Census of Journal Policies for Registered Reports: The First Seven Years of Adoption
Registered reports are a new publication workflow where the decision to publish is based on the proposed methods before data is collected. Many journals have adopted this new mechanism; however, previous research suggests that submission rates are very low, suggesting author adoption may be lagging behind. We conducted a census of journals publishing registered reports (N = 243) using independent coders to collect information from submission guidelines, with the goal of documenting the early adoption of registered reports and providing useful information about common policies for registered reports. Common misconceptions about restrictive policies of registered reports are mostly disconfirmed: all journals allow exploratory analysis, and most journals allow multiple studies and secondary data analysis. Overall, missing data suggests that journal submission policies are incomplete, but as researchers learn more about registered reports, we may see increased adoption of this novel publication mechanism.