Registered reports are scientific publications which begin the publication process by first having the detailed research protocol, including key research questions, reviewed and approved by peers. Subsequent analysis and results are published with minimal additional review, even if there was no clear support for the underlying hypothesis, as long as the approved protocol is followed. Registered reports can prevent several questionable research practices and give early feedback on research designs. In software engineering research, registered reports were first introduced in the International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR) in 2020. They are now established in three conferences and two pre-eminent journals, including Empirical Software Engineering. We explain the motivation for registered reports, outline the way they have been implemented in software engineering, and outline some ongoing challenges for addressing high quality software engineering research.
翻译:注册报告是科学出版物,其出版过程首先有详细的研究议定书,包括关键的研究问题,并由同行审查并核准;随后的分析和结果的出版只有极少的附加审查,即使未经明确支持基本假设,只要所核准的议定书得到遵守;注册报告可以防止若干可疑的研究做法,并就研究设计提供早期反馈;在软件工程研究方面,注册报告首先在2020年的采矿软件储存库国际会议上提出,现在由三次会议和两个突出的期刊设立,包括 " 经验软件工程 " ;我们解释已登记报告的动机,概述在软件工程方面实施这些报告的方式,并概述目前处理高质量软件工程研究的一些挑战。