Using reporting guidelines to improve reproducibility of X-mas tree meringues - Constant Vinatier

Описание: Abstract: Objectives: To test whether improving a Christmas tree meringue recipe using reporting guidelines yields more appealing and sweeter meringues. Design: A prospective, superiority, single-blind, cluster-randomized (1:1) controlled trial Setting: A public participatory event in a large cultural facility in France Participants: Budding chefs with basic culinary skills, possessing the utensils necessary for baking Christmas tree meringues, and not having burned pasta in the past month (for safety reasons). Interventions: Each budding chef was randomized to a standard recipe for making Christmas tree meringues or to the same recipe written in consultation with a professional baker using the TIDieR checklist - a reporting guideline for description of complex interventions - plus a short video tutorial. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was reproducibility in terms of visual aspect as rated by an independent jury which compared the cooked Christmas tree meringues with the recipe picture on a scale from 1 to 10. Secondary outcomes included color, size, taste and survival time in the course of a sale organized as part of the public event. Analyses were performed in intention-to-eat (randomization unit: budding chefs / analysis unit: Christmas trees). Results: 60 budding chefs (30 in each group) baked a total of 845 Christmas tree meringues. There was no significant difference between the groups (mean difference=-0.1; [95%CI -0.99; 0.80]; p-value=0.84; intra-cluster correlation, ICC=0.77) on visual aspect. No difference was found for reproducibility in terms of color (mean difference=-0.31; [95%CI -0.97; 0.35]; p-value=0.35; ICC=0.67) or size (mean difference=-0.17; [95%CI -1.07; 0.73]; p-value=0.71; ICC=0.74). There was no significant difference in terms of taste between the groups (mean difference= -0.55; [95%CI -1.62; 0.52]; p-value=0.31). 400 meringues were sold during the public event with no difference in survival time between groups (hazard ratio= 1.26 [95% CI 0.75–2.09], p-value=0.38) in favor of the control group. Conclusions: Our study failed to demonstrate that an improved recipe using the TIDieR reporting guideline with a video tutorial improved the reproducibility in terms of visual aspect, color, size, taste and sales for Christmas tree meringues. The best way to succeed in baking Christmas tree meringues - and thereby to improve reproducibility of experiments - remains a mystery still to be solved by further explorations.

Bio: Constant completed pharmaceutical study with a specialization in methodology and clinical research through a Master’s degree (Master 2) in Modeling in Clinical Pharmacology and Epidemiology. During this Master’s program, he had the opportunity to meet and then work with Florian Naudet during an internship, where he conducted research on the vibration of effects in network meta-analyses, which also became the subject of the thesis of his pharmacy degree. Constant is now in the second year of his PhD (under the supervision of Florian Naudet), focusing on the impact of open science practices on the reproducibility as part of the OSIRIS project. This is a European-funded project aimed at identifying actions to improve reproducibility while also testing them.