CAMARADES Netherlands

We are the Dutch National Coordinating Center of CAMARADES, the Collaborative Approach to Meta-Analysis and Review of Animal Data from Experimental Studies. CAMARADES is global network of 7 NCCs, providing support to researchers to systematically review data from experimental animal studies. This includes best practice methodological assistance and access to collaborative tools, such as our online review facility SyRF and the Preclinical SR WiKi.

Research Departments Anesthesiology Meta-Research team

Meta-Research

We aim to bring evidence to translational medicine and toxicology. We do so by performing research and providing education on the principles of research rigour and robustness. Our systematic review experts develop, apply and disseminate the methodology of systematic review across evidence streams, including animal studies and clinical trials.

Contact

Kim Wever & Carlijn Hooijmans

55708
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Training and education

We offer a variety of trainings on systematic review, systematic searching, critical appraisal, meta-analysis and the principles of research rigor and robustness.

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Training and education

We offer a variety of trainings on systematic review, systematic searching, critical appraisal, meta-analysis and the principles of research rigor and robustness.

Trainings we offer (online or face-to-face)

  • Workshops on systematic review of animal studies (1 day or 2 half days)
  • Workshop on comprehensive searching (±2 days)
  • Workshop on critical appraisal of primary studies (±1.5 days)
  • Workshop on meta-analysis (±2 days)
  • Summer School on the principles of research rigor and robustness in animal studies (±4 half days, online only)

Please contact us for more details or if you are interested in organizing a training.

Institutes in The Netherlands can apply for funding to organize a systematic review workshop

To increase awareness and boost the implementation of systematic reviews of animals studies, ZonMW offers funding for Dutch institutes to host our workshop Systematic review of animal studies (in-house or online). For more information, please refer to the ZonMW website (MKMD program) or contact us. The current deadline for submission is December 2021, for workshops to be organized in end of 2021 or in 2022.

Start your own systematic review of animal studies and get us on board

To further stimulate the implementation of systematic reviews of animals studies, researchers affiliated with Dutch research institutes can apply for funding to perform their own systematic review of animal studies, in collaboration with one of our experts. For more information, please refer to the ZonMW website (MKMD program) or contact us.

E-learning module

In collaboration with the universities of Utrecht and Hannover, our experts have developed the SYRCLE e-learning module on systematic reviews of animal studies. It is freely available at ETPLAS, click here to sign up and enroll!


Support and coaching

Our experts can support you in various steps of your systematic review, such as:

  • Formulating your review question
  • Setting up a protocol and preregistering
  • Choosing and using the correct critical appraisal tool
  • Data synthesis, including meta-analysis
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Support and coaching

Do you need help in conducting your systematic review? Our experts can provide coaching during various steps of the process, such as:

  • Help with formulating a suitable and specific research question
  • Advice on setting up a protocol for your review and how to preregister it
  • Feedback on your comprehensive search strategy
  • Help with translating search strategies between databases, e.g. from Pubmed to Embase
  • Choosing and using the correct critical appraisal tool
  • Advice on whether it is possible to perform a meta-analysis and, if so, which type of meta-analysis

Support can be provided in face-to-face meetings and/or online meetings. Researchers affiliated with Dutch research institutes can apply for funding to perform their systematic review of animal studies in collaboration with one of our experts. For more information, please refer to the ZonMW website (MKMD program) or contact us.

Workshops

See our upcoming workshops and sign up for a spot.

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Workshops

Our upcoming workshops

  • August 30th 2024: 1 day on site workshop “Systematic review of animal studies” at the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Find more information here, and register here.
  • September 2nd and 3rd: two half days online workshop “Systematic review of animal studies” for the Swiss Network for Education in Laboratory Animal Science, please contact us if you would like to join.

Workshops conducted for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA):

  • June 24th, 25th, July 1st and 2nd (4 mornings online): EFSA SR trainings course 2 “Critical appraisal of evidence”.
  • September 30th to October 2nd (2 days on site): EFSA SR trainings course 3: “Article Selection, Data Extraction, Synthesis and Interpretation”

Please contact us if you would like to join one of these workshops. 

Is your preferred option not on this list? We offer a variety of in-house and online trainings which can be organised at your institute, check them out here.
 


Tools and guidelines

Check out tools and guidelines developed by our experts. read more

Tools and guidelines

0. Starting guide

This tool provides practical guidance in how to design, plan and conduct your own systematic reviews (and meta-analysis) of animal studies. It is largely based on the experience we obtained at SYRCLE over the last 10 years in our own reseach and supervising systematic reviews of animal studies. Note: we recommend training and coaching by an expert when conducting your first SR of animal studies.

1. Protocol

A protocol format for the preparation, registration and publication of systematic reviews of animal intervention studies. Here you can read a full text paper (Wiley library) and download a fillable protocol format.

2. Search

SYRCLE had developed various search tools for finding all relevant primary animal studies.

  1. Step-by-step search guide
    1. A practical step-by-step guide to develop a systematic search to identify all relevant animal studies. Click here for the full publication (Leenaars et al. 2012)
  2. Search filters
    1. Click here for the full publication by van der Mierden et al, 2021 providing search filters for laboratory animal studies (based on the original  publication of Hooijmans et al, 2010  and de Vries et al, 2014). Select below the laboratory animal filter you need:

3. Risk of Bias assessment

A tool by SYRCLE for assessing the risk of bias of animal intervention studies. Here you can read a full text paper (Pubmed) and download SYRCLE’s RoB tool.

4. Meta-analysis

Here you can read introduction (ILAR Journal) and view a practical guide.

5. Interpretation

SYRCLE developed a first draft for a tool (Hooijmans et al, 2018) for rating the certainty in the evidence of preclinical animal studies in the context of therapeutic interventions (based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, the most widely used framework to rate the certainty in the evidence and strength of health care recommendations).

6. Database

SYRCLE developed a database of animal systematic review publications. This database compiles systematic reviews of animal studies (i.e., reviews that focused exclusively on non-human animal research, or reviews that included animal studies along with human studies). This database was developed using a rigorous, systematic approach and it covers a broad range of research fields: preclinical research, toxicology, environmental health, and veterinary medicine. The database can be found here, and the publication concerning this database here.


Protocol registration

Our protocol registration is closed. We recommend the following registries for protocol registration: read more

Protocol registration

Up to 2020, protocols for systematic reviews could be registered here. Protocol registration is now closed, since several more tailored registries are available. We recommend the following registries for protocol registration:

  • PROSPERO, for systematic reviews of human studies and animal studies relevant to human health
  • Open Science Framework, for systematic reviews in vitro studies and animal studies without relevance to human health
  • Preclinicaltrials.eu, for primary animal studies

Protocol archive

Systematic review protocols registered with the Radboudumc between 2014 and 2020 are archived here. read more

Protocol archive

Systematic review protocols registered with the Radboudumc between 2014 and 2020 are archived here.



CAMARADES Netherlands

We are the Dutch National Coordinating Center of CAMARADES, the international collaboration providing support to researchers to systematically review data from experimental animal studies.

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Donating helps us lower the number of animal tests and enhances our research quality. donate

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