Registered Reports

Community FeedbackImage of stars, showing a four out of five stars rating

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why do I need to register?

Like many online services that enable anonymous public comments (e.g. PubPeer), Registered Reports Community Feedback requires users to register with an account.

Creating a user account allows users who are returning to give Stage 2 feedback on a specific manuscript, to link that Stage 2 feedback to existing Stage 1 feedback for the same manuscript.

For prospective feedback (e.g. feedback where Stage 2 peer review has yet to occur, and where the user has given Stage 1 feedback) a user account enables users to leave feedback per stage and link those stages.

A user account also allows for authors/reviewers of multiple manuscripts to manage/distinguish between the various pieces of feedback they have given.For instance, a user can view the Stage 1 feedback they have previously given, before giving linked Stage 2 feedback. A logged in user may also choose to invite co-authors to give feedback on the same manuscript (in the case of author feedback).

For these reasons you will need to register for an account to give feedback. We only require that you register a functioning email address (your name is not required) and the email address does not need to be one that identifies you by name.

Who can view the feedback I give?

Only the team members who are part of the research project can view individual contributions made by users, and those team members are bound by confidentiality requirements of our ethical approval not to use or divulge anything outside of the team.

On the public facing side, no individual ratings are shown — only average anonymised ratings — and to further protect user anonymity, no aggregate data are publicly shown for a journal/platform until at least five distinct sets of feedback have been left for that outlet. This means that an author who intends to leave negative feedback for a particular journal/platform, but is worried that doing so might reveal their identity due to a low number of submissions, needn't worry about being inadvertently identified.

Can you explain the different numbers shown on the dashboard?

The number of ratings (after a journal's name) is the total quantity of feedback completed for that journal - a user completing feedback for both Stages 1 and 2 of a manuscript equates to two ratings.

The numbers in parentheses (after speed/quality category averages) is the number of valid responses (that contribute to the average rating) given across all feedback completed for that journal, in each category.

The number of ratings is different from the number of responses because there are multiple questions (and responses) within each category for the feedback that a user gives. For example, a user giving feedback as an author at Stage 1 will be presented with three questions within the Speed category, and may give up to three responses.

What will happen to the website data?

Beyond being shared in aggregate on our live dashboards, the data will be used for empirical research, primarily as part of a PhD project (see 'Who is behind this website?' below). Alongside this, the intention is to publish the findings in the academic literature.

After publication, we plan to share aggregate, anonymised rating data in a public repository under an open licence (CC BY). Any optional comments provided will not be shared publicly, but may be used for qualitative analysis, to identify themes relating to Registered Reports peer review, including strengths and weaknesses of the format.

Any and all personal data collected will never be shared outside our research team, and will be deleted within 15 years of the end of the project.

For more information, see our Data Policy.

Does this research project have ethical approval?

Yes, this research project received a Favourable Opinion on 20th July 2022 by Cardiff University's School of Psychology Research Ethics Committee. For more information you can view the Consent Form and Data Policy. Any personal data provided is processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

I'm having problems verifying my account

If you receive an error when using the email verification link, it is most likely that your account has already been verified (the link will only work once).

Please try logging in directly.

Who is behind this website?

The team behind the website are Ben Meghreblian (PhD student), Chris Chambers (Supervisor), and Loukia Tzavella (Supervisor) - all based at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC). The website forms part of Ben's PhD, which has a working title of "Encouraging Registered Reports – Metascience and Tool Development".