The ARRIVE Essential 10 and The Recommended Set: Author Checklist

This ARRIVE 2.0 Checklist is designed to ensure transparent and comprehensive reporting of studies involving animals as research specimens. It provides a structured framework covering study design, methodology, ethical considerations, and data interpretation, enabling reproducibility and clarity in animal-based research.
The checklist accompanies a study investigating the effects of flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) on liver decomposition, using pigs (Sus Scrofa L.) as forensic models. The research hypothesizes that flunitrazepam delays enzymatic autolysis, impacting postmortem interval (PMI) estimation. The study involved two pigs—one control and one experimental (administered 2 mg flunitrazepam in 250 ml vodka)—with daily liver tissue sampling over 16 days. Samples were preserved in 10% neutral buffered formalin and analyzed using Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and Masson's trichrome staining.
Findings show that flunitrazepam significantly slowed early liver decomposition, delaying autolysis and nuclear breakdown within the first six days. By day seven, decomposition rates in both groups aligned, with complete structural disintegration by day 16. These results emphasize the importance of considering drug effects when estimating PMI in forensic cases.
By standardizing study reporting, this checklist ensures that key methodological details—such as randomization, blinding, ethical approvals, and statistical methods—are clearly documented. It facilitates reproducibility, ethical compliance, and improved research quality in studies using animals as experimental subjects. Researchers, forensic scientists, and pathologists can use this checklist to enhance the validity, reliability, and application of animal-based findings in forensic and biomedical research.