REvaluating the Claim that Preregistration and Registered Reports Restrict Exploratory Research

A persistent concern about implementation of preregistration and Registered Reports in psychology is that doing so would reduce the frequency and value of exploratory research, and therefore restrict creativity, serendipity, and discovery. As we are nearly 15 years on from the initial proposal to adopt registration in psychology, it seems time to formally examine whether these concerns have any merit. The purpose of the present study is to find out. In this proposed project, we will examine a matched set of Registered Reports, preregistered articles, and traditional articles (total N = 300) for the frequency of reported exploratory research, defined as any analysis that is indicated to not be a planned test of a specific hypothesis. This project will provide strong data that should provide an empirical basis to be used in future discussion about the impact of registration on exploratory research.