SciScore to launch a pilot with the American Association for Cancer Research to help authors improve rigor and reproducibility in their published work

San Diego | Philadelphia, 2 June 2020

SciScore, an advanced, text-mining-based tool, is pleased to announce that the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research, will integrate SciScore into the AACR journals’ submission platform, eJournalPress, as part of a pilot program.

SciScore evaluates scientific manuscripts for compliance with recommendations and requirements designed to address different aspects of rigor and reproducibility in the published literature, e.g., MDAR, ARRIVE, CONSORT, and RRID standards. This tool provides a score and a supporting report to identify whether key areas of reproducibility and transparency are addressed in the manuscript. Amongst others, it will look for evidence of randomization, blinded conduct of experiment, sample size estimation, whether sex is included as a biological characteristic, animal/cell line authentication or contamination, and will verify the identity of the antibodies used.

“Finding the cure for any medical ailment facing our society involves the expenditure of both time and money. Research funders and the public more generally have the just expectation that the money spent on research will advance healthcare,” says Anita Bandrowski, a neuroscience researcher at the University of California, San Diego and CEO of SciScore. “SciScore will make it easier for AACR’s authors to focus on the work-at-hand by indicating when, or if, something was overlooked or omitted in the process of reporting the research in a manuscript.”

“This value-add tool for our authors, reviewers, and editors will support our initiatives to disseminate critical and reproducible research that will lead to the conquest of cancer, ” says Christine Battle, Publisher and Vice President of Scientific Publications at AACR. “We are delighted to be the first to integrate SciScore in the journal workflow across all nine of the AACR journals. It is an effective tool to measure — and ultimately improve — the quality of the science being published.”

About the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
The AACR is the largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure all cancers. The organization was founded in 1907, and its membership includes more than 47,000 laboratory, translational, and clinical researchers; population scientists; other healthcare professionals; and patient advocates residing in over 127 countries.
https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/