Dynamic recrystallization (DRX) often takes place during hot deformation of metallic materials, which then exerts significant influence on the final microstructures and mechanical properties of the formed components. A considerable number of published papers related to DRX, however, suffer from non-negligible flaws originating from inappropriate experimental design. In this paper, the sources of these flaws are critically assessed, including the misinterpretation of DRX mechanisms, the strain localization on tested samples, the neglected post dynamic recrystallization and possible phase transformations which mask the real hot deformation microstructure. Solutions to eliminate or quantify these disturbing factors during DRX studies are suggested, yielding more accurate approaches to investigate DRX behaviour of metallic materials. (c) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).