The term ‘Pilot Study’ is misused in veterinary medicine: a critical assessment

Authors commonly use the term ‘Pilot Study’ in the veterinary literature. The term has a specific definition in medical literature, but is not defined in veterinary literature. Therefore, we sought to examine the frequency of the use of the term and the characteristics of studies using the term in the article title, and derive the intended meaning of the term. We identified all articles in veterinary literature using the term in the article title between 2008 and 2017. We then examined specific characteristics of articles published between 2008 and 2012. We found use of the term is increasing (P