The QUEST 1,000 € Preregistration Award

'Transparency and independent replication are core values of science. However, scientists must publish, which is more likely with positive results, even at the expense of transparent, reproducible research. Thereby the reported positive results often do not reflect the original hypothesis. What is good for science and what is good for scientists are not always the same.

Preregistration adds additional credibility to results by documenting in advance what will be tested. Preregistration separates hypothesis testing (confirmatory) from hypothesis generating (exploratory) research. Both are important. However, the same data cannot be used to generate and test a hypothesis, which often happens unintentionally. With preregistration, confirmatory analyses are planned in advance in order to retain the validity of their statistical inferences, and exploratory analyses are reported as post hoc investigations that might inspire confirmatory tests in future studies.' (modified after: https://cos.io/prereg/).

The Center for Open Science has launched a Preregistration Challenge. The QUEST Center supports their Preregistration Challenge with its own challenge, focused on preclinical studies!

In clinical science, preregistration of controlled clinical trials is a prerequisite for publication in most relevant journals (Consort statement). However, in preclinical research, which is currently suffering from a reproducibility crisis, preregistration is a novel concept.