New Working Group Seeks to Curate and Evaluate Preregistration Templates for Inclusion in OSF

As part of efforts to recognize and appreciate volunteer contributors, the Center for Open Science (COS) would like to introduce a new community working group: the Preregistration Template Working Group. Preregistration is a transparency enhancing practice that lets researchers disclose their research designs and (if relevant) their analysis plans prior to beginning their studies. Later readers of research articles can gain insight into what was planned for the studies before they began. Specialized preregistration templates are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) for different types of research. These templates simplify the preregistration process by helping researchers include all of the necessary information about their studies.

First convened in August 2023, the Preregistration Template Working Group is working to:

1. Establish criteria to evaluate the suitability of new preregistration templates for inclusion in the OSF
2. Develop a procedure by which community creators of preregistration templates can put templates forward for inclusion in OSF
3. Advise and inform COS on issues related to preregistration implementation in OSF

The initial group consists of nine members from a variety of academic backgrounds and world regions, with expertise in research methodology, reporting guidelines, and preregistration.

Agata Bochynska University of Oslo Discipline: Linguistics / psychology / open science	Fiona Fidler University of Melbourne Discipline: Metascience	Emma Ganley protocols.io Discipline: Molecular biology / publishing
Roger Giner-Sorolla University of Kent Discipline: Psychology	Elliot Gould University of Melbourne Discipline: Ecology	Luciana A.C. Machado Clinical Hospital/EBSERH, Federal University of Minas Gerais Discipline: Epidemiology / public Health
Paul Montgomery University of Birmingham Discipline: Criminology	Ingo Rohlfing University of Passau Discipline: Political science	Paul Whaley  Lancaster University and the Evidence-Based Toxicology Collaboration at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Discipline: Methodology / environmental health / toxicology

COS intends to continually invite new members to join the working group. If you have interest to be involved, please self-nominate. Applications are open on a rolling basis; we intend to invite additional members starting in mid-2024. If you have feedback on the process of preregistration in OSF, please write support@osf.io.