Registered reports are scientific publications which begin the publication process by first having the detailed research protocol, including key research questions, reviewed and approved by peers. Subsequent analysis and results are published with minimal additional review, even if there was no clear support for the underlying hypothesis, as long as the approved protocol is followed. Registered reports can prevent several questionable research practices and give early feedback on research designs. In software engineering research, registered reports were first introduced in the International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR) in 2020. They are now established in three conferences and two pre-eminent journals, including Empirical Software Engineering. We explain the motivation for registered reports, outline the way they have been implemented in software engineering, and outline some ongoing challenges for addressing high quality software engineering research.

翻译：注册报告是一种科研出版物形式，其出版流程始于研究方案的详细同行评审与批准——该方案包括关键研究问题。后续分析与结果若遵循已批准的方案，无论原始假设是否得到明确支持，仅需最少附加审查即可发表。注册报告能有效预防若干有问题的研究实践，并为研究设计提供早期反馈。在软件工程研究领域，注册报告于2020年首次在采矿软件仓库国际会议（MSR）中引入。目前，该机制已在三个学术会议和两本顶级期刊（包括《实证软件工程》）中确立。本文阐述了注册报告的提出动机，概述其在软件工程领域的实施方式，并指出了提升软件工程研究质量所面临的若干持续性挑战。