3  Preregistration

Preregistering is a form of registration: freezing a snapshot of information about a study, usually accompanied by the files at that stage of the process. Specifically, a preregistration is a registration done before (‘pre’) the relevant step in the process: typically, before data collection.

Preregistration forms have been argued to have a number of epistemological benefits, but regardless of those advantages, they are also a great help in planning your study. They are a great way to get your team on the same page regarding a number of relevant aspects of your study.

There’s a by now classic blog post introducing (pre)registrations at https://www.cos.io/blog/preregistration-plan-not-prison. In addition, FORRT lists a number of excellent resources: https://forrt.org/forrt_clusters/preregistration/.

There exist many preregistration forms. Over time, you will discover which ones are the most useful for the types of studies you do. If you’re just starting out preregistering, we recommend using the Open Science Framework. That links the preregistration to your project’s repository (and so, to the preprint once you posted that).

The OSF has a number of forms built-in, but many forms have also been developed that are not yet integrated in OSF. If you want to use one of those forms, you can complete them on your PC, export to PDF, and then attach to the Open-Ended registration form. This is just a text box, optionally accompanied by one or more files.

As a starting point, the following forms can be considered.

• If you find no other form that fits, then as a fall-back form the Inclusive General-Purpose Registration Form can be used. This form was designed to be inclusive to all designs and disciplines. That also means it has fewer benefits to your planning than a more specialized form.

• For quantitative studies there are two general-purpose forms. It’s best to use an even more specialized one (so do read on), but if you can’t find one, these are good fall-back forms if they apply. These are the OSF preregistration and the Psychological Research Preregistration-Quantitative (aka PRP-QUANT) Template. Both are on OSF, too.

• For Experience Sampling Method studies, there is the Template for Registration of Studies Using Experience-Sampling Methods. This is not yet integrated in OSF or {preregr}, so to use it, you attach it to the OSF Open-Ended Registration Form.

• If you do a qualitative study, there are two forms, too. There is the less specific Qualitative Preregistration Template, and the Preregistration Template for Qualitative and Quantitative Ethnographic Studies. The latter one is more extensive, and so helps you consider and discuss more things before you start data collection.

• If you do a systematic review, such as a scoping review, a meta-analysis, or another type of systematic review, you can use the Generalized Systematic Review Registration Form.

• If you do a study with secondary data, you can use the Preregistration Template for Secondary Data Analysis.

Whichever form you use, you can extend it with add-ons. So far, one exists.

• The Inclusivity & Diversity Add-on for preregistration forms helps you address another Open Science area: inclusivity and diversity, specifically relating mostly to sampling and data registration.