Pre-Analysis Plan
A time-stamped document, registered before data are analysed (often before collection), specifying hypotheses, primary outcomes, subgroups, and the estimation/inference plan. By committing to analyses in advance, a PAP limits researcher degrees of freedom — specification search, outcome switching, and selective reporting (p-hacking) — that otherwise inflate false positives and feed publication bias. It is a central instrument of the research-transparency movement, though its optimal scope is debated: rigid plans can crowd out legitimate learning, motivating “moderation” in how strictly they bind.
Relied on by
RCTs and prospective observational studies; the credibility/transparency agenda in empirical economics.