Exploring opportunities and practices for registered reports in qualitative research

This talk was presented at the University of Manchester Open Research Conference, 9-10 June 2025.

There is growing exploration of how Registered Reports (RRs) can benefit individual researchers and wider research fields as part of a wider shift towards open research principles and practices. Much of the work in this area focuses on quantitative research, but there is also interest in exploring how RRs can operate in the context of qualitative research. Here, with an illustrative emphasis on mental health research as the field in which we work, we explore the place for qualitative research and examine possibilities for how RRs fit within principles and practices in such methods. Drawing on our recently published article in this area, we discuss the various benefits and challenges of RRs in qualitative research, reflecting on our experiences as authors and reviewers of qualitative RRs and exploring how research infrastructure can facilitate engagement with this publishing approach.

ASSOCIATED LINKS

https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14039 https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/erjvz/ https://osf.io/pa46z