Neurosalience #S6E12 with Oscar Esteban & Mallar Chakravarty - Registered reports: Better science or just more overhead?

"Registered reports foster clarity upfront…"

Dr. Oscar Esteban is a professor at Lausanne University Hospital whose lab develops open neuroimaging infrastructure, best known for tools like fMRIPrep and MRIQC. Dr. Mallar Chakravarty is Director of the Brain Imaging Center at the Douglas Research Centre at McGill University and co-editor-in-chief of Aperture Neuro.

In this conversation, Peter, Mallar, and Oscar unpack what registered reports are and why they emerged as a response to the file drawer problem and publication bias toward positive results. Drawing on Oscar’s firsthand experience using registered reports in his own lab, the discussion explores how front-loading peer review can sharpen experimental design, protect researchers pursuing high-risk science, and give trainees meaningful early career credit. But the conversation doesn’t shy away from harder questions: Can any publication mechanism truly fix an incentive-driven culture? Where does the natural, iterative cycle of exploratory science fit in? And are registered reports the right tool for every type of science or just some of it?

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Chapters:

06:12 - Understanding Registered Reports

10:48 - The Origin and Motivation Behind Registered Reports

15:03 - Concerns and Challenges of Registered Reports

21:08 - Exploratory vs. Confirmatory Research

30:50 - The Role of Registered Reports in Training Researchers

42:15 - The Role of Pre-registration in Scientific Rigor

53:59 - The Systemic Challenges in Scientific Publishing

01:06:29 - Concluding Thoughts on Registered Reports

Resources:

01:02:37 - About PCI Registered Reports - Peer Community In https://rr.peercommunityin.org/about

Episode producers:

Xuqian Michelle Li