Ludovic Hermabessiere, Keenan Munno, Samantha N. Athey, Holly A. Nel, Clara Thaysen, Alterra Sanchez, Chelsea M. Rochman, Alexandre Dehaut, Oliver A.H. Jones, Clare Steele, Max Liboiron, Bonnie M. Hamilton, Hannah De Frond, Susanne M. Brander, Vitor Pereira Vaz, Jennifer M. Lynch, Shelly Moore, Win Cowger, Lisa Devriese, Andy M. Booth, Amy Lusher, Andrew B. Gray, Sebastian Primpke, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA, Stiftelsen for INdustriell og TEknisk Forskning Digital [Trondheim] (SINTEF Digital), University of Toronto, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Alfred-Wegener-Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Helgoland, Germany, Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Laboratoire de sécurité des aliments de Maisons-Alfort (LSAl), Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES), Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil, Memorial University, St. John's, NL, Canada, Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), InnovOcean site, Ostend, Belgium, Chemical Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Waimanalo, USA, Center for Marine Debris Research, Hawaii Pacific University, Center for Marine Debris Research, Waimanalo, HI USA, RMIT University, Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS), School of Science, RMIT University, Bundoora West Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA, California State University Channel Islands, San Francisco Estuary Institute, Richmond, CA, USA, University of Maryland College Park, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MD, USA, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences [Birmingham], University of Birmingham [Birmingham], CPER MARCO 2015-2020, ANR Nanoplastics, and ANR-15-CE34-0006,Nanoplastics,Microplastiques, nanoplastiques dans l'environnement marin: caractérisation, impacts et évaluation des risques sanitaires.(2015)
Re-use restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. The ubiquitous pollution of the environment with microplastics - a diverse suite of contaminants - is of growing concern for science and currently receives considerable public, political, and academic attention. The potential impact of microplastics in the environment has prompted a great deal of research in recent years. Many diverse methods have been developed to answer different questions about microplastic pollution, from sources, transport, and fate in the environment, and about effects on humans and wildlife. These methods are often insufficiently described, making studies neither comparable nor reproducible. The proliferation of new microplastic investigations and cross-study syntheses to answer larger scale questions are hampered. We - a diverse group of 23 researchers - think these issues can begin to be overcome through the adoption of a set of reporting guidelines. This collaboration was created using an open science framework that we detail for future use. Here, we suggest harmonized reporting guidelines for microplastic studies in environmental and laboratory settings through all steps of a typical study, including best practices for reporting materials, quality assurance / quality control, data, field sampling, sample preparation, microplastic identification, microplastic categorization, microplastic quantification, and considerations for toxicology studies. We developed three easy to use documents - a detailed document, a checklist, and a mind map - that can be used to quickly reference the reporting guidelines. It is our intention that these reporting guidelines support the annotation, dissemination, interpretation, reviewing, and synthesis of microplastic research. Through open access licensing (CC BY 4.0), these documents aim to increase the validity, reproducibility, and comparability of studies in this field for the benefit of the global community.