Gold standards for scientists who are conducting animal-based exercise studies

IN RECENT YEARS, a disturbing trend has emerged in which scientific journals are accepting manuscripts in exercise biochemistry/physiology that have employed inappropriate methodologies to study exercise or exercise training (for example, Refs. 2, 10, 14, 17, 18, 27, 28). A lack of basic knowledge in exercise biochemistry is often evident and usually coupled with a failure to cite classic literature in the field. The outcome is the publication of questionable science that is subsequently subject to erroneous interpretation. The purpose of this Viewpoint is to encourage a dialogue on the criteria needed to establish standards for studies that employ exercise and/or exercise training as an experimental intervention to permit clear, consistent, and appropriate evaluation of data by both investigators and readers. This Viewpoint will attempt to remind us, as scientists, that to maintain high quality exercise-based publications we must not ignore, but continue to build on, the experimental standards previously established by the leaders of our field. Thus this Viewpoint is divided into sections where important misconceptions have found their way into the current literature. Important considerations in selecting methods for fiber typing and for testing of endurance times to exhaustion.