Estimates show that up to 90% of published preclinical research findings may not be reproducible.1 Reproducible research has the potential to improve your ability to secure funding and to bolster public confidence in scientific research. The Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), and many other publishers, have provided revised guidelines on how to improve the reproducibility of your results and best practices for documenting the details of your experiments, including how to present quantitative Western blot data for publication. Adopting these guidelines as the standard in your own research remains one of the most effective ways you can improve the reliability of, and confidence in, your results.
Deputy Editor of the JBC, F Peter Guengerich, Ph.D., gave a presentation where he provided more specific details on how researchers should prepare their Western blots for submission to the JBC. As a professor who has authored, or co-authored, over 500 peer reviewed scientific articles and has served both on the JBC’s editorial board and as an editor since 2006, Dr. Guengerich is familiar with what is needed to take research from submission to publication. In his 30-minute presentation, Dr. Guengerich spoke on the reproducibility crisis and the measures being taken to improve the reproducibility of research findings, including JBC’s guidelines for:
- Experimental procedures
- Novel antibody descriptions
- Evidence of specificity
- Informative blots
- Blot image presentation
- Loading controls
- Linear range detection
- Preserving data integrity
Dr. Guengerich, the JBC, and other publishers have an interest in helping you ensure your results are as reproducible as you can make them. In this, we all share a common goal.
Our mission with the Lambda U® Education Portal is to help you become a better Western blotter. The lessons in Lambda U aim to provide you with on-demand access to a learning environment that is regularly updated. This will allow you to stay up to date on current best practices and to identify and minimize sources of variation and error.
The Journal of Biological Chemistry along with Dr. Guengerich have allowed us to host the video of Dr. Guengerich’s presentation alongside our other Lambda U lessons. The video is free to watch, but you will need to sign into your Lambda U account to access it.
We thank Dr. Guengerich and the Journal of Biological Chemistry for their commitment to advancing science and hope you enjoy the presentation. You can watch the video for free after signing into your Lambda U account.
Reference
- Begley, GC and Ioannidis, JP. (2015). Circulation Research, 116(1), pp 116-26. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.114.303819.
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