Preregister your research
Preregistration of a study, registered report or clinical trial involves submitting your research plans to a public registry before starting your research or collecting any data.
By openly sharing study plans and protocols, preregistration:
- enhances transparency, reduces bias and increases the rigour and reproducibility of research
- prevents selective reporting of favourable outcomes and ensure research is conducted as intended
- informs other researchers about the current state of research in a discipline and fosters collaboration.
Research studies
Register your study
Preregister your research plan and details of your study, including systematic reviews, to a public registry before collecting any data.
| Registry | Discipline | For |
|---|---|---|
| Protocols.io | All |
|
| Open Science Framework Registries (OSF Registries) | All |
|
| Prospero | Health, social care, public health, education, crime, justice, international development | Systematic reviews |
| PreReg: Preregistrations in Psychology | Psychology | Pregistration of studies |
| American Economic Association's registry for randomised controlled trials (AEA RCT registry) | Economics and other social sciences | Randomised controlled trials |
Preregistered studies can be assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for linking and sharing.
Update your preregistered study
Once a plan is submitted it cannot be altered. Some registries may allow:
- updates to be made while recording each amended version to ensure changes are clearly recorded
- allow embargoes until the study is published.
Registered reports
Registered reports offer several advantages including reducing publication bias, improving study rigor through early feedback and increasing transparency.
Before you start your research
Submit your research plan to a participating journal for peer-review, including your:
- research question
- hypothesis
- literature review
- detailed study design.
The journal can then provide ‘in principle acceptance’ to publish your findings regardless of whether they confirm or contradict your hypothesis. This helps reduce bias and pressure to only present positive results.
Once the study is completed
Submit the final results and publication for peer-review to confirm the study followed the accepted plan and the conclusions are reasonable based on the data collected.
Clinical trials
Register your clinical trial before the study begins (before recruiting participants) in a public registry such as:
- Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
- International Clinical Trials Registry Platform by the World Health Organisation
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- EU Clinical Trials Register
- Clinical Trials Registry India.
The study design, goals and methodology will be available to researchers, health care providers and potential participants.
Preregistration of clinical trials is established open research practice in health sciences that enhances the integrity of medical research:
- funders such as the National Health and Medical Research Council mandate preregistration
- publishers may require it for publication.