Searching the Literature for Animal Testing Alternatives: A Tutorial: Suggested 3R Keywords
Created by Health Science Librarians
Suggested 3R Keywords for Searches
In addition to searching for research similar to your own, you will need to look for literature that mentions alternatives involving reduction, refinement, and replacement of animals in laboratory research. There are a lot of keywords that you can use to perform these searches, many of which are listed below.
Reduction and Refinement
| Adverse Analgesic, hypnotic, sedative, tranquilizer Anesthesia, anesthesia, anaesthesia Anxiolytic Assay, technique, method, procedure Enrichment (behavioral, behavioural, environmental) Euthanasia Experimental design Handling, housing, husbandry, caging |
Invasive, non-invasive Monitoring device Positive reinforcement Postoperative, postsurgery Reduction, refinement Restraint, restrict, immobilize Train, educate, teach, instruct Welfare, pain, stress, distress |
Replacement
| Algae, fungus, hydra, plant Anesthesia, anesthesia, anaesthesia Animal testing alternatives, alternative Anxiolytic Artificial intelligence system, AI Assay, technique, method, procedure Autopsy, biopsy Bacteria, microorganism, protozoan, single-celled organism, yeast Cadaver Cell, cell line, cellular Computer aided instruction, computer assisted instruction, CAI Culture (cell, tissue, organ) Digital imaging Environmental enrichment Euthanasia Fish, cephalopod Insect, invertebrate |
Isolated (cell, tissue, organ) Mannequin, manikin, manikin Membrane, organ, organelle, slice, tissue, tissue equivalent Model (animal, cadaveric, interactive, mathematical, statistical, theoretical), modelling, modeling Pain, distress Physicochemical systems Plastination Prediction Replacement, surrogate Simulation (computer) Software Structure - activity relationship System Train, educate, teach, instruct Video Virtual (surgery, reality) Vitro (AND method, model, technique) |
Sample Animal Alternatives MeSH Keywords & Searches for PubMed MEDLINE
When searching PubMed or one of the other MEDLINE interfaces, it is often a good idea to use the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to find relevant articles. MeSH headings are assigned to each article within MEDLINE by its staff and are intended to be consistent across articles. This allows them to return more relevant and consistent groups of articles when searched.
PubMed provides a searchable MeSH Database to help you identify the best terms for your search, which includes many that apply to a literature search for alternative research methods in animal studies.
If you use a MeSH term, you must tell PubMed that you want it to be a MeSH term and not something else in order to find the most relevant results. To do this, type the term inside quotation marks followed by [MESH]. See below for examples.
Sample standard MeSH keywords (click on the keyword to see the MeSH definition, if available):
| "Animal Testing Alternatives"[MESH] "Animals, Laboratory"[MESH] "Animal Husbandry"[MESH] "Animal Welfare"[MESH] ""Euthanasia, Animal""[MESH] |
"Housing, Animal"[MESH] "Investigative Techniques"[MESH] "Laboratory Animal Science"[MESH] "Models, Animal"[MESH] "Research Design"[MESH] |
Using MeSH Terms
MeSH terms can be combined to produce generalized searches for major topics in animal testing, including the health, welfare, and housing of animal subjects. Listed below are some sample searches for major issues of interest in your literature search.
Blood Sampling: ("Blood Specimen Collection/methods"[Mesh]) AND ("Animals, Laboratory"[Mesh])
Housing, Including Cages and Caging: ("animal husbandry"[MESH] OR "animal welfare"[MESH] OR "housing, animal"[MESH]) AND "animals, laboratory"[MESH] AND (caging OR cage* OR "housing, animal"[MESH])
Environmental Enrichment: "animals, laboratory "[MESH] AND enrichment[Text Word] AND "housing, animal"[MESH]
Laboratory Animal Welfare: "animal welfare"[MESH] AND "animals, laboratory "[MESH])
Transgenic Mice: "mice, transgenic"[MESH] AND ("animal welfare"[MESH] OR "Animal Testing Alternatives"[MESH])
Pain and/or Stress Prevention and Control: ("stress, physiological/prevention and control"[MESH] OR "pain/prevention and control"[MESH] OR "stress, physiological/veterinary"[MESH] OR pain/veterinary"[MESH]) AND "animal welfare"[MESH] AND ("animals, laboratory"[MESH] OR "research design"[MESH])
Handling: "animals, laboratory"[MESH] AND "animal husbandry"[MESH] AND ("handling (psychology)"[MESH] OR handling[Text Word])
