Birgit Szabo

By rewarding speed, volume, and coherent positive narratives, traditional publishing incentivizes questionable scientific practices and analytic flexibility. The latter especially contributes to blurring the distinction between exploration and confirmation, which inflates the apparent strength of confirmatory claims. This systemic issue has gone unchecked for decades, leaving the scientific community with a body of scholarly literature that is unreliable and lacking validity. Registered Reports (RRs) address problematic publishing practices by requiring a priori registration of confirmatory tests, which is peer-reviewed before the research begins (stage 1). The editorial acceptance of a stage 1 plan establishes a commitment to publication regardless of research outcomes. Publication remains, nonetheless, contingent on a second peer review and editorial scrutiny (stage 2) to verify that the approved plan was followed, all deviations were transparently disclosed and justified, confirmatory and exploratory claims are clearly delineated, and the integrity of the design was maintained. Meta-scientific comparisons indicate that RRs reduce outcome-based publication bias and improve methodological rigor without compromising perceived novelty. By making accepted RR protocols and their review history citable research outputs, RRs also strengthen recognition for peer-review work. In this perspective, we argue that RRs should become the primary mode of confirmatory publication moving forward.

In captivity, reptiles often experience unnatural incubation and rearing conditions due to limited nest site choices, which can negatively impact individual development and welfare. Incubation temperature and humidity are especially critical for reptile development, influencing factors such as sex, growth and morphology. However, the conditions experienced after hatching, such as social housing, are far less often considered. Here, I studied the effects of both the incubation environment (temperature and humidity) and social rearing compared to isolation rearing on the development of captive-bred tokay geckos ( Gekko gecko ). I find that incubation temperature, but not humidity are associated with phenotypic sex, hatchling size and incubation duration. Furthermore, females selected nest sites with higher temperature and lower humidity. After hatching, rearing group size did not affect snout vent length, growth or body condition. My findings indicate an association between incubation temperature and phenotypic sex despite the presence of sex chromosomes in this species. Therefore, care should be taken when raising tokay geckos in captivity to provide nest-site options and ensure optimal development of all offspring.

Pair bonding is a key social behavior but remains understudied in reptiles despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that some species exhibit complex sociality. The lack of evidence regarding the expression of pair association in social lizard species hampers our understanding of its effects on captive welfare. As a first step towards a better understanding of pair-related social behavior in lizards, we investigated if physical closeness, a measure often used to qualify pair bonding in mammals and birds, can be used to assess pair association strength in 25 captive tokay geckos (Gekko gecko). We analyzed how physical closeness is related to measures of spatial behavior collected through scan sampling across two sampling years. Physical closeness was not related to movement but to hiding and basking behavior, albeit not consistently across years (e.g., negative in one year and positive in the other). We also show that although, on average, our measure of pair association strength did not change across the experimental period, individuals that were paired with new individuals in 2024 exhibited a change (increase or decrease). It is unknown if differences occur in the wild and if they confer different fitness outcomes. However, our results have implications for captive welfare, and we propose to monitor socially housed individuals closely to avoid unnecessary socially induced stress.

Reptiles are increasingly popular as exotic pets and can suffer high mortality risks in captivity, yet research into their welfare remains limited. Commonly occurring practices such as frequent handling, changes in housing and diet could induce stress and increase parasite loads with potentially severe negative welfare outcomes. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how routine procedures may influence parasite infections. In this study, we exposed captive bred tokay geckos ( Gekko gecko ) to two stressors common in the reptile trade, cohabitation with a novel conspecific and a change in diet. We tested the effect of a diet and housing change on oxyurid egg shedding intensity in isolation as well as the combined effect of both treatments. We found that a change in diet or housing alone had no effect on fecal parasite load while both a change in diet and housing combined did increase parasite load. However, we did not notice a visible change in the lizards’ body condition, food and water uptake or defecation within the short study period. Our study shows that common changes in housing and husbandry can increase parasite load in tokay geckos. Further studies are needed to determine which other procedures ( e.g. , confinement, transport, novel environments) affect health and when combined could severely impact reptile health.

Spatial memory is a fundamental cognitive process that allows animals to navigate and interact with their environment effectively. While extensively studied in mammals and birds, the mechanisms underlying spatial cognition in reptiles remain less understood. In this study, we investigated spatial learning and the influence of behavioural lateralization in the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis). We examined whether lizards could develop short-term spatial memory and whether lateralization affected their navigation in a complex maze. Experimental lizards received 3 days of training without reinforcement, while control lizards had no prior experience. We found that trained lizards learnt to navigate the maze rapidly, reaching a goal shelter faster and more reliably than controls. Additionally, strongly lateralized individuals took longer to reach the goal during training, but this did not impair escape performance once the route had been learned. Our study reports novel evidence on the role of lateralization during spatial exploration in lizards. Lateralization is hypothesized to enhance information processing, but our data suggest no benefit or cost of lateralization after a route was learnt. Our study contributes to a broader understanding of cognitive evolution across vertebrates and emphasizes the importance of reptiles as models for comparative cognition research.

Every year, over 50 billion chickens are raised globally for meat and eggs. Increasing consumer demand has driven a shift towards free-range and organic systems. These systems allow chickens outdoor access aimed to improve behavioural diversity, and consequently, welfare. However, studies show that only a portion of a flock use the outdoor range. What causes these individual differences, the consequences of this variation and potential interventions to improve ranging have become an important research focus especially in the last decade. In this systematic review we synthesise the results of 107 studies on ranging behavior in layers and broilers to highlight patterns and draw general conclusions regarding the factors influencing ranging. Due to the breadth of our focus, we grouped research together covering (i) causes of individual differences, (ii) the consequences of individual differences in ranging for welfare and production, and (iii) interventions that can change ranging behaviour. Overall, some important patterns emerged. On the one hand, environmental factors, such as weather and temperature may predictably affect ranging across the year, particular strains ranged more and ranging increased over time. On the other hand, the results assessing ranging in relation to behaviour and cognition were less clear. Although some evidence showed better spatial cognition in indoor-preferring birds, no clear relationship to fear was evident. While the effect of outdoor access on welfare in layers was rather mixed, the effects on broilers were more straightforward, sometimes indicating better condition in outdoor-preferring individuals. In regard to production, only a few studies focused on the effects of individual ranging level on production traits finding little effect on egg quality in layers and mostly negative effects on weight, but some positive effects on meat quality in broilers. Finally, changes in management, rearing and the structure of the outdoor range show promise to improve ranging behaviour but these come with a financial cost. Overall, many knowledge gaps still remain and for some sections results are based on only a few studies limiting how well we can draw robust conclusions. We provide some suggestions on how to proceed with future investigations. Together, integrating the perspectives presented in this review will help to understand and manage variation in free-range behaviour shown by both layer and broiler chickens.

Living in complex social environments presents behavioural and cognitive challenges. A key challenge is the regulation of aggression, which may be facilitated by response inhibition, the ability to suppress inappropriate actions. In more complex social environments, greater variability in interactions may increase demands for aggression regulation, promoting the development of response inhibition. However, social instability, a form of complexity characterised by frequent changes in group composition, can elevate aggression and may instead impair inhibition. To test these competing predictions we raised 144 chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ) in either stable or unstable social groups for five weeks. We observed the aggression within their enclosures following the final manipulation, and assessed their response inhibition using a thwarting task and a cylinder task. Unstable groups initially showed more aggression than stable groups following regrouping, but this declined rapidly to the same lower level of aggression as the stable groups. Contrary to our predictions, there were no differences between birds raised in stable and unstable groups for any measure of response inhibition, and individual variation in aggression did not correlate with inhibitory performance. These findings suggest that social instability influences aggression but does not affect the development of response inhibition in chickens, highlighting the potential context- and species-specific nature of social effects on cognition.

Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023–Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021–Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5% encouraged and 38.2% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6% encouraged and 26.9% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0% and 77.0%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3% and 24.7%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.

Reptiles are increasingly popular as exotic pets and suffer high mortality especially in the first year in captivity, yet research into their welfare remains limited. Reptiles are often infected by parasites. One common taxon is Oxyuroidea superfamily, which has a direct life cycle that promotes easy transmission in enclosed environments. Due to limited ecological knowledge, inappropriate husbandry practices are common in reptiles causing stress and increased parasite loads leading to severe health issues. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how routine captive procedures may influence parasite infections. In this study, we exposed captive bred tokay geckos ( Gekko gecko) to two stressors common in the reptile trade, cohabitation with a novel conspecific and a change in diet. We tested their effect on fecal oxyurid output compared to a control group as well as their combined effect. We found that a single stressor had no effect on fecal parasite load while both combined did significantly increase parasite load. However, we did not find a detectable change in the lizards’ general condition. Our study shows that seemingly minor changes in housing and husbandry can exert stress and increase parasite load in tokay geckos. Further studies are needed to determine which other procedures (e.g. confinement, transport, novel environments) affect health and when combined could lead to more severe changes in health in reptiles. Summary: Many reptiles are infected with parasites that can lead to health issues. Routine husbandry procedures such as new conspecifics and diet are stressful and lead to a higher parasite load in geckos.