Standards in semen examination: publishing reproducible and reliable data based on high-quality methodology
Lars Björndahl, Christopher L. R. Barratt, David Mortimer, Ashok Agarwal, R. John Aitken, Juan G. Álvarez, Natalie Aneck-Hahn, Stefan Arver, Elisabetta Baldi, Lluís Bassas, Florence Boitrelle, Riana Bornman, Douglas T. Carrell, José Antonio Castilla, Gerardo Cerezo Parra, J.H. Check, Patricia S. Cuasnicú, Sally D. Perreault, C. de Jager, Christopher J. De Jonge, Joël R. Drevet, Erma Z. Drobnis, Stefan S. du Plessis, Michael L. Eisenberg, Sandro C. Esteves, Evangelini Evgeni, Alberto Ferlin, Nicolás Garrido, Aleksander Giwercman, I Goovaerts, Trine B. Haugen, Ralf Henkel, Lars Henningsohn, Marie‐Claude Hofmann, James M. Hotaling, Piotr Jędrzejczak, Pierre Jouannet, Niels Jørgensen, Jackson Kirkman‐Brown, Csilla Krausz, Maciej Kurpisz, Ulrik Kvist, Dolores J. Lamb, Hagai Levine, Kate L. Loveland, Robert I. McLachlan, Ali Mahran, Liana Maree, Sarah Martins da Silva, Michael T. Mbizvo, Andreas Meinhardt, Roelof Menkveld, Sharon T. Mortimer, Sergey I. Moskovtsev, Charles Müller, María José Munuce, Monica Muratori, Craig Niederberger, Cristián O’Flaherty, Rafael Oliva, Willem Ombelet, Allan Pacey, Michael A. Palladino, Ranjith Ramasamy, Liliana Ramos, Nathalie Rives, Eduardo R. S. Roldán, Susan Rothmann, Denny Sakkas, Andrea Salonia, María Cristina Sánchez-Pozo, Rossana Sapiro, Stefan Schlatt, Peter N. Schlegel, Hans-Christian Schuppe, Rupin Shah, Niels E. Skakkebæk, Katja J. Teerds, Igor Toskin, Herman Tournaye, Paul J. Turek, Gerhard van der Horst, Mónica H. Vazquez‐Levin, Christina Wang, A.M.M. Wetzels, Theodosia Zeginiadou, Armand Zini
Abstract
Biomedical science is rapidly developing in terms of more transparency, openness and reproducibility of scientific publications. This is even more important for all studies that are based on results from basic semen examination. Recently two concordant documents have been published: the 6th edition of the WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, and the International Standard ISO 23162:2021. With these tools, we propose that authors should be instructed to follow these laboratory methods in order to publish studies in peer-reviewed journals, preferable by using a checklist as suggested in an Appendix to this article.