A user-friendly randomization tool
RandoMice is a free tool developed to create well-balanced blocks of experimental units and randomly assign those blocks to experimental groups. Using the software, one can even take randomization one step further by creating groups that are well-balanced for one of more variables, such as body weight and age. For example, it would not be desired to have mice with greatest body weight in the same group if one aims to identify a treatment for obesity. With RandoMice, one can divide experimental units into groups based on those variables, and subsequently randomly allocate a treatment to the groups. This way researchers can ensure that groups are well balanced for variables that may influence the outcome of an experiment, making research more reliable.
Installing RandoMice
A description and validation of the software has been published in: van Eenige R, Verhave PS, Koemans PJ, Tiebosch IACW, Rensen PCN, Kooijman S (2020). RandoMice, a novel, user-friendly randomization tool in animal research.
PLoS ONE
15(8): e0237096.
The source code of RandoMice is published on
GitHub under the “copyleft” GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3), allowing anyone to freely use the program in the hope that it will be useful as a tool to refine experiments with living organisms more easily thereby reducing the number of animals needed.
A .zip file containing the latest installable version of RandoMice for Microsoft Windows can be downloaded from
the releases page
on GitHub. Instructions for installation, together with a user guide, can be found on
the readme page.
Citation
van Eenige R, Verhave PS, Koemans PJ, Tiebosch IACW, Rensen PCN, Kooijman S (2020). RandoMice, a novel, user-friendly randomization tool in animal research. PLoS ONE
15(8): e0237096.
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https://github.com/RvE54/RandoMice/releases/