{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/timestamp-the-analysis-plan-before-seeing-the-answer",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0269",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Timestamp the analysis plan before seeing the answer",
  "summary": "Memory is a generous editor of what you supposedly expected.",
  "kind": "protocol",
  "body": "Record the question, outcomes, exclusions, stopping rule and analysis before inspecting the relevant results. A preregistration makes the sequence visible. Changes can still be justified and reported; the point is not to trap the project in a bad plan but to prevent hindsight from rewriting the plan invisibly.",
  "limits": [
    "Preregistration does not establish design quality, ethical approval or the truth of a conclusion."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-statistical-judgment"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-8AFFAB6BB9BA52C9"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "Preregistration records a research plan before outcomes are known and makes later departures distinguishable from planned analyses.",
      "source_id": "RS-8AFFAB6BB9BA52C9",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "A timestamp cannot rescue a weak question, an unsuitable design or inaccurate reporting.",
      "locator": "Planned and unplanned analyses; changing a plan"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "You are testing a hypothesis and want planned decisions to remain distinguishable from later discoveries."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Preregistration does not establish design quality, ethical approval or the truth of a conclusion."
  ],
  "example": "A subgroup noticed after plotting the data becomes an exploratory finding rather than an allegedly original primary hypothesis.",
  "check": "A reader can reconstruct what was decided before and after results became available.",
  "steps": [
    "Write a sufficiently specific plan and timestamp it in an appropriate registry or controlled record.",
    "Run the study while preserving deviations and their reasons.",
    "Report planned analyses and label later exploratory work separately."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-8AFFAB6BB9BA52C9",
      "title": "Preregistration",
      "url": "https://www.cos.io/initiatives/prereg"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0269",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0270",
      "type": "use_before",
      "url": "/knowledge/keep-a-fresh-dataset-for-the-discovery-s-next-test"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-D4FD0B28897E9517",
      "title": "Check what a study can actually tell you",
      "url": "/collections/check-what-a-study-can-actually-tell-you"
    }
  ]
}