During the last few months, COVID-19 has affected everyone’s lives to some extent. For researchers like us psychologists that rely on data collection involving human interaction, this sometimes meant a complete halt of all research activities because laboratories had to be closed. Especially for early-career researchers, several months of not being able to collect data can have serious consequences. They need publications to graduate, but they often need data to publish in journals.

Traditionally, psychologists first collect data and then write an article. Recently, more and more journals in our field have introduced a format that allows us to publish before we collect data, namely “registered reports”. The idea is that the research question, the hypotheses, the study details, and the planned analyses undergo peer review before data collection. Authors thereby receive critical feedback and can improve their studies before they invest valuable resources. This way, the ideas and the soundness of the proposed research are evaluated instead of whether the results are “interesting”. If the manuscript then meets the journal’s requirements, the article receives an in-principle acceptance. That means, it will be published no matter how the results turn out (given that the authors follow the procedures previously agreed upon). Studies that do not yield the expected results are therefore still being published and do not disappear in the “file drawer”, which happens all too often.

Besides these benefits, registered reports enable researchers to add publications to their CV even when they cannot collect data in the lab, as was the case with our registered report. In our article, we propose three studies to examine whether the act of sharing secrets influences the relationship between two people. Intuitively, one might think it does. It might, however, also depend on the nature of the secrets shared, meaning whether they are positive or whether they shine a negative light on the person who shares them.  All of this has not been studied yet.

Before our work was accepted as a first stage registered report at PLOS ONE, it went through peer review at two other journals and the respective feedback helped us to craft the current and more compelling paper. We hope that the COVID-19 situation remains under control and that we will soon be able to collect data. Yet, even during the lockdown, we were able to contribute to the scientific literature and will complement our work with data as soon as possible.

Jaffé, M., & Douneva, M. (2020). Secretive and close? How sharing secrets may impact perceptions of distance. PLOS ONE, 15: e0233953. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233953