ReproRehab 2026: Preregistration for Secondary Analysis

Advanced analysis of the ever-increasing pool of secondary data researchers can access is integral to hypothesis generation and validation. But how do we know the product of that analysis was what the researcher intended in the first place, and not just the eventual product of a fishing expedition? Pre-registration is increasingly demanded by academic journals, and its absence can limit where an analysis is published and how its validity is perceived. So what are the correct steps, and how do you do it efficiently? This week we will walk through registering an analysis on the Open Science Framework. Because secondary-data work has its own distinct pitfalls (the data already exist, and you may have seen them), we will also look at dedicated templates for pre-registering secondary data analysis, so your record stays credible even when you did not collect the data yourself.