PCI-RR Snapshot: Restriction of researcher degrees of freedom through the Psychological Research Preregistration-Quantitative (PRP-QUANT) Template

Background: Preregistration, the practice of publishing a research plan before data collection or analysis, can help to reduce researcher degrees of freedom, but its value depends on whether researchers specify their study plan in sufficient detail and adhere to this plan. Previous findings indicate better, but still insufficient, specificity when preregistrations are based on structured compared to unstructured template formats. The planned study aims to build on these findings and investigate the specificity of preregistrations based on the PRP-QUANT Template, a comprehensive template that draws on insights from previous templates and aids the preregistration of quantitative studies in psychology. Additionally, we will inspect whether peer-review can help to restrict researcher degrees of freedom by comparing peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed preregistrations created with the PRP-QUANT Template. Lastly, adherence to the preregistered plans and risk of bias in reporting will be inspected in the publications associated with the examined preregistrations. Methods: Preregistrations based on the PRP-QUANT Template will be sampled from PsychArchives (non-peer-reviewed: n = 46, peer-reviewed: n = 27) and coded for their level of specificity using the coding scheme of Bakker et al. (2020) and Heirene et al. (2021). In addition, adherence and risk of bias in reporting will be coded for all identified accompanying publications. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U tests will be used to compare the median specificity scores of preregistrations based on the PRP-QUANT Template versus preregistrations based on the Prereg Challenge Registration, and peer-reviewed PRP-QUANT preregistrations versus non-peer-reviewed PRP-QUANT preregistrations. Adherence and risk of bias in reporting will be analyzed descriptively. unknown unknown