This document discusses the benefits and considerations of pre-registration for scientific studies. It addresses common misconceptions about pre-registration and provides guidance on how to properly pre-register a study. Pre-registration involves outlining the key elements of a study such as hypotheses, methods, and analysis plan prior to conducting the research. This helps reduce biases and distinguishes exploratory from confirmatory research. The document recommends pre-registering studies using public repositories like AsPredicted.org to increase transparency and reproducibility in science.

1. STUDY
PRE-REGISTRATION
Benefits and considerations

2. THE PROBLEM
Science isn’t perfect.

3. 53eig.ht/HackingScience

4. The first principle is that you must not fool
yourself and you are the easiest person to
fool. Richard P. Feynman

5. Different types of bias
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-016-0021

6. THE SOLUTION
Pre-registration

7. What is a preregistration?
It’s the introduction and methods section
of your future paper.

8. What should be included in a
preregistration?
• Hypotheses
• Predictions
• Models
• Dependent variables
• ROIs
• Confounds
• Exclusion criteria
• Feature definition (“functional connectivity defined as…”)
• Analysis plan
• Statistical techniques (algorithms)
• Multiple comparison correction
• Parameters

9. Types of preregistration
1. Reviewed Pre-Registration
(RPR aka “Registered Report”)
•Registration is submitted to a journal and reviewed
by experts
1. Unreviewed Pre-Registration (UPR)
•Pre-registration is deposited in a public or private
repository

10. Reviewed Pre-Registration
https://www.elsevier.com/editors-update/story/peer-review/cortexs-registered-reports

11. Reviewed Pre-Registration
• Advances in Methodologies and Practices in
Psychological Science
• AIMS Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior and Cognition
• Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Cognition and Emotion
• Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
• Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology
• Cortex
• Drug and Alcohol Dependence
• European Journal of Neuroscience
• Experimental Psychology
• Health Psychology Bulletin
• Human Movement Science
• Infancy
• International Journal of Psychophysiology
• Journal of Business and Psychology
• Journal of Cognitive Enhancement
• Journal of European Psychology Students
• Journal of Experimental Political Science
• Journal of Media Psychology
• Journal of Personnel Psychology
• Journal of Research in Personality
• Judgment and Decision Making
• Management and Organization Review
• Memory
• Nature Human Behaviour
• NFS Journal
• Nicotine &Tobacco Research
• Perspectives on Psychological Science
• Royal Society Open Science
• Stress and Health
• The Leadership Quarterly
• Work, Aging and Retirement

12. Reviewed Pre-Registration
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.01.006

13. Unreviewed Pre-Registration
Where to submit?
https://aspredicted.org/
https://osf.io/

14. AsPredicted.org
Demo

15. Benefits for science
• Reduced publication bias
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132382

16. Benefits for science
•Reduced reporting bias
•Clear distinction between exploratory and
confirmatory research
•Prioritizing theory and method
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132382

17. Benefits for the researcher
•Pre-analysis review feedback (RPR only)
•Guaranteed publication (RPR only)
•Clarity among collaborators
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132382

18. Pre registration misconceptions
• It’s too much work
• It does not allow for exploratory science
• It will flood the literature with “boring” null results
• My reviewers will scoop me
• It forces researchers to stick to their hypotheses instead of listening
to the data

19. Q & A

20. van ’tVeer, A. E., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2016). Pre-registration in social
psychology—A discussion and suggested template. Journal of
experimental social psychology, 67, 2–12.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.03.004