PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ian A. Fladie AU - Tomi Adewumi AU - Nam Vo AU - Daniel Tritz AU - Matt Vassar TI - An evaluation of Nephrology Literature for Transparency and Reproducibility Indicators: Cross-sectional Review AID - 10.1101/756486 DP - 2019 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 756486 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/09/756486.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/09/756486.full AB - Background Reproducibility is critical to diagnostic accuracy and treatment implementation. Concurrent with clinical reproducibility, research reproducibility establishes whether the use of identical study materials and methodologies in replication efforts permit researchers to arrive at similar results and conclusions. In this study, we address this gap by evaluating nephrology literature for common indicators of transparent and reproducible research.Methods We searched the National Library of Medicine catalog to identify 36 MEDLINE-indexed, English language nephrology journals. We randomly sampled 300 publications published between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2018. In a duplicated and blinded fashion, two investigators screened and extracted data from the 300 publications.Results Our search yielded 28,835 publications, of which we randomly sampled 300 publications. Of the 300 publications, 152 (50.67%) were publicly available whereas 143 (47.67%) were restricted through paywall and 5 (1.67%) were inaccessible. Of the remaining 295 publications, 123 were excluded because they lack empirical data necessary for reproducibility. Of the 172 publications with empirical data, 43 (25%) reported data availability statements, 4 (2.33%) analysis scripts, 4 (2.33%) links to a protocol, and 10 (5.81%) were pre-registered.Conclusion Our study found that reproducible and transparent research practices are infrequently employed by the nephrology research community. Greater efforts should be made by both funders and journals, two entities that have the greatest ability to influence change. In doing so, an open science culture may eventually become the norm rather than the exception.