Prevalence of Registered Reports in experimental psychology journals: A bibliometric study

Abstract Registered Reports were introduced a decade ago to reduce data dredging and the selective reporting of “statistically significant” results in journal articles. Previous studies have examined the extent to which journals have adopted the procedure and the number of such articles published in these journals. This bibliometric study focuses on the subdiscipline that has most thoroughly adopted the procedure, experimental psychology, and compiles a more complete list of published Registered Reports than used in previous studies and estimates their prevalence in the experimental psychology literature using Web of Science for total article counts. Thirty-six experimental psychology journals were found to have adopted the procedure, but 11 had not published any Registered Reports by the end of 2023. One journal accounted for almost 30% of the 227 Registered Reports, and eight others for a further 50%. Registered Reports represented a small percentage of the total experimental psychology articles published over the period 2013–2023 at 1.2%. Lack of diffusion of Registered Reports through the subdiscipline that has most fully embraced it is likely due to it having little value within the academic incentive system. Future studies would benefit from journals more accurately identifying Registered Reports and the creation of a central registry.