scientific research, reproducibility of research findings and unbiased reporting of design and results of the experiments. For radiation research, this requires rigor in describing experimental details as well as the irradiation protocols for accurate, precise and reproducible dosimetry. Most institutions conducting radiation biology research in in vitro or animal models do not have describe experimental irradiation protocols in sufficient details to allow for balanced review of their publication nor for other investigators to replicate published experiments. The need to increase and improve dosimetry standards, traceability to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standard beamlines, and to provide dosimetry harmonization within the radiation biology community has been noted for over a decade both within the United States and France. To address this requirement subject matter experts have outlined minimum reporting standards that should be included in published literature for preclinical irradiators and dosimetry.

Keywords:

• Radiation dosimetry
• minimum reporting requirements
• dosimetry standards and NIST traceability

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Correction

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09553002.2023.2283367)

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Notes

1 https://grants.nih.gov/policy/reproducibility/index.htm

2 https://sam.gov/opp/360d070bdf5d437f83e88c13442fa23f/view

3 https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/medical-archive-workshop-radiobiology-dosimetry-standardization.

4 https://www.france-hadron.fr/en/plateforms/features-modalities.html

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

François Trompier

François Trompier has a PhD in material sciences and a degree in nuclear science engineering with 25 years of experience in research and applications in dosimetry.

Larry A. DeWerd

Larry A. DeWerd has a PhD in Medical Physics with over 50 years of experience in radiation dosimetry and measurement. Dr. DeWerd has measured and consulted for radiobiology doses as a principal investigator of a contract with the NIAID Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program.

Yannick Poirier

Yannick Poirier has a PhD in Medical Physics and has more than 10 years experience working in radiation biology. He specializes in designing and validating irradiation protocol for radiobiological experiments, and is involved in several national and international efforts to improve dosimetry and methods reporting in radiobiology.

Morgane Dos Santos

Morgane Dos Santos has a PhD in physics. She serves as a physics researcher at IRSN, focusing her work on dosimetry and radiobiology.

Ke Sheng

Ke Sheng has a PhD in Medical Physics. He is Professor and Vice Chair of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Keith A. Kunugi

Keith A. Kunugi has an MBA and is the Co-Director of the UW Medical Radiation Research Center Radiobiology Dosimetry Program.

Thomas A. Winters

Thomas A. Winters has a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology with over 30 years of experience working in radiation biology. Dr. Winters serves as a Program Officer in the NIAID Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program.

Andrea L. DiCarlo

Andrea L. DiCarlo has a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology and serves as the Director of the NIAID Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program.

Merriline Satyamitra

Merriline Satyamitra has a PhD in Radiation Biology and serves as a Program Officer, Contracting Officer's Representative, and the Biodosimetry lead in the NIAID Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program.