Re-printed below is a letter that appeared in the December 2012 issue of the Australian Journal of Parapsychology (Correspondence) about registration of planned parapsychological studies with the Koestler Parapsychology Unit. It is of course necessary to bring to the attention of researchers the fact that other registers exist (e.g., Open Science Framework). We (the editorial team of the Australian Journal of Parapsychology, its affiliates, and peer reviewers) maintain the policy that responsible and accountable scientific research starts with experimenters and researchers, but we make no demands on researchers to register their studies; nor do we intend to pass judgement on submissions that do not demonstrate registration. As always, we judge a paper on its merits and contributions to science. We also advise those researchers considering registration to think carefully about the implications and possible repercussions of the practice of registration.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
To the Editor,
We would like to bring to the attention of the readership of this journal that a webpage for registering parapsychological experiments has been implemented by the Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU) at the University of Edinburgh, with Jim Kennedy advising on the development of the registry. The value of study registration for a controversial area such as parapsychology has been mentioned many times over the years.
Prospective registration of experiments provides a database for research synthesis that is not subject to possible reporting or publication biases. Registration also increases confidence by providing clear evidence that the key hypotheses and analyses were planned prior to conducting the experiment.
Among other benefits, registration should be of value to editors and reviewers during the publication process.
Registration of experiments is a well-established practice in medical research and enhances the credibility of a study. The KPU registry webpage is at:
http://www.koestler-parapsychology.psy.ed.ac.uk/TrialRegistry.html
We expect that other options for study registration will become available in the future. Our intention is for the KPU registry webpage to also serve as a resource that provides information about other registration options as they become available.
Caroline Watt
Koestler Parapsychology Unit
Department of Psychology
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
University of Edinburgh
7 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK
Email: Caroline.Watt@ed.ac.uk