Open Research Europe presents an interview with Pia Kahnau, a co-author of ‘Development of an IntelliCage-based cognitive bias test for mice’, in this month’s research spotlight. Since September 2022, COST Action members have been eligible to publish their research on Open Research Europe. We spoke to Pia Kahnau, a scientist at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin and a member of the COST Action TEATIME, to hear more about her research in cognitive testing of mice.
Tell us a bit about your involvement with the COST Action TEATIME
I have been a member of the COST Action TEATIME since November 2022. The Action brings together scientists who are developing and using automated and home-cage-based technologies to monitor laboratory animals.
Home-cage monitoring is intended to improve the study of animal behavior, for example by minimizing the influence of the person conducting the experiment through the handling of the animals.
I’m a member of working group two, which is currently working on a Systematic Review that examines the development of home-cage based methods over time and the current state of progress.
How would you summarize your research?
It’s likely that animals will continue to be used in animal studies for the foreseeable future, so it’s our ethical obligation to improve the housing and testing conditions of laboratory animals.
I’m developing methods to indirectly determine what laboratory mice want or need, what they don’t want or need, or how they feel after certain laboratory and testing experiences.
The main focus is on the development of home-cage based test methods in order to reduce potential stress, for example due to handling or separation from group members during the test. In home-cage based systems, the mice can be tested in a familiar environment, during their active phase, and with reduced disturbance by the experimenter.
The aim is to obtain valid and reproducible data to improve the reliability of animal experiments, and to improve the husbandry and testing conditions of the animals.
Why is open research important to you and your co-authors?
I believe it’s important to publish all findings, results, and data open access – this way, everyone can use the information, regardless of their budget. An essential part of science is exchange and communication among researchers and, by making all research openly available, this exchange is much easier and can accelerate scientific progress.
In addition, our article on Open Research Europe describes several development steps for an automated and home cage-based cognitive bias test for mice. This article is unique as it describes both the functioning method and the individual developmental steps.
I believe these developmental steps are useful for other researchers to know, because not every step in developing a new method works right away. By making this information available to everyone, other researchers can avoid repeating mistakes or ineffective methods. This saves time, resources, and, more importantly, reduces the number of animals used by avoiding unnecessary repetitions.
Finally, scientific projects are often funded by public means. For this reason, I believe the knowledge gained should be made freely available to the public. Open Research Europe is a great option for publishing open access.
How did you find the article submission process?
The process was well explained by members of the Open Research Europe team in advance, which meant the process went smoothly and there were no difficulties when submitting our work.
I was asked to suggest a few more reviewers than in previous experiences, but the Platform’s Reviewer Finder tool made it easy to make these suggestions.
What motivated you to publish with Open Research Europe?
The open and transparent review process is very interesting and exciting. Not only are the reviewer names public, but also the communication between reviewers and authors as well, which helps to promote scientific communication.
While there may be some reluctance among researchers and reviewers to participate in a fully open review process, due to perceptions of being more exposed to criticism, I think it is a great opportunity to grow and for others to learn from this feedback, which in the best case can lead to better publications.
Another benefit of Open Research Europe that should not be underestimated is that it’s cost-free for Horizon and COST Action-funded researchers, which means the money saved on publishing can be used for other important things, such as travel expenses to present results at conferences.
We want to thank Pia for taking the time to contribute her thoughts to the blog. Read the full Method Article today on Open Research Europe to explore the study and its findings in more depth.
