Abstract

Pre-registration is an open research practice that can mitigate against questionable research practices and contribute to enhanced research outcomes, such as increased research transparency. This paper explores barriers and enablers to pre-registration, and develops an evidence-based behaviour change intervention specification to increase its uptake. The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) framework of intervention development and COM-B model of behaviour change were used to inform the development of a mixed-methods online questionnaire, assessing barriers and enablers to pre-registration. Data were collected from 18-05-2020 to 12-07-2020, and explored using descriptive statistics, reflexive thematic analysis, and COM-B. BCW was used to develop an intervention specification. Respondents were researchers (n = 105) who were mostly engaged in psychological research (71%) and had pre-registered before (75%). Insufficient knowledge and skill (psychological capability), social support (social opportunity), time (physical opportunity), and incentivisation (reflective motivation) were the most substantial barriers to pre-registration, whereas belief in pre-registration contributing to desirable research outcomes (reflective motivation) was the most substantial enabler. These findings informed the development of an intervention specification to increase pre-registration uptake by researchers. This paper demonstrates the strong potential of BCW to facilitate open research practices. The identified barriers and enablers, intervention specification, and the behaviour change approach outlined, may be used to increase pre-registration uptake; for example, developing new or refining existing training and incentivisation interventions. This paper may inspire others to consider the strong potential of BCW to facilitate open research practices and so contribute to enhanced research outcomes.

摘要

预注册是一种开放的研究实践，可以减轻有问题的研究实践，并有助于提高研究成果，例如提高研究透明度。本文探讨了预注册的障碍和促成因素，并制定了基于证据的行为改变干预规范以增加其采用率。干预开发的行为改变轮 (BCW) 框架和行为改变的 COM-B 模型用于为混合方法在线问卷的开发提供信息，评估预注册的障碍和促成因素。从 18-05-2020 到 12-07-2020 收集数据，并使用描述性统计、反身主题分析和 COM-B 进行探索。BCW 用于制定干预规范。受访者是研究人员（n= 105) 主要从事心理学研究 (71%) 且之前已预先注册 (75%)。知识和技能（心理能力）、社会支持（社会机会）、时间（身体机会）和激励（反思动机）不足是预注册的最大障碍，而对预注册的信念有助于获得理想的研究成果（反思动机）是最重要的推动因素。这些发现为干预规范的制定提供了信息，以增加研究人员的预注册吸收。本文展示了 BCW 在促进开放研究实践方面的巨大潜力。已确定的障碍和促成因素、干预规范和概述的行为改变方法，可用于增加预注册的吸收；例如，开发新的或改进现有的培训和激励干预措施。本文可能会启发其他人考虑 BCW 在促进开放研究实践方面的巨大潜力，从而有助于提高研究成果。