Protection by Design: Pre-Registration and Researcher Autonomy in Experimental Settings

• In Event: Method Meets Mission: Empirical Applications Across Crime, Justice, and Community Response

Abstract

Open science reforms, particularly pre-registration, are widely promoted as tools to enhance transparency and reduce questionable research practices. This paper presents a fresh perspective on pre-registration as a protective measure for criminologists facing pushback from powerful external interests. We argue that pre-registration acts as a shield in highly charged and publicly salient research contexts by documenting hypotheses and analytic plans before data collection. Two case studies of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in policing – one evaluating an AI system for police report writing and another assessing AI-assisted body-worn camera review – demonstrate how pre-registration protected our team from corporate and governmental pressures after our results challenged vested interests. By foregrounding how pre-registration empowers scholars to resist pressure and maintain scientific integrity, this paper broadens the usual narrative of open science beyond fraud prevention, researcher error, and publication bias, focusing instead on how transparency practices safeguard researchers themselves. By explicitly documenting analytic plans prior to data collection, criminologists can credibly counter allegations of bias, deflect institutional criticism, and defend the integrity of politically contentious findings. We reframe pre-registration as a pragmatic mechanism for researcher autonomy, encouraging broader adoption in experimental criminology where external interests frequently intersect with empirical inquiry.

Authors

• Ian T. Adams, University of South Carolina

• Kyle McLean, Clemson University