BNA journal joins new initiative for Registered Reports

18th Oct 2021

This week the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) journal, Brain and Neuroscience Advances, has joined a newly established initiative aimed at supporting how Registered Reports are reviewed and published , and giving more flexibility and control to authors when publishing their work.

The Peer Community In (PCI) initiative is a non-profit, non-commercial platform that publishes the peer reviews of preprints. Its new PCI Registered Reports community is dedicated to receiving, reviewing, and recommending RRs across the full spectrum of STEM, medicine, the social sciences and humanities.

Strengthening credibility

Registered Reports are a relatively new format of publication that place the emphasis on the research question and quality of the methodology, rather than the nature of the results, by providing peer review and a provisional acceptance for publication before results are known.

This removes questionable research practices such as low statistical power, selective reporting of results, and publication bias, while still being flexibile to allow for reporting of unexpected findings. 

This format has been recommended through the BNA's Credibility in Neuroscience campaign as one approach to help ensure neuroscience research is as credible as possible. A year ago this month, the journal published its very first Registered Report.  

How PCI RR will help credibility

By joining the PCI RR initiative, the BNA journal is strengthening its own Registered Reports offering for neuroscientists through opening it up to further rigorous peer review expertise provided through the peer community, in addition to speeding up the review process for the Stage I manuscript.

How PCI RR gives more control to authors

A positive recommendation through PCI RR also gives authors flexibility to choose which journal linked to the initiative will publish the final manuscript, with the single peer review providing a gateway to multiple journals including Brain and Neuroscience Advances. Authors can also delay deciding which journal to publish in until they receive their positive recommendation from their Stage II manuscript (when results have been added to the Stage I manuscript). 

Professor Chris Chambers, one of the founders of PCI RR and a member of the BNA's Credibility Advisory Board, commented: "I’m thrilled that Brain and Neuroscience Advances has chosen to become one of the growing list of journals that accept PCI RR recommendations without further review. Giving authors the choice to publish their recommended RRs in such a credible society-run journal cements the reputations of Brain and Neuroscience Advances and the BNA as innovators in reproducible science, and provides a further boost for the Registered Reports initiative.”

Brain and Neuroscience Advances Editor-in-Chief, Professor Jeff Dalley, commented: "We're delighted to join this innovative initiative. PCI RR's criteria for research quality and transparency aligns well with our journal, and we hope that the benefits and flexibility authors will gain from this will add further motivation to use the Registered Reports publishing model."

About Brain and Neuroscience Advances  

Brain and Neuroscience Advances is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, which publishes high quality translational and clinical articles from all neuroscience disciplines; including molecular, cellular, systems, behavioural and cognitive investigations.

The journal welcomes submissions in basic, translational and/or clinical neuroscience. Research papers should present novel, empirical results that are expected to be of interest to a broad spectrum of neuroscientists working in the laboratory, field or clinic. 

Brain and Neuroscience Advances is now indexed in PubMed Central.