Kinematics and behaviour in fish escape responses: guidelines for conducting, analysing and reporting experiments

Work carried out since the late 1970s has provided key insights into the comparative biomechanics, kinematics, behaviour and neurobiology of fish escape responses. An escape response is an ecologically important behaviour used by fishes to evade predation and aggression via rapid swimming movements. With environmental change expected to affect the physiology and biomechanics of aquatic ectotherms, there is a growing interest in understanding how environmental stressors affect the swimming performance and behaviour of fishes during escape responses, particularly in the context of predator–prey interactions. As the study of fish swimming continues to expand, there have been repeated calls to standardise experiments and reporting practices to facilitate integrative and comparative studies. Here, we provide a set of practical guidelines for conducting, analysing and reporting experiments on escape responses in fish, including a reporting checklist to assist authors undertaking these experiments. These resources will facilitate executing and reporting escape response experiments in a rigorous and transparent fashion, helping to advance the study of fish swimming in an era of rapid environmental change.