Certification - Requirements

Each candidate must meet two specific requirements before taking the certifying examination:

Completed one of the following:
1. Training Program Option:
  Have completed a training program in laboratory animal medicine following receipt of the veterinary medical degree (DVM_
  1. Training program must be completed by the time of the application deadline.
  2. Training programs should be structured to meet the ACLAM Training Program Minimal Standards.
  3. Training programs must be two or more years in duration.
  4. A Diplomate must serve as director of a training program and the training program must be recognized by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. An applicant is ineligible to apply under the training program option if their training has not been formally recognized by ACLAM.
  5. Currently recognized Training Programs in Laboratory Animal Medicine.
2. Experience Option:
  Applicants may qualify to take the examination after a minimum of six years relevant, full-time experience in laboratory animal medicine, at the time of the exam, following receipt of the veterinary medical degree (DVM).
  1. Experience is comprised of both a time and quality component. It is defined as the direct performance and/or participation in activities that characterize the laboratory animal specialist. These activities include: clinical medicine involving laboratory animal species, animal resource management, technician/investigator teaching and training, consultation on laboratory animal medicine topics, formal teaching and research, and participation in organized laboratory animal medicine.
    Qualifying experience need not include all these activities, but engaging in only one or two of the activities may not be considered as qualifying.
  2. Graduates of foreign schools not accredited or approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association should submit an Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduate (ECFVG) certificate, or evidence they are qualified to practice veterinary medicine in some state, province, territory, or possession of the United States, Canada or other country. All times for schooling and experience are calculated up to the time of the application deadline.
  3. Credit calculations:
    1. Part-time experience will be calculated based on the portion of time that was spent in laboratory animal medicine related work; e.g., if an individual worked half-time for 1 year in a laboratory animal medicine related-position, 6 months of full time laboratory animal medicine experience can be claimed (50% x 12 mo.)
    2. Non-laboratory animal professional experience (private veterinary practice, meat inspector, teaching non-laboratory animal medicine subjects, etc.), is given experience credit on the basis of one month laboratory animal medicine experience for every 6 months of non-laboratory animal medicine professional experience. However, no more than 12 months credit can be given.
    3. The remaining five years must be full time laboratory animal medicine experience. An individual must be engaged in laboratory animal medicine for at least 20% effort to receive any credit.
    4. Experience credit will be given for graduate or post-veterinary medical degree research programs (other than formal laboratory animal medicine programs) that include the use of animals. Credit will be given on the basis of one month credit for each two months of the program up to a maximum of 24 months credit.
Published a first author original article:

As part of the credentialing process to enable a candidate to sit for the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) certifying examination, the candidate must be a first author of an original research article which demonstrates application of the scientific method in the biological sciences (or in the physical sciences or other scientific area if relevant to laboratory animal medicine). Further, the article must be published in a peer-reviewed journal and be fully accepted at the time of application to the College.

A candidate can acquire the necessary skills, experience and knowledge to become an ACLAM Diplomate through recognized training programs or by extensive clinical experience in the field, but in all instances there must be a way for a candidate to demonstrate that he/she has not only a full appreciation but a clear working knowledge of the scientific method used to explore questions in the biological sciences. As a Diplomate, he/she will be asked to provide support for and often engage in research programs as a principal investigator, co-investigator or as a support member of a research team. The Diplomate will also be asked to evaluate research proposals as part of his/her institutional responsibilities. Moreover, the Diplomate must be able to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of studies in the peer-reviewed literature. By being a first author of an original scientific paper published in literature that is reviewed by other researchers (peers) and found worthy of publication provides evidence, albeit indirect, that the candidate has mastered the scientific method by formulating an original question, designing a study to answer that question, conducting a study, analyzing the results, and relating those results back to the existing body of knowledge.

The ACLAM publication requirement relates only to demonstration of an understanding of the scientific method, and does not necessarily relate to application of the scientific method to a question in a field relevant to laboratory animal medicine. ACLAM recognizes that scientists in contemporary biological research frequently examine questions at the cellular and/or molecular levels and that the investigation of biological processes by the scientific method is similar regardless of the organism or system studied. For these reasons, ACLAM will accept publications relating to a variety of subjects such as molecular mechanisms, cultured cells, human subjects, or other organisms (including, for example, invertebrates and single celled organisms) outside of the animal species most commonly used in biomedical research. In addition, publications in the physical sciences or other scientific area may be acceptable. However, unlike publications in the biological sciences, these publications must meet the additional test of relevance to laboratory animal medicine. For example, a study examining temperature and humidity monitoring and control systems might be acceptable only if it is in the context of a laboratory animal facility or housing system design. In all cases, the scientific method must be followed as further defined below.

There are a number of different classifications of publications that appear in the literature and all make a contribution to the total body of knowledge in the biological sciences. Each type of publication requires certain skills and the ability to express oneself clearly in writing. One type of publication is a review article which requires the author to review, as the name implies, existing literature on a subject, organize the information, and present it an orderly fashion such that the important components of individual studies are complied into a realistic picture of the subject being reviewed. The author usually tries to point out associations between studies as well as differences. There is often a critical evaluation of the quality of the study as compared to others in terms of consideration of variables, methodology, analysis of data, and whether conclusions are truly supported by the data. Such a review usually encompasses a substantial body of papers and as such the reference list often serves as an important tool for others who wish to conduct an independent review of the subject. Such a publication does not demonstrate many of the components of scientific method. While it provides a review of the literature and a discussion of the topic at hand, there is no single hypothesis or question to be answered, there is no study design, and there are no data collected in a form that it can be statistically analyzed or otherwise compared. For these reasons, review articles are not considered acceptable publications for the purposes of ACLAM credentials.

A second type of publication is a case report which often appears in the medical or veterinary medical literature. Case reports are by their very nature descriptive in that they present information gleaned from clinical observations or collection of diagnostic information such as microbiological or clinical chemistry values that characterize a clinical condition in one or more individuals. In some instances, many individuals are examined and extensive data are collected on a variety of parameters relevant to the case. However, regardless of the number of individuals examined or the amount of data collected, c ase reports do not have a clearly stated hypothesis in which there is a direct statement of the question to be answered and a stated comparison between two or more groups. There is no statistical comparison conducted between groups. In some case reports, there is an implied comparison to historical values; but case reports do not have concurrent controls maintained under defined conditions that are used for comparison to affected or treated groups. In case reports, conclusions are usually presumptive in that there is no statistical basis for establishing that they do not occur by chance or due to causes that could not be ruled out by the conditions under which the data was collected. For these reasons, case reports are not considered acceptable publications for the purposes of ACLAM credentials.

One type of publication that may contain all of the elements of a scientific paper is an epidemiologic research paper. Examples of such publications include prospective cohort studies or retrospective (case-control) studies. However, it is very important for the purposes of ACLAM credentialing to differentiate retrospective epidemiologic studies from retrospective case reports as mentioned above, or from retrospective reviews of medical records. Retrospective studies cannot be considered acceptable unless they contain all of the elements listed (introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, etc) and have a clearly stated or inferred hypothesis that is examined by comparison of case and control groups with statistical analysis and comparisons of those groups. If these elements are clearly present, then epidemiologic studies are considered acceptable for the purposes of ACLAM credentials.

An original scientific paper can be conducted either in a clinical setting or in a laboratory setting. The resulting paper, regardless of what setting the study was conducted in, has the same six component parts. These components are as follows: an introduction, a hypothesis, a materials and methods section, a results section, a discussion section, and a conclusion or summary and/or an abstract. The first of these is an introduction that contains information which provides support and serves as a basis for the study. This is usually in the form of a concise review of the pertinent literature that surrounds the question to be explored. The author cites and summarizes key studies that provide the necessary background to the reader. This literature summary and interpretation allows the reader to understand what has led up to the question to be studied and to indicate the relative importance of that question to the body of literature that currently exists. The introduction may point out flaws in the studies that currently exist or confounding variables that were not controlled, but will be addressed in the present study.

The introduction is concluded by a hypothesis that states in one or two declarative sentences the question that the study will address. The hypothesis may mention one or two key measures critical to answering the question, the groundwork for which may have been laid in the introduction. The hypothesis clearly shows that this study design is such that data will be compared between groups and analyzed to provide original information that will lead to the understanding of the subject at hand. It should be noted that if the hypothesis is not clearly stated in those exact terms, for example “The hypothesis of this study was …”, then the hypothesis of the paper should be clearly evident and implied by one of more sentences that can be referred to by the author along with a statement indicating a summary of inferred hypothesis evident in this section of the paper. In these cases, the ACLAM Credentials Committee will determine that there is a clearly stated or inferred hypothesis within the text of the paper.

The materials and methods section of the paper provides a clear description of the experimental design. Publication of the paper suggests that knowledgeable reviewers have analyzed the design and found it acceptable. The design by its nature should take into account likely confounding variables and should utilize relevant parameters to be measured, and adequate numbers of observations should be made that allow statistically significances between groups to be found. This section should also describe in sufficient detail the subjects of the investigation, how samples were collected and analyzed, and the necessary quality controls that were in place to assure that the analysis/data collection being conducted yielded accurate results/measurements. Statistical methods including types of primary and secondary determinations, as well as levels of significance by which statistically significant differences would be ascribed, should also be included.

The publication should also contain a results section in which the results of the study are presented as well as the supporting statistical analyses used to determine whether observed changes were significant and not due simply to chance. All data and comparisons should be accounted for that were described in the experimental design in the materials and methods section.

The paper should contain a discussion section in which the results of the study are related back to the existing literature. The interpretation of the results should be clearly stated in light of their statistical significance. Commonly, the relative importance of the findings is discussed, particularly as the findings would relate to normal metabolism, physiology, or other bodily processes. In some cases interrelationships and mechanisms of action are hypothesized but only to the extent that they can be supported by the data.

The paper should also include a conclusion or summary and/or abstract. These sections should concisely state the findings of the study and place those findings into perspective. In the case of an abstract, there is a concise statement of introductory materials, the hypothesis, a few points about the study design or methods, and a few key results coupled with the concise statement of the findings in the study and their significance.

These six items can be found in any original research article. However, it should be noted that some scientific journals may not always have these items in separate, named sections. For example, some scientific journals have “brief communication” or other formats that require all of these elements within the text of the paper, but do not have the elements as separate, named sections. Other journals may have sections with these basic components which are named slightly differently. In these cases, the ACLAM Credentials Committee will determine that these elements are indeed present within the text. Collectively, the presence of these items serve as basis for decisions rendered by the ACLAM credentialing process as to whether the paper represents an original research article.

An additional requirement is that the candidate be the first author on the publication. By convention, first authorship denotes the individual who was primarily responsible for the conduct of the study and the preparation of the paper resulting from the study. Others may have contributed to this study and may or may not be listed in the authorship in order of their magnitude of contribution to the study. Even though others may have contributed to the study, only the first author will be credited with the publication for the purposes of the ACLAM credentialing process.

As mentioned before, the publication must appear in a peer-reviewed journal; and evidence must be presented that it is accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal without revision at the time of application. The peer-reviewed process is not completed until the paper has been accepted for publication. Hence, submitting work that is in the review process even if conditionally accepted with revisions has not fulfilled the requirement as there is no assurance that the paper will be accepted and published even if the revisions are completed. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the revisions will even be made and the paper subsequently published. Since the paper is such an important part of the credentialing process as it provides physical evidence that the candidate has mastered the scientific method and is capable of conducting original research, the paper must conform to these requirements set forth by the College.

Review ACLAM By-Laws Article II on certification.

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