STUDY PRE-

REGISTRATIONBenefits and considerations

THE PROBLEMScience isn’t perfect.

53eig.ht/HackingScience

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

Different types of bias

http://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-016-0021

THE SOLUTIONPre-registration

What is a preregistration?

It’s the introduction and methods section of your future paper.

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

Types of preregistration

1. Reviewed Pre-Registration (RPR aka “Registered Report”)

•Registration is submitted to a journal and reviewed by experts

2. Unreviewed Pre-Registration (UPR)•Pre-registration is deposited in a public or private repository

Reviewed Pre-Registration

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

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

Reviewed Pre-Registration

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.01.006

Unreviewed Pre-Registration Where to submit?

https://aspredicted.org/

https://osf.io/

AsPredicted.org Demo

Benefits for science

•Reduced publication bias

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132382

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

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

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

Q & A

van ’t Veer, 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