Preregistration Is Hard, And Worthwhile

Brian A Nosek; Emorie D Beck; Lorne Campbell; Jessica K Flake; Tom E Hardwicke; David T Mellor; Anna E van 't Veer; Simine Vazire

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2019.07.009

Preregistration Is Hard, And Worthwhile

Trends Cogn Sci. 2019 Oct;23(10):815-818. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.07.009. Epub 2019 Aug 14.

Authors

Brian A Nosek¹, Emorie D Beck², Lorne Campbell³, Jessica K Flake⁴, Tom E Hardwicke⁵, David T Mellor⁶, Anna E van 't Veer⁷, Simine Vazire⁸

Affiliations

¹ Center for Open Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. Electronic address: nosek@virginia.edu.
² Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
³ University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁵ Meta-Research Innovation Center Berlin (METRIC-B), QUEST Center for Transforming Biomedical Research, Berlin Institute of Health, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁶ Center for Open Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
⁷ Methodology and Statistics unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
⁸ University of California, Davis, CA, USA.

PMID: 31421987
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.07.009

Abstract

Preregistration clarifies the distinction between planned and unplanned research by reducing unnoticed flexibility. This improves credibility of findings and calibration of uncertainty. However, making decisions before conducting analyses requires practice. During report writing, respecting both what was planned and what actually happened requires good judgment and humility in making claims.

Keywords: confirmatory research; exploratory research; preregistration; reproducibility; transparency.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Registries*
Reproducibility of Results
Research Design
Research*

Grants and funding

R24 AG048124/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States