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Using an established measure can save substantial development work, but an existing instrument is not automatically suitable for every study. Learn when adaptation or new measure development may be justified and what each choice requires.
Read Guide →A defensible research design is not simply one that follows a recognized method. It is one in which the research question, evidence, procedures, analysis, and conclusions are coherently aligned and the important methodological choices can be justified.
Read Guide →Rigor in qualitative research concerns whether the study provides a methodologically coherent, transparent, and well-supported interpretation of the phenomenon. Credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability provide one influential framework for thinking about that trustworthiness.
Read Guide →Qualitative research needs rigorous evidence that its interpretations are trustworthy, but it does not necessarily use reliability and validity in the same way as quantitative measurement. The appropriate terminology and criteria depend on the methodological tradition.
Read Guide →Trustworthiness is established through a coherent set of practices that make qualitative interpretations credible, traceable, grounded in evidence, and appropriately contextualized. The right strategies depend on the methodology rather than a universal checklist.
Read Guide →Rigorous mixed-methods research requires more than conducting a quantitative study and a qualitative study in the same project. Each component must be methodologically sound, and their integration must be justified, coherent, transparent, and capable of producing insights that matter to the research question.
Read Guide →Important limitations do not automatically make research worthless. Their significance depends on what they threaten, how severely they affect the inference, how much uncertainty remains, and whether the conclusions stay within what the evidence can support.
Read Guide →Every testable hypothesis should have a corresponding analytical path, but the relationship is not always one hypothesis to one statistical test. The analysis must evaluate the specific claim the hypothesis makes.
Read Guide →Qualitative studies benefit from planning analysis before data collection, but the plan should not predetermine what the data must reveal. Good qualitative planning establishes an analytical direction while preserving the flexibility required by the methodology.
Read Guide →A qualitative analysis plan should explain how researchers will move from raw material to defensible interpretations without pretending that the final codes, themes, or findings can all be known in advance.
Read Guide →A statistician or methodologist can often contribute most before data collection begins, when the research question, design, measurements, sampling, sample size, and analysis can still be changed.
Read Guide →Pilot and feasibility studies both reduce uncertainty before a larger study, but the terms are not simply interchangeable. Feasibility is the broader question of whether and how a future study can be done, while a pilot study typically tests part or all of the intended study on a smaller scale.
Read Guide →Not every research project needs a formal pilot or feasibility study. Preliminary work is most valuable when important uncertainties about whether or how the main study can be conducted cannot be resolved adequately from existing evidence or simpler testing.
Read Guide →A pilot study should test the uncertain procedures and processes that must work for the future main study to succeed. Its objectives should focus on feasibility rather than trying to provide a small, underpowered answer to the main research question.
Read Guide →A protocol version identifies a particular documented state of the study plan. Version control and change tracking show which plan was current at a given time, what later changed, and why, without rewriting the study’s methodological history.
Read Guide →A research protocol benefits from review by people who can evaluate its scientific logic, methods, analysis, feasibility, and ethical implications. The right reviewers depend on the study, and formal ethics review should not be confused with the broader methodological review a protocol may need.
Read Guide →A research protocol is ready to be finalized when its consequential study decisions are sufficiently resolved, its methods fit together, its procedures are feasible, and the document is ready for the reviews and approvals required before research begins.
Read Guide →Preregistration records important research decisions before the results are known, while Registered Reports add peer review before the study is completed. Neither requires researchers to predict everything perfectly or abandon legitimate changes and exploration.
Read Guide →Preregistration creates a time-stamped record of important research decisions before the relevant results are known. Its main value is making it easier to distinguish advance plans from decisions influenced by the data.
Read Guide →Preregistration records what you planned before seeing the relevant results; it does not require you to follow a flawed or impractical plan forever. Changes can be legitimate when they are disclosed, justified, and interpreted appropriately.
Read Guide →Many parts of a study can still change after preregistration, from recruitment and procedures to exclusions and analyses. What matters is why and when the change occurred, whether the results influenced it, and how transparently it is reported.
Read Guide →A protocol describes how you plan to conduct a study; preregistration creates a time-stamped record of research decisions before the relevant results are known. The same document can sometimes serve both purposes, but the concepts are not interchangeable.
Read Guide →Preregistration records a study plan before the relevant results are known. A Registered Report adds prospective journal peer review and in-principle acceptance, making publication less dependent on how the results turn out.
Read Guide →Preregistration can be valuable beyond conventional experiments, but not every study benefits in the same way. Its usefulness depends on which decisions can meaningfully be specified in advance and what transparency the advance record adds.
Read Guide →Qualitative research can be preregistered without pretending that its design is fixed or hypothesis-driven. A useful qualitative preregistration documents the study's starting point while preserving legitimate methodological adaptation.
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