The Registration Continuum in Clinical Science: A Guide Toward Transparent Practices

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2019

Publication Title

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Volume

128

Issue

6

First page number:

528

Last page number:

540

Abstract

Clinical scientists can use a continuum of registration efforts that vary in their disclosure and timing relative to data collection and analysis. Broadly speaking, registration benefits investigators by offering stronger, more powerful tests of theory with particular methods in tandem with better control of long-run false positive error rates. Registration helps clinical researchers in thinking through tensions between bandwidth and fidelity that surround recruiting participants, defining clinical phenotypes, handling comorbidity, treating missing data, and analyzing rich and complex data. In particular, registration helps record and justify the reasons behind specific study design decisions, though it also provides the opportunity to register entire decision trees with specific endpoints. Creating ever more faithful registrations and standard operating procedures may offer alternative methods of judging a clinical investigator’s scientific skill and eminence because study registration increases the transparency of clinical researchers’ work.

Keywords

Preregistration; Coregistration; Postregistration; Transparency; Flexibility

Disciplines

Clinical Psychology | Psychology

Language

English

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