A presentation on pre-registering research, which I presented at the University of Leeds event "Beyond open access: how, why and what's next for open research at Leeds?"

1. Pre-Registering
Your Studies:
What, Why and
How?
Kelly Lloyd
PhD student
Leeds Institute of Health Sciences
@KellyElizaLloyd

2. • Time stamped document detailing your proposed study’s design,
methods and analysis plan
• Submitted to a public registry before data collection
What is pre-registering?
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/more-and-more-scientists-are-preregistering-their-studies-should-you

3. What is pre-registering?
Design study Submit Collect and
analyse data

4. Why?
• More robust study planning
• A reminder to your future self
• Increases the transparency of your research:
• Makes clear which hypotheses are pre-planned (confirmatory)
and which are exploratory
• A written record of the initial analysis plan for the study

5. • Can reduce (or at least make transparent) some of these questionable
research practices:
Chambers et al. 2014
Why?

6. • There is a replication crisis in research
• Method sections are often too vague to enable precise replication
Why?
• Increasing transparency will help future replication studies

7. • Open Science Framework preregistration: https://osf.io/prereg/
• Create an OSF account and project page, and then preregister your study
How?

8. • Multiple templates from OSF:
How?

9. • OSF also has a blank template you can populate with community-
made templates, e.g.:
• Qualitative preregistration template (Hartman, Kern, Mellor):
https://osf.io/j7ghv/
• Secondary data preregistration template: https://osf.io/x4gzt/
• fMRI preregistration template: https://osf.io/6juft/
How?

10. • If you’ve created an ethics or grant application, then you
already have a written plan – now you just need to upload
it!
Is this a lot of extra work?
• It may take longer at the beginning, but it will help the
study progress more smoothly

11. • I couldn’t forget what decisions were made, as it was
all right there in my preregistration document
• I felt more confident carrying out my study as I had a set
plan
• Pre-registering my Master’s dissertation helped to speed
up the research process
Benefits I’ve found with pre-registering

12. • Publication format where you submit your introduction, methods and
analysis plan to a journal for peer-review (stage 1)
https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports
• If accepted, the study will be published regardless of the findings –
as long as it follows the plan (stage 2)
One step further: Registered Reports

13. • More likely to publish null (nonsignificant) results
Benefits of Registered Reports
https://psyarxiv.com/3czyt
Allen & Mehler 2018
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Registered Reports Traditional literature
Publication of null results
% of hypotheses not supported
Estimated 5-20% of null findings
Estimated 61% of null findings

14. • You’ll get feedback on your methods and analysis plan BEFORE
you conduct the study
• You know already that your study will be published
• Which could also make the publication process quicker!
Benefits of Registered Reports
• Currently over 250 journals offer the Registered Report format:
• https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports

15. • https://www.cos.io/initiatives/prereg
• https://www.ukrn.org/primers/
Preregister your studies at Open Science Framework:
• https://osf.io/prereg/
Template preregistration forms you can use:
• https://osf.io/zab38/wiki/home/?view
Additional resources
Further information on preregistrations: