Pownall, Madeleine, Pennington, Charlotte R., Norris, Emma, Juanchich, Marie, Smailes, David, Russell, Sophie, Gooch, Debbie, Evans, Thomas rhys, Persson, Sofia, Mak, Matthew h. c., Tzavella, Loukia, Monk, Rebecca, Gough, Thomas, Benwell, Christopher s. y., Elsherif, Mahmoud, Farran, Emily, Gallagher-Mitchell, Thomas, Kendrick, Luke t., Bahnmueller, Julia, Nordmann, Emily, Zaneva, Mirela, Gilligan-Lee, Katie, Bazhydai, Marina, Jones, Andrew, Sedgmond, Jemma, Holzleitner, Iris, Reynolds, James, Moss, Jo, Farrelly, Daniel, Parker, Adam j. and Clark, Kait (2023). Evaluating the Pedagogical Effectiveness of Study Preregistration in the Undergraduate Dissertation. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 6 (4), pp. 1-21.
Abstract
Research shows that questionable research practices (QRPs) are present in undergraduate final-year dissertation projects. One entry-level Open Science practice proposed to mitigate QRPs is “study preregistration,” through which researchers outline their research questions, design, method, and analysis plans before data collection and/or analysis. In this study, we aimed to empirically test the effectiveness of preregistration as a pedagogic tool in undergraduate dissertations using a quasi-experimental design. A total of 89 UK psychology students were recruited, including students who preregistered their empirical quantitative dissertation (n = 52; experimental group) and students who did not (n = 37; control group). Attitudes toward statistics, acceptance of QRPs, and perceived understanding of Open Science were measured both before and after dissertation completion. Exploratory measures included capability, opportunity, and motivation to engage with preregistration, measured at Time 1 only. This study was conducted as a Registered Report; Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/9hjbw (date of in-principle acceptance: September 21, 2021). Study preregistration did not significantly affect attitudes toward statistics or acceptance of QRPs. However, students who preregistered reported greater perceived understanding of Open Science concepts from Time 1 to Time 2 compared with students who did not preregister. Exploratory analyses indicated that students who preregistered reported significantly greater capability, opportunity, and motivation to preregister. Qualitative responses revealed that preregistration was perceived to improve clarity and organization of the dissertation, prevent QRPs, and promote rigor. Disadvantages and barriers included time, perceived rigidity, and need for training. These results contribute to discussions surrounding embedding Open Science principles into research training.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459231202724 |
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Divisions: | College of Health & Life Sciences College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology |
Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Open Science,dissertations,preregistration,reproducibility,research training,undergraduate training,General Psychology |
Publication ISSN: | 2515-2467 |
Last Modified: | 07 Oct 2024 07:55 |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jan 2024 09:44 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
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(Scopus URL) https://journal ... 152459231202724 (Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | ["eprint_fieldname_pure_output_type_contributiontojournal/registered_report" not defined] |
Published Date: | 2023-12-21 |
Accepted Date: | 2023-09-01 |
Authors: |
Pownall, Madeleine
Pennington, Charlotte R. ( 0000-0002-5259-642X) Norris, Emma Juanchich, Marie Smailes, David Russell, Sophie Gooch, Debbie Evans, Thomas rhys Persson, Sofia Mak, Matthew h. c. Tzavella, Loukia Monk, Rebecca Gough, Thomas Benwell, Christopher s. y. Elsherif, Mahmoud Farran, Emily Gallagher-Mitchell, Thomas Kendrick, Luke t. Bahnmueller, Julia Nordmann, Emily Zaneva, Mirela Gilligan-Lee, Katie Bazhydai, Marina Jones, Andrew Sedgmond, Jemma Holzleitner, Iris Reynolds, James ( 0000-0003-1536-1557) Moss, Jo Farrelly, Daniel Parker, Adam j. Clark, Kait |