Call for Papers: Registered Reports

Among other article types, Technology, Mind, and Behavior welcomes registered reports. Registered reports follow a slightly different editorial process in which authors submit study proposals rather than complete projects for peer review, following the basic protocol recommended by the Center for Open Science (https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports). When these study proposals are submitted, our peer reviewers evaluate them for their scientific quality before the studies are conducted and reviewers focus their comments on primarily on three areas:

• theoretical quality (i.e., are the research questions/hypotheses clearly derived from relevant theory?)

• study methods (i.e., does the proposed methodology match logically with the questions/predictions being offered?)

• data analysis plan (i.e., are the planned data analysis an appropriate fit for the study design and questions/hypothesis offered? Are appropriate power analysis conducted to determine needed sample sizes?) 

Study proposals that pass this initial review are then given an “Accepted, Pending” decision and thus, TMB commits to publishing the final version of the manuscript once the study is completed. Completed manuscripts are reviewed primarily to ensure that they adhered to the registered report.

Authors can make post-hoc changes to their manuscripts, so long as those changes are clearly explained in the manuscript. We encourage authors to work with us to ensure that major changes fit the scope of the already accepted study proposal. This publishing model ensures that work based on clear theory and using rigorous methods is disseminated to the research community regardless of the outcome.

Because registered reports often require a bit of additional engagement from both editors and reviews, we recently brought on an Associate Editor for Registered Reports, Dr. Nick Bowman of Texas Tech University ([email protected]). We encourage anyone interested to reach out to Dr. Bowman early and often with any questions about the registered reports format.

Submit manuscript here