Registered Reports are intended to strengthen the methodology and the transparency of research papers seeking to answer defined questions. Submission is a two-stage process. In the first, the authors submit a proposed study protocol. If the study protocol passes initial review, BMC Medicine will post it in the Registered Reports section of its website and make a commitment to publish the results, regardless of the outcome, assuming that the methods and analysis in the final study conforms to the initially approved proposal, and that any conclusions are justified given the data.

The Registered Reports format in BMC Medicine is open to manuscripts reporting on quantitative and qualitative studies of any experimental design, that are well poised to have significant implications for future research, policy, and/or clinical and global health practice.  This format is also open to clinical trials and systematic reviews.

Find out more about this publication format and read our author and reviewer guidelines for additional information.

As the Registered Reports format is a new initiative in BMC Medicine, we would be grateful for your feedback. Please use this form to submit your comments.

To enable authors of Registered Reports share their work and collaborate with colleagues, we’re piloting three complimentary and completely optional author services.

We therefore invite you to deposit your protocol in our Registered Reports portal in the figshare repository, make use of 50GB of private project workspace and benefit from our data curation services. Learn more and register your interest by completing this simple form.

Preregistration Challenge: BMC Medicine is participating in the Center for Open Science $1,000,000 Preregistration Challenge: 1,000 researchers will win $1,000 each for publishing results of preregistered research.  If you wish to participate, follow the steps outlined by COS.  Although BMC Medicine is supportive of this initiative, pre-registering your study with COS does not guarantee publication in the journal as the submission and review process for Registered Reports at BMC Medicine still applies to all submissions.

BMC Medicine follows the BioMed Central guidelines on standards of reporting for research. In particular, we strongly recommend that authors refer to the minimum reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the EQUATOR Network when preparing their manuscript.

Please note that for all Registered Reports of clinical trials BMC Medicine requires the submission of a populated SPIRIT checklist and figure. The figure should be included in the main body of the text and the checklist should be provided as an additional file; both the figure and the checklist should be referenced in the text. Both files can be downloaded here.

Reports of completed randomized controlled trials should follow CONSORT reporting standards.

It is understood that for some studies certain aspects of the report may not comply fully with the pre-specified checklist. The checklist will not be used as a tool for judging the suitability of manuscripts for publication in BMC Medicine, but is intended as an aid to authors to clearly, completely, and transparently let reviewers and readers know what authors did and found. Using these guidelines to write the report, completing the checklist, and constructing a flow diagram are likely to optimize the quality of reporting and make the peer review process more efficient. 

For information on how to submit your report, please view the slide presentation on this page.

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