v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack AStablev2026.2

Stage-1 protocol

The introduction, methods, and analysis plan submitted as the first of two stages of a registered report, peer-reviewed for theoretical motivation, design adequacy, and analytic appropriateness, and (if accepted) granted in-principle acceptance for publication.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A Stage 1 submission to Cortex describing a planned fMRI study with full methods and a pre-specified Bayesian analysis

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A general grant proposal is not a Stage 1 protocol (it is not peer-reviewed for IPA into a publication)

Editorial commentary

Stage 1 submissions contain no results because data have not yet been collected. Reviewers evaluate the question’s significance, the design’s ability to answer it, and the pre-specified inference rules. Accepted Stage 1 protocols are typically registered publicly (OSF, journal site).

References

Center for Open Science Registered Reports Workflow
Chambers and Tzavella 2022 Nature Human Behaviour

Also known as

Stage 1 RR · RR Stage 1

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Stage-1 protocol"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/stage-1-protocol" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "Stage-1 protocol",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/stage-1-protocol",
  "description": "The introduction, methods, and analysis plan submitted as the first of two stages of a registered report, peer-reviewed for theoretical motivation, design adequacy, and analytic appropriateness, and (if accepted) granted in-principle acceptance for publication.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-outputs-expanded/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/stage-1-protocol",
  "sameAs": [
    "Stage 1 RR",
    "RR Stage 1"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

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