1-002 - Developing Pre-Registration Plans for Secondary Data Analysis

Session Type: Workshop

Abstract

Pre-registration refers to formally outlining and officially registering research hypotheses, study design, and analysis plans. The purpose of pre-registration is to help distinguish between confirmatory and exploratory analyses and to eliminate the presentation of exploratory findings as though they are confirmatory (e.g., HARKing; Kerr, 1998). Although there have been advances in how to implement pre-registration in psychological research, nearly all of these advances have been made within the context of experimental psychology (e.g., Nosek & Lakens, 2014; van’t Veer & Giner-Sorolla, 2016). There has been little discussion about how to implement pre-registration for large-scale studies of development and individual differences, and even less in the context of secondary data analysis.

The goals of this workshop, led by Moin Syed and M. Brent Donnellan, are to: 1) Provide participants with background on the rationale for pre-registration of analyses; 2) Detail major issues in pre-registration of secondary data, with a focus on features of datasets and analyses common to developmental research; and 3) Familiarize attendees with tools available to assist with developing pre-registration plans (e.g., the Open Science Framework, pre-registration templates). These three goals will be achieved through: 1) A brief presentation of key issues regarding pre-registration of secondary, developmental data, 2) A small group activity in which participants work with a sample study to identify the kinds of choices about data preparation and analysis that can and should be specified in advance, and 3) A large group discussion focusing on the methodological and analytic decisions identified during the small group activity.

Sub Unit

• Methods

Leaders

• Moin Syed, University of Minnesota

• M. Brent Donnellan, Michigan State University