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Sabine Barthold
Moderator
Post 1

23 August 2019, 9:18 AM

Have you considered preregistering studies?

Have you ever preregistered your studies or do you consider to do so in the future? Tell us if and why or why not!

Veronica Phillips Post 2 in reply to 1

28 October 2019, 11:54 AM Edited by the author on 28 October 2019, 11:55 AM

As a medical librarian, most of my recent publications are systematic reviews, which I conduct with researchers who have requested my involvement in designing the strategy, and conducting the database searches (i.e. the data collection component of the review). It is a requirement of all systematic reviews that a protocol be registered in advance, usually, but not always, on the website Prospero. The protocol includes proposed methodology (including search terms, names of databases to be searched, any limits to be applied to the search, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and statistical analysis).

For this reason, it is an expectation of my discipline that all studies of this nature be preregistered, and a link to the protocol be included in any resulting publications. Therefore, my decision to preregister is influenced in a large part by the conventions and expectations of my discipline.

Charlotte Coales Post 3 in reply to 1

28 October 2019, 5:01 PM

I am not a researcher (I work in public engagement with research) so I have never preregistered and am unlikely to in the future!  

However, now being aware of preregistration, I am going to ask around and see how many of our academics have done this/are aware of it.  My research institute is affiliated with UCL and it's interesting to read about their involvement/support for it... although it seems to largely be within their psychology department.

Anna Krzak Post 11 in reply to 3

31 October 2019, 11:47 AM

Same here. I am not a researcher but work in a research office supporting the implementation of various OA policies. It's so interesting to learn about the other aspects of Open Science!

Sara Hanson Post 4 in reply to 1

29 October 2019, 1:24 AM

I have not preregistered a study, mostly because prior to this course, I was not familiar with the process, or what it entails. My biggest concerns would be protection of my ideas prior to publication, how preregistration is viewed by my peers, and whether and how it will support my career goals. 

Zuzana Hammerova Post 20 in reply to 4

3 November 2019, 10:05 PM

Hi,

I have the same point of view.

Rolando Trejos Saucedo Post 5 in reply to 1

29 October 2019, 1:00 PM

Have you ever preregistered a study?

Yes I have. As I work with an independent research center and my college center for graduate research I do have to pre-register every single work. Wether it is papers, abstracts, review journals, and original research papers.

Emma Dorris Post 6 in reply to 1

29 October 2019, 1:29 PM

I'm familiar with preregistration but have never done one. Nor do I know anyone in my field who has done one. I believe some journals will even commit to publishing your results (positive or negative) if you pre-register with them, so I don't really know why I haven't yet. Time perhaps? But that's an easy out for not doing most things. Will actively consider it for the next confirmatory study.

Olivia Tort Post 7 in reply to 1

29 October 2019, 3:09 PM

I learnded about preregistration within this course. I will consider to go through in future, but the main bottleneck (I believe) is to convince the group leader that this is a good idea. 

Hope Amos Post 22 in reply to 7

5 November 2019, 11:21 AM

I agree, I hadn't heard of it and am not sure what the policy of my research group would be.

Jennifer Leggat Post 8 in reply to 1

30 October 2019, 7:37 AM

I had never even heard of preregistration prior to this course! I am a first year PhD student so admittedly my experience is incredibly limited, but I think it's a real shame that preregistration is not more widely publicised/mandatory, as it is likely to incentivise transparency in scientific research. I also think it would be beneficial in terms of allowing publication of negative results. Currently, it's likely that failed studies are repeated multiple times by different groups because studies that don't work are generally not published! If it were compulsory to preregister and to note all results from that study, we would minimise the practice of endlessly repeating experiments as negative results would also be easily accessible. 

James Mwamodenyi Post 9 in reply to 1

30 October 2019, 9:51 AM

I had never heard of preregistration of a study. I am a first year PhD student. I am looking forward to learning more about the benefits and demerits of it.

Deirdre Winrow Post 10 in reply to 1

30 October 2019, 1:13 PM

I have not preregistered a study as I am still very early in my career. I had also never heard of doing so. I will definitely keep it in mind going forward, however.

Sam Groves Post 12 in reply to 1

31 October 2019, 3:17 PM

I'm still an undergraduate, so a short while from publishing anything. I am involved in a project currently  however I think preregistration is being avoided as it is longitudinal and very complicated, so methods are being evolved at all points. Assuming my research would be a less complex nature, I would definitely aim to either preregister and/or publish prescripts before data collection, as I feel doing either makes your intentions/methods public opening you up to both helpful criticism and the potential to be held accountable later down the line!

Ciara Lynch Post 13 in reply to 1

31 October 2019, 3:24 PM

I had never even heard of this method of publishing prior to this course, but it definitely seems worthwhile. I'm going to have talks with the others in my lab group to see if they have opinions on such, and will definitely consider conducting a Registered Report for my next experiment. It mainly seems to be in the interest of maintaining scientific integrity and that can only be a good thing I feel.

Joanne Bakker Post 14 in reply to 1

1 November 2019, 8:58 AM

I haven´t preregistered any study yet. I knew that it is a requirement for clinical trials, but until doing this course, I was not aware of it being an option for fundamental/basic research, which is what I conduct. I do have some concerns about how this would work in my field though, as a lot of the work is exploratory by definition, and one study (published paper) consists of many different experiments & methods..

Laura Lahti Post 15 in reply to 1

1 November 2019, 12:05 PM

I hadn't heard of it before, and I'm not sure if it's applicable in my field (developmental neurobiology, basic research). When we start a study, we have a vague idea where to go, and sort of "main lines" or major experiments planned, but as the experiments go along, and novel findings come up, we might end up somewhere else entirely than we had initially expected. 

The whole setup is different from, say, reporting the results from clinical trials, or sampling some patient data using a specific statistical method. 

I don't think that I will preregister my experiments, to be honest.

Nawel Trabelsi Post 16 in reply to 1

1 November 2019, 1:17 PM

I had never preregistered a study, and throught this course i learn an another way of open science. I find it interesting and I will consider to go through in the future.

Subrat Behera Post 17 in reply to 1

2 November 2019, 5:38 AM

Honestly, although I heard about preregistration but lacks detailed information on it. I am a first year PhD researcher and yet to finalize my research idea. I will definitely preregister my research.

Francisco Giner Calatayud Post 18 in reply to 1

2 November 2019, 10:50 AM


I am not a researcher. My professional tasks are more aimed at management than research (although I collaborate in research projects). Until now I did not know this possibility but I think it is very interesting and I want to know more about it to be able to advise well the researchers of my work center.

Mary Anderson-Glenna Post 19 in reply to 1

2 November 2019, 11:51 PM

I am a Research administrator. We are currently preparing for the open science requirements in Research proposals and I see this pre registration as a part of the process of open science which Our researchers will need to paricipate in more and more in the future. It also begs the question in my mind, where are reseachers themselves Learning about the changes and how are todays PhD students being prepared for this? Like another administrator on this course, I will start asking around in my organisation. 


Menna Brown Post 21 in reply to 19

5 November 2019, 9:43 AM

I have pre registered systematic reviews I have conducted and we are now expected to pre register our research studies. It was an easy process and helped with the planning.

Aina Estany Post 23 in reply to 21

5 November 2019, 3:43 PM

I am not a researcher as I work in stakeholder engagement for collective reflections and co-creative participatory processes. I had never heard of pre-registration before, but I think it is a very interesting initiative. I will spread the word within the research institute where I work.


Maru Martinez Post 25 in reply to 19

11 November 2019, 11:00 PM

I have never preregistered a study - I am currently involved in science administration/communication and not doing research, though I did previously - but I think it's a great idea to help transparency, accountability, ensure negative results are published... I do training to PhD students and tell them about preregistration, although I am not sure how many journals do registered reports....? Definetely something to spread.

Lisa Keenan Post 24 in reply to 1

8 November 2019, 6:24 PM

It is not something that I was very familiar with for previous research projects, but I plan to preregister upcoming studies as soon as possible.

Jane Howard Post 26 in reply to 1

20 November 2019, 9:32 AM

I have considered pre registering studies, however my supervisor seems less keen on the idea. I feel that there is very little known about the area, therefore it is seen as a less desirable avenue of publication. I am also not 100% sure which journals offer this service. 

Juan Sarasua Post 27 in reply to 1

26 November 2019, 3:44 PM
I'm not a researcher but a communications officer/journalist. The basics behind the idea of preregistration is of value to a journalistic project because it can help you confirm or deny your hypothesis/ideas and also because it can save you a lot of time. 
I've worked with many scientists all my professional life and I clearly see that the main burden come from  asocial point of view. Scientists are more afraid of being scooped or that someone else might find an error in their experiments than excited for the benefits of sharing their data. In science, shame is truly an effective deterrent. 

Wayne Peters Post 28 in reply to 1

16 December 2019, 11:51 AM

I am not a researcher, I work in research support. I have to confess I wasn't aware of preregistration - this is something I will need to explore further as it hasn't featured in the literature on open science that I have read.