Preregistration improves transparency of the entire research lifecycle and addresses publication bias and selective reporting that undermine the credibility of published findings. In preregistration, researchers specify a research plan before the study is conducted. Better planning improves the quality of research and draws clearer distinctions between planned outcomes and unexpected discoveries to calibrate confidence in the findings.
Branded OSF Registries support preregistration and enable customization so that groups promoting preregistration can ensure the practice is fit-for-purpose for their research community. With OSF Registries, funders, research organizations, and professional societies can establish scholarly repositories that enable the archiving, sharing, searching, and aggregating of study designs, analysis plans, data, and outcomes.
Jan-Ole HesselbergIn 2022, Stiftelsen Dam – a Norwegian funding agency that supports health research through voluntary organizations – established a branded registry. The foundation uses the DAM Registry, hosted on the OSF Registries infrastructure, to support its funded researchers by ensuring that projects follow guidelines for transparency established by the foundation. All trials and studies funded by Stiftelsen Dam must preregister in the foundation's registry.
The OSF Registries infrastructure allows Stiftelsen Dam to control approvals and aggregate research projects in a branded registry, enabling the foundation to support open policy compliance, gather and share research outputs, and cultivate new norms for sharing and collaboration among their research community.
“[OSF Registries] is an infrastructure we could never have established ourselves, and which we believe is absolutely crucial to raising the quality of health research,” said Hesselberg.
Do you face challenges communicating with your funded researchers? Is tracking output, encouraging research transparency, and enforcing policy compliance part of your role?
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