Registered Reports at Taylor & Francis
Have your study peer reviewed and get an in-principle acceptance before you start collecting your data
What are Registered Reports?
The Center for Open Science describes Registered Reports as “a publishing format…that emphasizes the importance of the research question and the quality of methodology by conducting peer review prior to data collection”. In practice this means changing the way research is conducted and published.
What is the workflow?
Registered Reports change the way that experiments are designed and conducted by breaking the peer review process into two parts. The first round of peer review is much earlier in the process than the standard research workflow, after the experiment has been designed but before any data has been collected or analyzed.

This workflow allows you to get feedback on both the question you are looking to answer, and the experiment you have designed to test it. The initial submission is peer reviewed on the basis of:
The importance of the research question.
Soundness and feasibility of the research question.
The level of methodological detail.
The journal can ask you to make revisions, as well as making reject or accept decisions. Manuscripts that pass peer review will be issued an in-principle acceptance (IPA), indicating that the article will be published pending successful completion of the study according to the pre-registered methods and analytic procedures, as well as a defensible and evidence-based interpretation of the results.
You are encouraged to then publish your in-principle acceptance online (to register the research). One venue for this is with Center of Open Science. You can then proceed with the data collection and analysis.
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Once the data is collected and analyzed, write up your research and submit the article back to the journal for second stage peer review and publication. The second round of peer review checks the data, that you followed the experiment outlined in your first submission, and other basic checks before the article moves into the production process as usual.
Journals offering this article type provide further information on how to submit and what to expect as part of the Instructions for Authors page on their website.
One of the benefits of the Registered Reports workflow is that if your article passes the first stage peer review the journal will still publish the final report even if your hypothesis is not confirmed.
Which Taylor & Francis journals currently accept Registered Report submissions?
Registered Reports on F1000Research
F1000Research welcomes Registered Reports, but follows a slightly different model where both the Study Protocol and the consequent Research Article are published and peer-reviewed. Most journals typically only publish the Research Article, so the F1000Research approach to Registered Reports rewards authors with an additional citable publication, and goes further in supporting transparent, reproducible research.
