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From: Protecting against researcher bias in secondary data analysis: challenges and potential solutions
Pre-registration may not prevent selective reporting/outcome switching | The COMPare Trials Project [62] assessed outcome switching in clinical trials published in the top 5 medical journals between October 2015 and January 2016. Among 67 clinical trials, on average, each trial reported 58.2% of its specified outcomes, and silently added 5.3 new outcomes |
Pre-registration may be performed retrospectively after the results are known | Mathieu et al. [63] assessed 323 clinical trials published in 2008 in the top 10 medical journals. 45 trials (13.9%) were registered after the completion of the study |
Deviations from pre-registered protocols are common | Claesen et al. [57] assessed all pre-registered articles published in Psychological Science and between February 2015 and November 2017. All 23 articles deviated from the pre-registration, and only one study disclosed the deviation |
Pre-registration may not improve the credibility of hypotheses | Rubin [64] and Szollosi, Kellen [65] argue that formulating hypotheses post-hoc (HARK-ing) is not problematic if they are deduced from pre-existing theory or evidence, rather than induced from the current results |