Registered Reports

Supporting Research in Progress

In 2017 we announced that several BMC journals BMC Biology, BMC Ecology & BMC Medicine would begin accepting Registered Reports. This innovative approach to publishing allows authors to submit their rationale and methods for peer review before any experiments are conducted: shifting the emphasis from research results, to the scientific questions being asked and the strength of the study design.

Why publish a Registered Report?

Registered Reports are designed to reward best practices and bring research closer to its roots, emphasizing inquiry, data gathering and experimentation. By implementing peer review before results are known the format can help eliminate a variety of issues, including low statistical power, selective reporting of results, and publication bias, while allowing complete flexibility to report serendipitous findings.

In addition to receiving a commitment that our journals will publish their research if authors follow their registered methodology, our Editors and reviewers can also provide constructive feedback to help fine-tune study designs prior to data collection.

Registered Reports on Figshare

Authors can now use Springer Nature's Figshare repository to make their protocols and related research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner.

Our dedicated portal for Registered Reports is available to authors following peer review and in-principle acceptance, and they can choose to deposit their work either publically or privately. All data is citable and has a DOI. Authors will also be able to manage and measure the impact of their files.

New Content Item

Collaborative Working

We're offering 50GB of free private space to help authors connect with their collaborators using Figshare Projects.

Members of each project can upload files relating to their Registered Report or add text notes and comments, and use an activity stream to help keep track of their actions. Authors can store their projects privately and limit access to only their colleagues or choose to make them public via Springer Nature's Figshare repository.

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Springer Nature’s Research Data Support service

Authors can benefit from Springer Nature's Research Data Support Service as part of any Registered Report submission, to help best organize and share their data.

For authors interested in data deposition and curation services, our dedicated Research Data Editors will enhance the metadata of dataset(s) relating to their Registered Report, improve discoverability, encourage reuse and enable data citation.

New Content Item

BMC Medicine - the first medical journal to accept Registered Reports

Learn more about pre-registration specifically tailored to clinical and global health research, which can have a direct, positive impact on patients and communities.

Center for Open Science Preregistration challenge

Did you know the Center for Open Science are giving away $1,000 to 1,000 researchers who preregister their projects, including Registered Reports, through their $1 Million Preregistration Challenge*?

More about Registered Reports

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Registered Reports make it easier for high-quality research to be published regardless of the outcome, allowing researchers to take a proactive approach towards improving transparency and reproducibility.

The submission and review process for Registered Reports is divided into two distinct stages:

Stage 1 submission: Authors submit manuscripts including only an Introduction, Methods (including proposed analyses), and Pilot Data (where applicable).
Stage 1 review: Reviewers evaluate study proposals before data are collected, assessing the importance of the research question, feasibility of the methodology, and analysis pipeline.
In principle acceptance (IPA): Manuscripts that pass peer review will be issued an IPA, indicating that the article will be published pending successful completion of the study.
Stage 2 submission: Following study completion, authors submit their finalized manuscript for re-review, now including Results and Discussion sections.
Stage 2 review: Reviewers appraise whether the authors’ adhered to the preregistered experimental procedures and that any conclusions are justified given the data.

Further questions and answers can be found in this editorial from BMC Biology: Who needs registered reports?

BMC journals publishing Registered Reports

As the flagship biology journal of the BMC series, BMC Biology publishes outstanding research and commissioned content across all areas of biology. Supported by an Editorial Board of international experts and carefully-selected reviewers, our highly responsive editorial team provides rapid evaluation and publication of research with broad, lasting impact. We welcome pre-submission inquiries as well as manuscripts already posted to preprint servers, and will accommodate the author’s format preference for submissions. Our re-review opt-out policy and innovative Registered Report article type demonstrate the journal’s commitment to being at the forefront of advances in open research publishing. All articles published in BMC Biology are open access, and our popular website, active social media channels, blogs and press releases ensure that they receive broad visibility and attention. Further information for authors.

BMC Medicine is an open access, open peer review medical journal publishing outstanding and influential research of broad interest to the biomedical and sociomedical professional communities. We cover all areas of clinical practice, translational medicine, medical and health advances, public health, global health, policy, and general topics of interest to our global readership. BMC Medicine’s highly responsive team of professional editors ensure rigorous processes and rapid publication upon acceptance. We are dedicated to supporting our authors by providing global visibility, innovative formats, widespread promotion, and opportunities for impact on future research, practice, and policy. Ultimately, BMC Medicine is committed to inspiring progress on clinical and health outcomes for people worldwide. Further information for authors.

With a large and avid international readership, BMC Ecology publishes research and welcomes submissions on environmental, behavioral and population ecology as well as biodiversity of plants, animals and microbes. The popular BMC Ecology Image Competition annually features some of the most fascinating, high quality images produced by researchers in the field. This journal is part of the BMC series, a research community-focused collection publishing scientifically valid studies based on community-agreed standards of questioning, methods and analysis. Further information for authors.