Study Design
Preregistration
Also called: prereg
Preregistration is the practice of publicly documenting a study's hypotheses, methods, and analysis plan in a timestamped registry before collecting or examining the data. It creates a fixed record that separates confirmatory tests from exploratory ones and makes p-hacking and HARKing far easier to detect.
The registered plan acts as a commitment device. Because the hypotheses, primary outcomes, sample size, and statistical approach are locked in advance, later deviations become visible rather than invisible. Registries such as OSF, AsPredicted, and ClinicalTrials.gov host these records, and many trials are required to register before enrolling participants.
Preregistration does not forbid exploratory analysis. It simply demands that exploration be labeled as such and kept distinct from the preplanned confirmatory tests. A study can preregister three hypotheses, report them faithfully, and then present additional data-driven findings clearly marked as hypothesis-generating.
When reviewing a preregistered study, the protocol is a checklist. Compare the registered primary outcome to the one emphasized in the manuscript, verify the sample size matches, and note any switched, added, or dropped analyses. Unexplained departures from the plan are among the strongest signals that reported significance may be unreliable.
Example
The team preregistered reaction time as the sole primary outcome, so the reviewer immediately queried why the paper led with an unregistered accuracy measure.
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