Our paper,选择性学校和健康：自然实验，是第一个发表的注册报告BMC医学. Registered Reports are a new way of communicating research that is better, in our experience, for both science and for scientists. This format allows the study to be designed, peer-reviewed and published while the study results are not yet known to those involved.

为了实现这一目标，研究人员在收集数据之前起草了详细的分析计划。然后将该计划提交给期刊，并引入了解释研究动机的简介，然后将同行评审以正常视为。

Once reviewers and editors agree on the rigour of the design and usefulness of the study, the manuscript, and therefore the project, is given an in-principle acceptance, at which stage, data collection begins.

When data collection and analysis are complete, the authors submit a second version of the manuscript, which is then peer-reviewed again by the journal. If there are no significant variations from the initial approved method, and the findings are adequately supported by the data, the second version of the manuscript is then published as a Registered Report.

This was our first Registered Report, and while it was very different from submitting a research article, we certainly recommend it.

Compared to our usual experience in writing a ‘standard’ manuscript we spent considerably more time at the beginning of the study, designing the methods, and substantially less at the end while re-writing the final version of the text we intended to submit.

成功发布注册报告铰链on the quality of the study plan, meaning authors need to provide a very detailed and structured idea of how they intend to perform their research.

例如，我们提供了特定的参与者包容和排除标准，我们测量和得出的变量，我们将检验的每个假设以及有关研究的许多其他特定细节。

We recommend using a simulated dataset to create a functional analysis pipeline. Actually performing the analysis is helpful to understand where key decisions should be taken, and where contingency plans should be drawn.

Performing a thorough literature review is essential during the early stage of write-up, as the introduction section of a Registered Report cannot be changed after in-principle acceptance. This is one of the core aspects of the two-stage submission process, where the initial idea and methods must be consistent.

在整个经验中，我们的印象是，注册报告将是科学的更好格式，使研究人员在实验中得以严格，并鼓励发表无效或“微不足道”的结果。

We were ultimately surprised by how relaxing, even joyful, it was to do research knowing that reviewers had improved the analysis and publication was assured.

We found that working with reviewers felt less adversarial and more helpful than peer-review can sometimes be. Reviewers’ suggestions helped improve the analysis exactly when it should be changed – before it begins.

知道手稿的第一个版本被接受了所有对结果是否重要的​​惯常担忧，期刊可能会考虑该论文，如果审稿人在接受之前需要大量额外的工作，以及在发布之前可能需要多长时间。

Interestingly, like manyRegistered Reports, the results of our study were negative – we did not find a significant health difference in people who attended a selective school, making the assurance of publication even more important.

Currently, 242 journals offer Registered Reports, with BMC Medicine being the first medical journal to do so. Guidance for submitting a Registered Report to BMC Medicine are这里并且可以在开放科学注册报告中心找到大量其他指导页面这里.

Our experience in writing a Registered Report for BMC Medicine was excellent. The research was held to a very high standard of rigor and the publication was far less stressful than usual.