This pilot is designed to promote rigorous, transparent, and credible research. The Registered Reports (RRs) publishing method enables those outcomes by restructuring incentives in scientific publishing, where researchers are rewarded for producing rigorous and transparent science.
RRs support values of open science including:
COS prepared training materials and other resources to provide an introduction to Registered Reports. You can find the resources on the COS website or use this link.
As noted above, COS prepared training materials and other resources to provide an introduction to Registered Reports. You can find the resources on the COS website or use this link.
Meta has provided a User Guide that will describe in greater detail the data that can be made available as part of this pilot program, and how it will be possible to merge with other study data collected by pilot researchers.
You must first submit your Stage 1 RR to the Lifecycle Journal and receive in-principle acceptance before accessing the data. If the Stage 1 Registered Report is accepted, you will coordinate with Meta for data access and your Stage 1 Registered Report, peer reviews, and editorial decision will be made public as part of COS’s Lifecycle Journal, with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos for ethical or proprietary concerns.
Yes. Researchers must submit evidence of approval by a university ethics committee or IRB with their Stage 1 Registered Report before in-principle acceptance is confirmed.
Researchers should avoid including information about their identities or hypotheses so that Meta remains blind to those considerations when evaluating data availability requests. As a result, the evaluation of Data Request Forms will be focused on whether the data is feasible to make available as part of this pilot program.
Meta aims to provide a list of data in the User Guide that covers a wide range of features and experiences on Instagram that would have research utility, balanced against the privacy of research participants and other users on our platform, as well as feasibility. The list of data provided in the User Guide aims to be sufficiently comprehensive to conduct research on the topics listed in the Request for Proposals (RFP). Researchers may request additional data in their Data Request Forms that they believe are more valuable for their research. Access the User Guide here.
The pilot program was designed to promote the values of open science (i.e. transparency, reproducibility, and rigor). Making research artifacts openly available is in line with these values and thus is encouraged or required (where applicable) throughout the pilot program.
Below is a summary of the reporting expectations for Stage 1 and 2 RRs detailing which materials can (or must) be open at each step of the process.
Stage 1 Registered Report Reporting Expectations
Object |
Status if Rejected |
Status if In-Principle Accepted |
---|---|---|
Pre-Proposal Form |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Data Request Form and Meta’s Response |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Stage 1 RR paper (original and revised, if applicable) |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Stage 1 RR reviews |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Stage 1 RR author response to reviews |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Stage 1 Editor decision |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Stage 1 Lifecycle Journal evaluations |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
University ethics approval, research materials, etc. |
Closed by default; Author decision to Open |
Open by default; Closed with Editor-approved exceptions or embargos |
Stage 2 Registered Report Reporting Expectations
Object |
Status if Rejected |
Status if Accepted |
---|---|---|
Stage 2 RR paper (original and revised, if applicable) |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Stage 2 RR reviews |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Stage 2 RR author response to reviews |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Stage 2 Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Stage 2 Lifecycle Journal evaluations |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Metadata, code, research materials, etc. |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Open by default upon Editor decision |
Researcher’s data |
Open by default; Closed if required, but with a path for restricted data access disclosed for reproduction purposes |
Open by default; Closed if required, but with a path for restricted data access disclosed for reproduction purposes |
Consented Instagram user data whether isolated or when combined with any other data |
Closed by default with path for restricted data access for reproduction purposes |
Closed by default with path for restricted data access for reproduction purposes |
Details on the Lifecycle Journal can be found here.
All Lifecycle Journal publications will be openly licensed (CC-BY) allowing the content to be reused elsewhere. Authors will have the option to assign a Version of Record (VOR) declaring the work completed and published in Lifecycle Journals; if they do not assign a VOR, they will have the option to submit the completed work elsewhere.
An objective of the Lifecycle Journal is to introduce innovations that will transform the vision and value of journals into effective facilitators of knowledge production and self-correction. One of these innovations is incorporating several human, machine, and empirical evaluations in a dynamic marketplace of credibility assessments.
For example, a service like FAIRsharing might provide authors with feedback about the quality of the documentation of shared data and materials that can be used to improve their usability. The full array of evaluation services will diversify assessment and increase engagement with the quality of the scholarly work submitted through the Lifecycle Journal project.
These evaluations are intended to deepen scholarly engagement with the research produced in this pilot program and will not affect decision-making by the editorial board.
No. Participation in the Lifecycle Journal experimental evaluation services is an expectation for participation in the pilot program as a whole.
At this time, we can only accept and provide materials in English.
If your preproposal submission is found ineligible, COS will contact you within 5 business days of your original submission until the submission deadline on September 5th. If COS communicates that your proposal is found ineligible due to a “fixable” error (e.g. missing email address, forgotten question, formatting, etc.), you will have the opportunity to submit a new response to the preproposal form with corrected information until the September 5th deadline.
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