How to approach preregistration

Whether your work is confirmatory or exploratory, preregistering keeps a permanent record of your ideas at the design stage, before you start the analysis.

The process of preregistering involves answering a series of questions about your research. There are many templates of preregistration forms [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] available. In the next activity, we will walk you through some typical questions.

When answering the questions, you should aim to be as precise and detailed as possible. By doing this, you are being transparent about your research plans from the outset. The benefits include establishing a clear and detailed plan for your research, that you can revisit and update as you make your way through your research project.

A detailed and comprehensive preregistration demonstrates that you haven’t engaged in the questionable research practices that you learned about last week, and can be useful for reviewers and readers when they assess the integrity of your research.