This is a third instalment of my focus on preregistration of research projects in psychology. The first was an overview of my lecture for a graduate course I teach on open and reproducible science. The second focused on the who, what, when, where, and why’s of preregistration. This third post is a brief follow up and provides a visualization of the primary goal of preregistration–evaluation. We have endured the whole “preregistration is not a prison” debate, and now some are debating that preregistration is only applicable for a very specific and narrow type of research design.

In the visualization below I provide a definition of preregistration that is fairly common and widely accepted (see my second post linked above). I also state a goal of preregistration–evaluation. The sticking point for some is the question, “evaluation of what?” Your own answer to that question likely predicts with high accuracy what types of research projects you think “can” be preregistered, or “should” be preregistered. But as I briefly demonstrate below, there is more than 1 thing that is greatly aided in terms of evaluating research output/conclusions via the existence of a preregistration for that research. And yes I am “sub-blogging” (is that a thing?), because I use as an example secondary data analysis projects (that can and should be preregistered).

That is all for now peeps.