Preregistration of study protocols and, in particular, Registered Reports are novel publishing formats that are currently gaining substantial traction. Besides rating the research question and soundness of methodology over outstanding significance of the results, they can help with antagonizing inadequate statistical power, selective reporting of results, undisclosed analytic flexibility, as well as publication bias. Preregistration works well when a clear hypothesis, primary outcome, and mode of analysis can be formulated. But is it also applicable and useful in discovery research, which develops theories and hypotheses, measurement techniques, and generates evidence that justifies further research? I will argue that only slight modifications are needed to harness the potential of preregistration and make exploratory research more trustworthy and useful.

预注册研究方案，尤其是注册报告是一种新颖的出版形式，目前正受到广泛关注。除了在研究结果的突出意义上评价研究问题和方法的合理性外，它们还可以帮助弥补不足的统计能力，结果的选择性报告，未公开的分析灵活性以及出版偏见。当可以提出明确的假设，主要结果和分析模式时，预注册效果很好。但是它在发现研究中是否也适用并有用，它会发展理论和假设，测量技术，并产生证明进一步研究的依据？我将争辩说，仅需进行少量修改即可利用预注册的潜力，并使探索性研究更值得信赖和有用。