# ConductScience Rotarod Test Analyzer: method and validation record

This record fixes the calculation behind the free Rotarod Test Analyzer at https://conductscience.com/tools/rotarod-test-analyzer, and the worked examples that check it.

## What the tool computes

From the latency to fall of each trial, typed in or uploaded as a CSV:

- daily mean latency per animal and group learning curves;
- RPM at fall on an accelerating rod, per trial and averaged per day;
- the area under each animal's learning curve (AUC) and its group comparison;
- each animal's longest latency and its group comparison.

## Files

| File | Contents |
| --- | --- |
| `METHODS.md` | Formulas, conventions, references, and changes from the page before this record |
| `cases.json`, `cases.csv` | The worked examples: inputs, expected outputs and where each expected answer comes from |
| `validation-report.json` | The engine's output for every case, pass or fail, and the SHA-256 of each engine file |
| `engine/` | The calculation source files the report fingerprints (when included) |
| `data_dictionary.csv` | Columns of `cases.csv` |
| `CITATION.cff`, `LICENSE`, `MANIFEST.json` | Citation metadata, licence, and byte count and SHA-256 of every file |

## How to cite

ConductScience. ConductScience Rotarod Test Analyzer [software]. 2026. https://doi.org/10.55157/csd.tool.rotarod.2026.001

In a methods section: "Latency to fall was averaged per animal and day; RPM at fall was calculated per trial from the acceleration schedule, and the area under each animal's learning curve by the trapezoid rule, with the ConductScience Rotarod Test Analyzer (https://doi.org/10.55157/csd.tool.rotarod.2026.001)."