When planning your research, you’ve got a lot to consider. From funding, to how you’ll carry out your research, to how your work could affect the people ASHA members work with. One thing you shouldn’t be worried about is whether your findings will be new or novel enough to be published.
Journals around the world are suffering from publication bias, resulting in papers with positive or significantly significant results being published in favor of studies with negative or null results. Read more to find out how we’re confronting this issue—and how you can help by submitting a registered report.
About Registered Reports
Three years ago, the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR) began accepting manuscripts that fall under the journal’s newly developed article type: “registered report.” A registered report is an article type designed to allow authors to pursue and publish research regardless of the outcome. This is made possible by a unique, multi-stage review process.
Before you begin your research when writing a registered report, you start by submitting your introduction, methods, and any pilot data (Stage 1) for peer review. After careful examination, editors will decide whether to accept your manuscript in principle and provide other feedback from reviewers and themselves. An “in principle acceptance” means that the journal will commit to publishing your manuscript—provided that the manuscript adheres to your described methods and meets our quality standards.
Access to Important Feedback
Ryan McCreery and Julie Liss serve as our senior editors for registered reports in JSLHR. McCreery and Liss said submitting a Stage 1 manuscript gives authors a unique advantage. “Registered reports offer a chance for authors to get some critical feedback about their research questions and hypotheses and how they want to approach them,” said Liss.
McCreery agreed that reviewers play an important role by endorsing the methods in a Stage 1 manuscript, ensuring that data collection methods answer the original question. He said reviewers are looking for manuscripts with strong rationale and a high level of detail.
An Increased Likelihood of Replication Research
Publication bias also results in the findings of previous work going untested, as authors feel disincentivized to put time into replication research that may never be accepted. Registered reports are a way to submit replication research that can advance the sciences.
Liss said that important research in communication sciences and disorders has not been reexamined. “A lot of the foundational work on which theories have been built has not been replicated,” she said.
McCreery highlighted the importance of replication research to clinicians and the individuals they work with every day. “We want to make sure that the research we publish is rigorous, repeatable, and valid because it’s going to impact the care we provide to our patients,” he said.
Public Trust and Research Transparency
McCreery said that registered reports align well with open science practices and can increase public trust. “Working in fields where the impact of our research can change people’s lives [. . .] we need to make sure that our research is as transparent and open as possible,” he said.
Liss said that the registered report format encourages researchers to stick to their hypotheses and report what they find—regardless of the result. “Scientists are disincentivized from reporting things that have been done carefully [. . .] when those results are null,” she said.
Answer Our Call for Papers
Liss and McCreery are inviting registered reports focused on validating clinical tools developed with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Submitting a registered report can help you—as the author—provide ASHA members with transparent and rigorous supporting research that they can use before making decisions in the clinic.
The senior editors ask for manuscripts by April 15, 2027. Learn more by reading the Call for Papers, and be sure to check back for more calls for papers on the ASHA Journals Academy.
More on Registered Reports
We hope that you’ll join this worldwide movement for open science and submit a registered report to JSLHR on AI or any other topic.Before you start work on your registered report, be sure to check out our additional resources below.
You can hear more about the purpose of and review process for registered reports from Liss and McCreery in a new video series on the ASHA Journals Academy. We’d like to thank them for taking the time to talk to us—and for all the work they do as senior editors for registered reports at JSLHR.
Detailed Information on Registered Reports
Announcing a New Registered Report Article Type (Editorial)
Previous Coverage of Registered Reports in our Context Blog
Questions About Registered Reports (ASHA Journals Academy Knowledge Base)
