Transparency and Reporting in the Evaluation of PD1 by Flow Cytometry

Transparent and reproducible reporting is essential in flow cytometry, particularly in cancer research where it is used to evaluate biomarkers like PD1. However, inadequate reporting remains a significant concern. In this study, we conducted a methodological review of 100 recent manuscripts from various journals that assessed PD1 expression by flow cytometry in cancer. We evaluated reporting across six domains: methods, dotplot availability, gating strategy, robustness of analysis, figure presentation, and data availability. We found that compliance with basic standards was suboptimal, with only 35%–70% of manuscripts meeting these criteria across different domains. While reagent and device reporting was strong (~90%), transparency regarding key data, such as representative PD1 dotplots and complete gating sequences, was lacking. Contrary to our initial expectations, journal impact factor and whether a journal was focused on cytometry did not correlate consistently with reporting quality. Our findings highlight an urgent need for authors to improve their reporting practices, for reviewers to increase their vigilance, and for journal editors to enforce minimal reporting standards.