Quality assurance mechanisms for the unregulated research environment

Discussions on research quality and reproducibility are appearing in the pages of scientific journals with heightened significance and gaining media attention. Many institutions have developed guidelines to address the topic of quality in basic research, but questions remain about how best to implement and monitor compliance. Herein we present quality assurance (QA) mechanisms developed specifically for the unregulated discovery research environment to preempt growing concerns arising in both academia and industry for data-driven applications of biotechnology.