A Registered Report Survey of Open Research Practices in Psychology Departments in the UK and Ireland

Open research practices seek to enhance the transparency and reproducibility of research. Whilst there is evidence of increased uptake in these practices, such as study preregistration and open data, facilitated by new infrastructure and policies, little research has assessed general uptake of such practices across university researchers. The current study estimates psychologists’ level of engagement in open research practices across universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, while also assessing possible explanatory factors that may impact their engagement. Data were collected from [insert final number of participants] psychology researchers in the UK and Ireland on the extent to which individual researchers have implemented various practices (e.g., use of preprints, preregistration, open data, open materials). Here we present the summarised descriptive results, as well as considering differences between various categories of researcher (e.g., career stage, subdiscipline, methodology), and examining the link between researcher’s practices and their self-reported capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM-B) to engage in open research practices. Results show [e.g., that there is wide/little variability across the discipline as well as differences between established researchers and postgraduate research students/postdoctoral researchers, who are more/less likely to be engaging in responsible research practices]. Estimating the prevalence of responsible research practices is important to assess sustained behaviour change in research reform, tailor educational training initiatives, and to understand potential factors that might impact engagement.