Exercise Science Research Center, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Sports Med. 2020 Mar;50(3):449-459. doi: 10.1007/s40279-019-01227-1.
The primary means of disseminating sport and exercise science research is currently through journal articles. However, not all studies, especially those with null findings, make it to formal publication. This publication bias towards positive findings may contribute to questionable research practices. Preregistration is a solution to prevent the publication of distorted evidence resulting from this system. This process asks authors to register their hypotheses and methods before data collection on a publicly available repository or by submitting a Registered Report. In the Registered Report format, authors submit a stage 1 manuscript to a participating journal that includes an introduction, methods, and any pilot data indicating the exploratory or confirmatory nature of the study. After a stage 1 peer review, the manuscript can then be offered in-principle acceptance, rejected, or sent back for revisions to improve the quality of the study. If accepted, the project is guaranteed publication, assuming the authors follow the data collection and analysis protocol. After data collection, authors re-submit a stage 2 manuscript that includes the results and discussion, and the study is evaluated on clarity and conformity with the planned analysis. In its final form, Registered Reports appear almost identical to a typical publication, but give readers confidence that the hypotheses and main analyses are less susceptible to bias from questionable research practices. From this perspective, we argue that inclusion of Registered Reports by researchers and journals will improve the transparency, replicability, and trust in sport and exercise science research. The preprint version of this work is available on SportR[Formula: see text]iv: https://osf.io/preprints/sportrxiv/fxe7a/.
目前，传播运动与锻炼科学研究的主要手段是期刊文章。然而，并非所有研究，尤其是那些没有发现的研究，都能正式发表。这种对阳性结果的发表偏见可能导致有问题的研究实践。预先注册是防止因该系统导致扭曲证据发表的一种解决方案。该过程要求作者在公开存储库上注册他们的假设和方法，或者通过提交注册报告来完成。在注册报告格式中，作者向参与的期刊提交第一阶段的手稿，其中包括介绍、方法以及任何表明研究探索性或验证性的初步数据。在第一阶段的同行评审之后，该手稿可以获得原则上的接受、拒绝或退回修改，以提高研究质量。如果被接受，该项目将保证发表，前提是作者遵循数据收集和分析方案。在数据收集之后，作者重新提交包括结果和讨论的第二阶段手稿，并且根据计划分析的清晰性和一致性对研究进行评估。在最终形式中，注册报告几乎与典型出版物相同，但让读者有信心假设和主要分析不太容易受到有问题的研究实践的偏见影响。从这个角度来看，我们认为研究人员和期刊纳入注册报告将提高运动与锻炼科学研究的透明度、可复制性和可信度。这项工作的预印本版本可在 SportR[Formula: see text]iv 上获得：https://osf.io/preprints/sportrxiv/fxe7a/。
