Proving your tracking data are clean

Reviewers increasingly ask how good your tracking was. Have the answer ready.

• Lost frames: report the percentage per trial and set an exclusion threshold before you start.
• Jumps: flag any position that moves impossibly fast between frames.
• Calibration: record the arena diameter and scale for every session.
• Blinding: automatic tracking helps, but keep group labels hidden during set-up too.
• Raw data: keep the raw tracks so analyses can be re-run, and share them where you can (FAIR principles).
• Reporting: follow the ARRIVE guidelines, software name and version included.