English: "Preregistration allows us to hold researchers accountable to their original study plans"

"Some of the procedures we’ve explored so far are used to safeguard research against errors and biases that scientists can have. Pre-registration is another procedure that contributes to the same goal.

After the data in a study is analyzed, scientists have some choice in which results they present to their colleagues and the wider community. This opens up research to the possibility of cherry-picking.

This problem unfortunately often arises in studies that are sponsored by industry. If a pharmaceutical company is testing their new drugs in trials, disappointing results can lead to financial losses. So, they may decide not to publish them.

But this problem is not limited to trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies.

For many reasons, scientists may decide not to publish some of their studies. Or they might re-analyze their data in a different way to find more positive results. Even if scientists want to publish their findings, journals may decide not to publish them because they may be seen as disappointing, controversial or uninteresting.

To counter these incentives, scientists can follow the practice of “pre-registration.” This is when they publicly declare which analyses they plan to do in advance of collecting the data."