Preregistration (science)

Preregistration is the practice of registering the hypotheses, methods, or analyses of a scientific study before it is conducted. Clinical trial registration is similar, although it may not require the registration of a study's analysis protocol. Finally, registered reports include the peer review and in principle acceptance of a study protocol prior to data collection.

Preregistration has the goal to transparently evaluate the severity of hypothesis tests, and can have a number of secondary goals (which can also be achieved without preregistering ), including (a) facilitating and documenting research plans, (b) identifying and reducing questionable research practices and researcher biases, (c) distinguishing between confirmatory and exploratory analyses, and, in the case of Registered Reports, (d) facilitating results-blind peer review, and (e) reducing publication bias.

A number of research practices such as p-hacking, publication bias, data dredging, inappropriate forms of post hoc analysis, and HARKing increase the probability of incorrect claims. Although the idea of preregistration is old, the practice of preregistering studies has gained prominence to mitigate to some of the issues that underlie the replication crisis.