Transparent reporting

No Action (Quant.)

Methods and results are reported only at a basic level, with insufficient detail to allow others to verify, reproduce, or fully understand the research process and findings. 

Moving from No Action to Emerging in Transparent Reporting & Methodology (Quant.)

1. To progress from No Action to Emerging, begin by adopting transparent reporting habits that make your methods clear, replicable, and aligned with open science expectations. 
2. Use established reporting guidelines. Follow discipline-appropriate frameworks such as CONSORT (clinical trials), PRISMA (systematic reviews), STROBE (observational studies), or ARRIVE (animal research). These guidelines help ensure your reports are complete, consistent, and comparable across studies. 
3. Be transparent about deviations. If you make changes to your preregistered plan or study design, clearly explain what changed, why it changed, and how it may have influenced your results. Transparency about deviations strengthens the credibility of your findings. 
4. Provide sufficient methodological detail. Describe your study design, participants, materials, measures, instruments, software, and analysis steps in enough detail that another researcher could replicate or extend your work. 
5. Share supporting documents. Where possible, make your preregistration, protocols, survey instruments, and analysis plans publicly available through platforms such as the Open Science Framework (OSF) or your institutional repository. You can keep these files under embargo until publication if needed. 
6. Make reports clear and accessible. Write in plain, precise language and minimise unnecessary jargon. Use supplementary materials or appendices to explain complex methods or analyses in more depth for readers. 
7. Align with open science and policy expectations. Familiarise yourself with the transparency requirements of your target journal, funder, or institutional framework (for example, the Research Excellence Framework (REF)). Doing so ensures your work meets current and emerging standards in open research. 

Emerging (Quant.)

Methodology and results are described in moderate detail, but some key information remains incomplete or inconsistently reported. Reporting guidelines may be partially followed, and main analyses are understandable, though not yet fully reproducible. 

Moving from Emerging to Evolving in Transparent Reporting & Methodology (Quant.)

1. To progress from Emerging to Evolving, focus on making your reporting systematic, detailed, and proactively accessible to others. 
2. Adopt a reporting guideline. Consistently follow an established reporting framework suited to your research area, such as CONSORT for clinical trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews, or STROBE for observational studies. Apply it throughout your manuscript to ensure completeness and comparability. 
3. Report all results. Present all findings, including exploratory and non-significant results, either in the main paper or in supplementary materials. This transparency helps prevent selective reporting and provides a more accurate representation of your work. 
4. Expand methodological detail. Offer sufficient information on study design, sampling, materials, measures, and analytic steps so others could realistically replicate or extend your research. Specify software, packages, and statistical methods used. 
5. Add a README or methods appendix. Create a concise README file or a detailed methods appendix summarising the purpose of the study, key methodological decisions, and how analyses were conducted. 
6. Share materials proactively. Deposit protocols, survey instruments, and analysis plans in trusted repositories such as the Open Science Framework (OSF), Zenodo, or your institutional repository. Make them publicly available when possible, rather than only on request. 
7. Clarify deviations transparently. If your study diverged from a preregistered plan, clearly explain what changed, why, and how it might affect interpretation. 

Evolving (Quant.)

Methodology and results are reported with enough clarity and detail to enable replication. Supplementary materials such as protocols, instruments, or analysis scripts are often included to enhance transparency and support verification by others. 

Moving from Evolving to Sustained in Transparent Reporting & Methodology (Quant.)

1. To move from Evolving to Sustained, focus on embedding transparency into every stage of your research process so that openness, reproducibility, and clarity become standard practice. 
2. Preregister all studies. Make preregistration a routine part of your workflow for all confirmatory research. Specify hypotheses, study design, data collection methods, and planned analyses in advance using platforms such as OSF Registries or Aspredicted.org. 
3. Publish full protocols. Share detailed study protocols in open repositories or protocol journals such as BMJ Open or F1000Research. Doing so allows others to review and provide feedback on your approach before results are known. 
4. Apply reporting checklists rigorously. Complete and submit field-appropriate reporting checklists, such as CONSORT, PRISMA or STROBE, with every manuscript to ensure comprehensive and consistent reporting. 
5. Share complete materials and data dictionaries. Deposit all supporting materials, including surveys, instruments, coding manuals, and analysis scripts, in trusted repositories such as the Open Science Framework (OSF) or Zenodo. Use clear file structures, descriptive filenames, and data dictionaries to make materials easy to navigate and reuse. 
6. Report all results transparently. Present all findings, including non-significant, null, or exploratory results, in the main text or as supplementary materials to provide a complete and unbiased account of your research outcomes. 
7. Maintain an open methods workflow. Keep a detailed record of updates, deviations, and analytic decisions in a changelog or open lab notebook. This documentation enables others to trace the evolution of your analyses and understand your decision-making process. 
8. Ensure accessibility and clarity. Write methods sections and supplementary materials in clear, jargon-free language to make your research accessible to scholars from other disciplines and to non-specialist readers. 
9. Embed transparency in team culture. Make open and transparent reporting a default expectation within your research group. Train students and collaborators in these practices, incorporate checklist reviews into team workflows, and model best practices in every project. 

Sustained (Quant.)

Full transparency is consistently embedded across all stages of research. Detailed methods, results, and supplementary materials are routinely reported and openly shared in line with recognised community standards. Reporting is systematic, comprehensive, and proactively prioritised to ensure that studies are fully reproducible, verifiable, and aligned with best practices in open science. 

Guidance for Sustained Level in Transparent Reporting & Methodology (Quant.)

Congratulations on reaching this level of practice. You are operating beyond good practice and contributing as a field leader in open and ethically grounded research. At the Sustained level, transparency is fully integrated into your research workflow and leadership practice. You not only model open reporting but also help shape norms, policies, and training that advance transparency across your field. To maintain and further improve at this level, consider the following: 

• Publish registered reports. Submit studies as Registered Reports whenever possible, allowing peer review before data collection. This approach strengthens methodological rigour, reduces publication bias, and increases confidence in your results. 
• Promote transparency in the community. Advocate for open and transparent reporting by leading workshops, publishing commentaries, or presenting at conferences. Encourage collaborators and peers to adopt transparent practices as a standard of scientific quality. 
• Mentor and train others. Integrate transparency into supervision and research training. Develop lab guidelines, supervision templates, or training modules that teach early-career researchers how to document, preregister, and report methods clearly. 
• Contribute to reporting standards. Join professional working groups or editorial boards that create, evaluate, or revise reporting frameworks such as CONSORT, PRISMA, or STROBE. Contributing to these initiatives helps shape best practice across disciplines. 
• Audit and reflect on your own work. Periodically review published studies from your team to assess the completeness and clarity of reporting. Identify gaps, update lab protocols, and refine your documentation practices accordingly. 
• Conduct meta-research on transparency. Study how transparent reporting influences reproducibility, credibility, and impact within your field. Share these findings to strengthen the evidence base for open science. 
• Influence institutional practice. Collaborate with your department, faculty, or institution to embed transparent reporting into standard operating procedures, training programmes, and promotion criteria. This ensures transparency is recognised and rewarded as a marker of research excellence.