Skip to content

Experiment Preregistration

An experiment preregistration is a time-stamped, versioned commitment to a specific hypothesis, design, and analysis plan written before data are collected. Preregistration prevents HARKing (Hypothesizing After the Results are Known), curbs analytical flexibility, and creates a traceable audit trail that downstream FCC Critique personas can verify. Produce this artifact during the Find phase of any FCC cycle that touches empirical data — simulation, benchmarking, A/B testing, or model comparison.

Template

Section 1: Registration Metadata

Instructions: Give the preregistration a globally unique ID, link it to any existing Innovation / Ecosystem IDs, and record the author set and timestamp. Status must move monotonically: Registered → In Progress → Completed with any Amended transitions explicitly documented below.

Field Value
Preregistration ID [FILL — e.g. PRE-2026-001]
Innovation / Ecosystem ID [FILL]
Date registered [FILL — YYYY-MM-DD]
Authors [FILL]
Version [FILL — 1.0]
Status [Registered / In Progress / Completed / Amended]

Section 2: Hypothesis

Instructions: State the primary hypothesis in If → then → because form. Separate confirmatory secondary hypotheses from exploratory questions; the latter are never treated as confirmatory evidence later.

  • Primary hypothesis: [FILL]
  • Secondary hypotheses (confirmatory): [FILL]
  • Exploratory questions (non-confirmatory): [FILL]

Section 3: Study Design

Instructions: Declare the design family, enumerate all variables (independent, dependent, controlled, known-confounding), and commit to a data scope before any exploratory access.

  • Design family: [Observational / Randomised / Quasi-experimental / Simulation / A/B / Parameter sweep / Other]
  • Variables table: [FILL]
  • Population / sample: [FILL]

Section 4: Sample Size & Stopping Rule

Instructions: Commit to a planned sample size with a power justification (α, β, effect size) and a stopping rule (fixed-N, pre-specified sequential, or Bayesian). No post-hoc sample changes without amendment.

  • Target N and rationale: [FILL]
  • Power calculation inputs: [FILL]
  • Stopping rule: [FILL]

Section 5: Analysis Plan

Instructions: Lock the statistical method, multiple-comparison correction, effect-size measure, and success threshold. Sensitivity analyses and robustness checks belong here too.

  • Primary analysis: [FILL]
  • Correction method: [FILL — Bonferroni / FDR / none]
  • Effect-size measure: [FILL]
  • Success criteria: [FILL]
  • Sensitivity analyses: [FILL]

Section 6: Amendments

Instructions: Any change after data collection begins must be logged with date, original text, amended text, and rationale.

Date Section Original Amended Rationale
[FILL] [FILL] [FILL] [FILL] [FILL]

Adoption Checklist

  • All required sections completed
  • Artifact peer-reviewed by at least one R.I.S.C.E.A.R. peer
  • Stored in the project's designated docs location
  • Linked from README or equivalent index
  • Versioned + date-stamped before any data are touched

References

  • PHOENIX v4.0.0 — docs/resources/templates/open-science/preregistration.md
  • Center for Open Science (COS) — Simulation Studies Preregistration Template (2024)
  • AAAI-26 — Reproducibility Checklist
  • NeurIPS — Paper Checklist (16 categories)
  • Nosek et al. (2018) — The preregistration revolution, PNAS 115(11)

FCC integration

This template is referenced from the Forensic Auditor persona (src/fcc/data/personas/forensic_auditor.yaml) as part of the Critique-phase evidence set. The auditor consumes preregistrations to verify that downstream results match the pre-declared hypothesis and analysis plan. See also the open-science quality gates in src/fcc/data/governance/open_science_gates.yaml and the broader gate catalogue in src/fcc/data/governance/quality_gates.yaml.