Developmental cognitive neuroscience initiatives for advancements in methodological approaches: Registered Reports and Next-Generation Tools

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience is excited to introduce two new article types at the journal, effective May 15, 2020: Next-Gen Tools and Registered Reports. Next-Gen Tools provide an outlet for methodological advancements and best practices in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Registered Reports provide the opportunity for peer review of study protocol, including hypotheses and methods, prior to data collection or analysis. As many articles have been written about this important tool for open science, we focus on topics we believe are of particular relevance to developmental cognitive neuroscientists. One emphasis is on what are called registered reports of secondary data analysis, that is, proposals to analyze data that have already been collected. Given the wide-spread use of longitudinal methods and preexisting data in the field, we believe this type of registered report will be common, perhaps the majority of this submission type at DCN. We also present potential challenges for registered reports in developmental cognitive neuroscience and suggest possible solutions, in an effort to facilitate the adoption of this approach. Both article types will also appear as ongoing virtual special sections.