Standards in semen examination: publishing reproducible and reliable data based on high-quality methodology
Open accessAbstract
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.
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The development of ISO 23162 gives de facto references for the basic examination of human semen, with wide international consensus.
“The development of ISO 23162 gives de facto references for the basic examination of human semen, with wide international consensus (Björndahl et al., 2022”
From Good practice in laboratory diagnostic andrology: Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists guidelines 2024 (2024) · cites this paper as Björndahl et al., 2022
The 'Appeal to the scientific society involved in Andrology and Reproductive Medicine' section (page unavailable) says that publication of ISO 23162 gives the field de facto reference methods for basic human semen examination. The Abstract (page unavailable) calls ISO 23162 and the WHO manual concordant documents, but the paper does not establish the claimed wide international consensus. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Cites
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BackgroundPromoting an open research culture
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Eisenberg, M. L., Esteves, S. C., Lamb, D. J., Hotaling, J. M., Giwercman, A., Hwang, K., & Cheng, Y.-S. (2023) · Nature Reviews Disease Primers · doi:10.1038/s41572-023-00459-w · Cited by 536 · see citing works
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Björndahl, L., Barratt, C. L. R., Mortimer, D., Agarwal, A., Aitken, R. J., Alvarez, J. G., Aneck-Hahn, N., Arver, S., Baldi, E., Bassas, L., Boitrelle, F., Bornman, R., Carrell, D. T., Castilla, J. A., Cerezo Parra, G., Check, J. H., Cuasnicu, P. S., Darney, S. P., de Jager, C., De Jonge, C. J., Drevet, J. R., Drobnis, E. Z., Du Plessis, S. S., Eisenberg, M. L., Esteves, S. C., Evgeni, E. A., Ferlin, A., Garrido, N., Giwercman, A., Goovaerts, I. G. F., Haugen, T. B., Henkel, R., Henningsohn, L., Hofmann, M.-C., Hotaling, J. M., Jedrzejczak, P., Jouannet, P., Jørgensen, N., Kirkman Brown, J. C., Krausz, C., Kurpisz, M., Kvist, U., Lamb, D. J., Levine, H., Loveland, K. L., McLachlan, R. I., Mahran, A., Maree, L., Martins da Silva, S., Mbizvo, M. T., Meinhardt, A., Menkveld, R., Mortimer, S. T., Moskovtsev, S., Muller, C. H., Munuce, M. J., Muratori, M., Niederberger, C., O’Flaherty, C., Oliva, R., Ombelet, W., Pacey, A. A., Palladino, M. A., Ramasamy, R., Ramos, L., Rives, N., Roldan, E. R., Rothmann, S., Sakkas, D., Salonia, A., Sánchez-Pozo, M. C., Sapiro, R., Schlatt, S., Schlegel, P. N., Schuppe, H.-C., Shah, R., Skakkebæk, N. E., Teerds, K., Toskin, I., Tournaye, H., Turek, P. J., van der Horst, G., Vazquez-Levin, M., Wang, C., Wetzels, A., Zeginiadou, T., & Zini, A.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska University Hospital (SE)
- University of Dundee (GB)
- Oozoa Biomedical Inc. , West Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- University of Newcastle Australia (AU)
- Centro Androgen , La Coruña, Spain
- University of Pretoria (ZA)
- University of Florence (IT)
- Puigvert Foundation (ES)
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
- University of Utah (US)
- Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (ES)
- LAFER Sperm Bank, Tuxpan 10-606, Roma Sur, C.P. 06760, Cuauhtémoc , Mexico City, Mexico
- University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (US)
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
- US EPA , Cary, NC, USA
- Faculty of Health Science, University of Pretoria , Pretoria, South Africa
- University of Minnesota Medical Center, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Missouri (US)
- College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences , Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (BR)
- Democritus University of Thrace (GR)
- University of Padua (IT)
- IVI Foundation, Health Research Institute La Fe , Valencia, Spain
- Lund University (SE)
- Antwerp University Hospital (BE)
- OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University (NO)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US)
- Department of Cell Biology, Poznan University of Medical Science , Poznan, Poland
- Université Paris Descartes (FR)
- Copenhagen University Hospital (DK)
- Centre for Human Reproductive Science (ChRS) , UK
- Institute of Human Genetics (PL)
- Cornell University (US)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Monash University (AU)
- Hudson Institute of Medical Research (AU)
- Assiut University Hospitals (EG)
- University of the Western Cape (ZA)
- Reproductive Medicine Research Group, Division of Systems Medicine, School of Medicine, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, University of Dundee , Dundee, UK
- Population Council (IN)
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
- Stellenbosch University (ZA)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- University of Washington (US)
- Laboratorio de Medicina Reproductiva, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario , Argentina
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- Department of Surgery (Urology Division), McGill University , Montréal, QC, Canada
- Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (ES)
- Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg (BE)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- Bloomfield College (US)
- University of Miami (US)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Inserm (FR)
- Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) , Madrid, Spain
- Fertility Solutions Inc. , Warrensville Heights, OH, USA
- Boston IVF (US)
- Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (IT)
- Department of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Virgen del Rocío University Hospital , Seville, Spain
- Depto de Histologia y Embriología, Facultad de Medicina , Gral. Flores, Uruguay
- University of Münster (DE)
- Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
- Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre (IN)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- World Bank (US)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- The Turek Clinic , San Francisco, CA, USA
- Medical Bioscience, University of the Western Cape , Bellville, South Africa
- IBYME, CONICET-FIBYME , Buenos Aires, Argentina
- The Lundquist Institute (US)
- Radboud University Medical Center (NL)
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
- St Mary's Hospital Centre (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Björndahl, Lars
- ORCID
- Björndahl, Lars
- Barratt, Christopher L R
- Mortimer, David
- Agarwal, Ashok
- Aitken, Robert J
- Alvarez, Juan G
- Aneck-Hahn, Natalie
- Arver, Stefan
- Baldi, Elisabetta
- Bassas, Lluís
- Boitrelle, Florence
- Bornman, Riana
- Carrell, Douglas T
- Castilla, José A
- Cerezo Parra, Gerardo
- Check, Jerome H
- Cuasnicu, Patricia S
- Darney, Sally Perreault
- de Jager, Christiaan
- De Jonge, Christopher J
- Drevet, Joël R
- Drobnis, Erma Z
- Du Plessis, Stefan S
- Eisenberg, Michael L
- Esteves, Sandro C
- Evgeni, Evangelini A
- Ferlin, Alberto
- Garrido, Nicolas
- Giwercman, Aleksander
- Goovaerts, Ilse G F
- Haugen, Trine B
- Henkel, Ralf
- Henningsohn, Lars
- Hofmann, Marie-Claude
- Hotaling, James M
- Jedrzejczak, Piotr
- Jouannet, Pierre
- Jørgensen, Niels
- Kirkman Brown, Jackson C
- Krausz, Csilla
- Kurpisz, Maciej
- Kvist, Ulrik
- Lamb, Dolores J
- Levine, Hagai
- Loveland, Kate L
- McLachlan, Robert I
- Mahran, Ali
- Maree, Liana
- Martins da Silva, Sarah
- Mbizvo, Michael T
- Meinhardt, Andreas
- Menkveld, Roelof
- Mortimer, Sharon T
- Moskovtsev, Sergey
- Muller, Charles H
- Munuce, Maria José
- Muratori, Monica
- Niederberger, Craig
- O’Flaherty, Cristian
- Oliva, Rafael
- Ombelet, Willem
- Pacey, Allan A
- Palladino, Michael A
- Ramasamy, Ranjith
- Ramos, Liliana
- Rives, Nathalie
- Roldan, Eduardo Rs
- Rothmann, Susan
- Sakkas, Denny
- Salonia, Andrea
- Sánchez-Pozo, Maria Cristina
- Sapiro, Rosanna
- Schlatt, Stefan
- Schlegel, Peter N
- Schuppe, Hans-Christian
- Shah, Rupin
- Skakkebæk, Niels E
- Teerds, Katja
- Toskin, Igor
- Tournaye, Herman
- Turek, Paul J
- van der Horst, Gerhard
- Vazquez-Levin, Monica
- Wang, Christina
- Wetzels, Alex
- Zeginiadou, Theodosia
- Zini, Armand
- Venue
- Human Reproduction
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2022-09-16
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2497-2502
- ISSN
- 0268-1161 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2350
- PMC
- PMC9627864
- OpenAlex
- W4296023671
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 13
- FWCI
- 12.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Human Reproduction (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Digital Commons-TMC (Texas Medical Center) (acceptedVersion)
- Figshare (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (acceptedVersion)
- Conicet (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Florence Research (University of Florence) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- UpSpace Institutional Repository (University of Pretoria) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- RISalud Institutional Health Repository of Andalucía (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- Document Server@UHasselt (UHasselt) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele (submittedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Repositorio Hipermedial UNR (Universidad Nacional de Rosario) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- VUBIR (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (submittedVersion)
- Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- NOVA (University of Newcastle Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- World Health Organization
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03HD101650)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Sperm and Testicular Function
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Keywords
- semen analysis, reproducibility, reporting checklist, methodological quality, male infertility, publication guidelines
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Peer Review, Publishing, Semen, Reproducibility of Results, Semen Analysis
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