106 • Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education 
cause of their primary emphasis on research done 
in the United States by American scientists and 
because of the respect accorded them by scien- 
tists in each discipline. The editors of all 15 sub- 
ject manuscripts to independent peer review 
prior to publication. 
For each year from 1980 through 1983, OTA 
examined the first 100 research papers published 
in each journal; in a few cases, fewer than 100 
papers were published in a given year. Short com- 
munications and review articles were not in- 
cluded. In each report, OTA checked whether ani- 
mals were used. Thus, the materials and methods 
employed in each article were categorized as ei- 
ther use of animals, no use of animals, or use of 
humans. "Animal'' is defined as described earlier 
(see ch. 2), any nonhuman vertebrate. "Use” of 
animals is defined conservatively as any use of 
an animal in an experiment. Table 5-4 lists some 
examples of the ways specific protocols were 
categorized by OTA. 
Survey Findings 
The results of this survey indicate that the re- 
search journals— and perhaps the disciplines they 
represent— fall into two categories: 
Table 5-4.— Classification of Published Research 
Protocols in OTA Survey of 15 Journals 
Examples of protocols classified as use of animals: 
Whole animals used as experimental subjects 
Animals used to obtain cell, tissue, or organ of interest 
Animals used in the establishment of new cell, tissue, or 
organ cultures 
Extraction of protein or other biological molecule from 
animals 
Production of antibodies by whole animals or animal 
components 
Use of egg, sperm, or embryo from animal source 
Use of animal epidemiologic data 
Examples of protocols classified as no use of animals: 
Use of invertebrate organisms 
Use of computer systems 
Use of previously established cell lines 
Acquisition of biological molecules from a commercial 
manufacturer 
Use of physical or chemical systems 
Examples of protocols classified as use of humans: 
Use of living human subjects 
Use of cadavers 
Use of human placenta 
Use of human blood cells or components 
Use of human epidemiologic data 
SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment. 
• journals representing disciplines that have al- 
ready largely incorporated nonanimal meth- 
ods into the research process; and 
• journals representing disciplines that either 
have not incorporated, or may not have avail- 
able, nonanimal methods. 
For most of the 15 journals (see table 5-5), pub- 
lished protocols fall predominantly into just one 
of the three categories of methods; in many cases, 
over 80 percent of the protocols are in one cate- 
gory. Only Cell representing cell biology, had a 
majority of articles using nonanimal methods. The 
American Journal of Cardiology contained a ma- 
jority of articles using humans or human mate- 
rials as research subjects. All the remaining jour- 
nals except Developmental Biology and the Jour- 
nal of Biological Chemistry included a majority 
of articles using animals. Developmental Biology 
and the Journal of Biological Chemistry contained 
approximately equal percentages of articles em- 
ploying animal and nonanimal methods. 
The 12 biomedical research journals included 
in this survey cover a diverse array of disciplines 
under this one rubric. The differing patterns of 
animal, nonanimal, and human use make gener- 
alizations misleading at best and perhaps impos- 
sible. In the same way that biomedical research 
itself is not monolithic, the patterns of animal use 
among disciplines of biomedical research are not 
uniform. Perhaps not surprisingly, veterinary re- 
search, insofar as it is represented by two jour- 
nals, relies primarily on animals, a minimal per- 
centage of nonanimal methods, and no protocols 
with humans. 
The three behavioral research journals included 
in this survey registered a predominance of ani- 
mal methods— more than 90 percent of the pro- 
tocols in each case. The research reported in these 
journals involved minimal use of humans or 
nonanimal methods. Other behavioral research 
journals, for example those reporting on clinical 
psychology, largely publish reports of research 
with human subjects. 
Survey Limitations 
This attempt to gauge the implementation of 
nonanimal methods in selected areas of biomedi- 
cal and behavioral research had certain limita- 
