Abstract
In psychology, a Registered Reports system is key to preventing questionable research practices. Under this system, manuscripts, including their detailed protocols (i.e., hypothesis, experimental design, sample size, and methods of statistical analysis), are reviewed prior to data collection. If a protocol manuscript is accepted, publication of the full manuscript including the results and discussion is guaranteed in principle regardless of whether the collected data support the registered hypothesis. However, this assurance of publication might be broken under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Begrudging withdrawal of an accepted protocol manuscript due to a difficulty to meet the deadline by compelling reasons (e.g., pandemic) has occurred. The present paper reports the first author’s real-life experience related to the collapse of the assurance of publication in the Registered Reports system and discusses the disbenefits of this collapse. Furthermore, we propose the implementation of a journal section specific to protocol manuscripts as a solution to the crisis of the Registered Reports system.
Highlights
Reviewed by: Ricardo Arencibia-Jorge, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico Cristian Berrío Zapata, Federal University of Pará, Brazil
The present paper reports the first author’s real-life experience related to the collapse of the assurance of publication in the Registered Reports system and discusses the disbenefits of this collapse
We propose the implementation of a journal section specific to protocol manuscripts as a solution to the crisis of the Registered Reports system
Summary
Received: 16 September 2020 Accepted: 10 November 2020 Published: 24 November 2020. Citation: Sasaki K and Yamada Y (2020) Boosting Immunity of the Registered Reports System in Psychology to the Pandemic. A pre-registration system is one way to prevent QRPs (Nosek et al, 2018) In such a system, researchers register the detailed protocol of their studies (e.g., hypothesis, experimental design, sample size, and statistical analysis) on designated websites (e.g., Open Science Framework and AsPredicted) before they begin their experiments. Researchers can register multiple similar protocols at numerous registration systems simultaneously and adopt only the suitable pre-registration (Ikeda et al, 2019) These pre-reg hackings (and QRPs) might occur because of the “positive results win” mode of thinking widespread throughout the science community (Yamada, 2018), whereby a paper with positive or challenging results will be published smoothly. The pre-registration system has several drawbacks and cannot completely prevent QRPs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
