Detailed product citations help the research community in two ways. Firstly, they make it easy for other scientists to procure the same reagents in order to reproduce the results themselves. Secondly, they act as independent validation that a reagent works in a particular application and with samples derived from a particular species.
Despite this, a recent study found that 54% of resources are not uniquely identifiable in publications, regardless of domain, journal impact, or reporting requirements. This makes it difficult for other scientists to repeat successful protocols and to expand upon published research, while also limiting the amount of independent product validation data available.
Below we have included some guidelines to help you properly cite the antibodies you use.
A detailed antibody citation is composed of three parts: the first part identifies the particular antibody used, the second part identifies the applications / species the antibody was used in / with, and the third part shows that the antibody used has been validated.
To identify a particular antibody you need to include: Full Product Name, Clone Number (if applicable), Manufacturer, Catalogue Number, and Lot Number.
For example: Anti-Myd88 (phospho Tyr257) Antibody from Signalway Antibody should be cited as:
Anti-Myd88 (phospho Tyr257) Antibody (Signalway Antibody, Cat # 12764, Lot # SA1101-5)
While, Anti-ABRA1 Antibody from Antibodies.com should be cited as:
Anti-ABRA1 Antibody [ABRA1-01] (Antibodies.com, Cat # A86190, Lot # X219)
You need to identify the applications / species that a particular antibody was used in / with in either the materials or methods section.
For example, in a Methods section:
Western blotting was carried out using… The following antibodies were used; Anti-ABRA1 Antibody [ABRA1-01] (Antibodies.com, Cat # A86190, Lot # X219) was used with human cells…
And in the Materials:
The following antibodies were used; Anti-ABRA1 Antibody [ABRA1-01] (Antibodies.com, Cat # A86190, Lot # X219) was used for western blotting with human cells…
The final step is to show that a particular antibody has been validated. This can be done by either citing published work or by performing your own validation and including it within the paper.
For example, in a Methods section, with published work:
Western blotting was carried out using… The following antibodies were used; Anti-ABRA1 Antibody [ABRA1-01] (Antibodies.com, Cat # A86190, Lot # X219) was used with human cells as validated in (Reference A)…
And in the Materials using your own validation:
The following antibodies were used; Anti-ABRA1 Antibody [ABRA1-01] (Antibodies.com, Cat # A86190, Lot # X219) was used for western blotting with human cells, as validated in the preliminary work (Fig. 1)…