prereg: R Markdown Templates for Preregistrations of Scientific Studies

prereg provides R Markdown templates that facilitates authoring preregistrations of scientific studies in PDF format.

If you experience any problems or have suggestions for improvements, please open an issue.

Setup

Requirements

To use R Markdown and prereg you need the following software on your computer:

• R (2.11.1 or later)
• RStudio (0.99.441 or later) is optional; if you don’t use RStudio, you need to install pandoc using the instructions for your operating system
• A TeX distribution (2013 or later; e.g., MikTeX for Windows, MacTeX for Mac, obviously, or TeX Live for Linux)
  • If you are running Windows, use MikTex if possible. Currently, pandoc and the Windows version of Tex Live don’t seem to like each other. Make sure you install the complete—not the basic—version.

Install prereg

You can install the stable version of prereg from CRAN

install.packages("prereg")

or the development version from this GitHub repository (you may have to install the devtools package first).

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("crsh/prereg")

Create a preregistration document

Once you have installed the prereg you can select the templates when creating a new R Markdown file through the RStudio menus.

Example

prereg produces a clean form-like document.

The template file contains comments that provide further details on how to fill in the form but are invisible in the final PDF document.

Using prereg without RStudio

If you want to use prereg without RStudio you can use the rmarkdown::render function to create preregistration documents:

# Create new COS preregistration challenge R Markdown file
rmarkdown::draft(
  "my_preregistration.Rmd"
  , "cos_prereg"
  , package = "prereg"
  , create_dir = FALSE
  , edit = FALSE
)

# Render document
rmarkdown::render("my_preregistration.Rmd")

Uploading your preregistration

After knitting your preregistration to a PDF file using this package, you may upload this protocol to a trustworthy repository to complete your preregistration. Possible repositories for this are:

• Preregistration in Psychology: A preregistration platform provided by the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) which focuses on psychological research
• Open Science Framework: An interdisciplinary platform provided by the Center for Open Science where preregistrations as well as other materials and data can be uploaded

Acknowledgments

The templates for the preregistrations were developed by the Center for Open Science, AsPredicted.org, Anna Elisabeth van ’t Veer and Roger Giner-Sorolla, and a task force composed of members of the American Psychological Association (APA), the British Psychological Society (BPS), the German Psychological Society (DGPs), the Center for Open Science (cos), and the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID). I’m thankful for their permission to use their material in this package.

Package dependencies

References

Brandt, M. J., IJzerman, H., Dijksterhuis, A., Farach, F. J., Geller, J., Giner-Sorolla, R., … van ’t Veer, A. (2014). The Replication Recipe: What makes for a convincing replication? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 217–224. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.10.005

van ’t Veer, A. E., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2016). Pre-registration in social psychology—A discussion and suggested template. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 67, 2–12. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2016.03.004