Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Registration Process

1. Once I have begun the registration, can I save a draft and return to complete the registration at a later time?
2. Is my submission to RIDIE reviewed?
3. What is a Pre-Analysis Plan?
4. How much of the information I register about my study will be made public?
5. I am new to Impact Evaluation and am not confident that I understand all the terminology. What should I do?
6. I don’t understand a question that is being asked. What should I do?
7. How do I interpret the ‘prospective’ classification category assigned to my registration?
8. I have registered and submitted my study to RIDIE. Now what?
9. What if information on my study changes after it has been registered?
10. How do I cite a registered study from RIDIE?

1. Once I have begun the registration, can I save a draft and return to complete the registration at a later time?

Yes. Your entry will not be committed to RIDIE until you click “submit”. At any time before that, you can save your work in progress by clicking the “save” button and logging out. You can log in later to continue. You can also download the work you have done so far for off-line reviewing.

2. Is my submission to RIDIE reviewed?

RIDIE staff will review all entries for logical consistency and completeness. We do not evaluate the quality of the research idea, design, or methods.

3. What is a Pre-Analysis Plan?

A pre-analysis plan is a detailed description of the analysis to be conducted that is written in advance of seeing the data. It may specify hypotheses to be tested, variable construction, equations to be estimated, controls to be used, and other aspects of the analysis. A key function of the analysis plan is to increase transparency in the research. By setting out the details in advance of what will be done and before knowing the results, the existence of the plan guards against data mining and specification searching. There are a number of resources on writing pre-analysis plans. See here for more information and examples.

4. How much of the information I register about my study will be made public?

RIDIE allows users to request that certain fields be kept private for the study period, so as to protect intellectual property as well as sensitive information that could adversely affect study participants or research projects. Most fields in RIDIE are public, and we encourage registrants to carefully assess the merits of restricting access to some information. Please refer to the downloadable Registration Fields Example for the possible designations of the various fields.

All fields will be made public upon study completion.

5. I am new to Impact Evaluation and am not confident that I understand all the terminology. What should I do?

RIDIE provides guidance for many potentially difficult fields. You can also review the fields in the downloadable Registration Fields Example. There are many resources and glossaries of terms that you can consult, including 3ie’s Impact Evaluation page, which also provides multilingual glossaries: 3ie Multilingual Glossaries.

6. I don’t understand a question that is being asked. What should I do?

A number of fields have "Help" buttons. For further help, please refer to our Guide to Registration, or contact us at 3ie@3ieimpact.org.

7. How do I interpret the ‘prospective’ classification category assigned to my registration?

In general terms, a registration is prospective if researchers prepare and submit a research design and hypotheses to be tested before the impacts of the program they are evaluating are measured, or if the impacts have been measured, before they are known. Pre-registering evaluation plans is a means for ensuring transparency in reporting and protecting against researcher bias, reporting bias, and publication bias. See here for more information: Benefits of Prospective Registration.

Based on the information provided, RIDIE classifies a registration into one of four categories. The first three distinguish among prospective registrations according to whether: data measuring the impacts have yet to be been collected (if so, category 1 is assigned), the data exist but these data have not been obtained or analyzed yet by the study researchers (category 2), or the data have been obtained by the researchers but analysis has not started (category 3). The fourth category is where analysis has begun so is classified as non-prospective.

Note that other than cases where the data on impacts have not yet been collected (category 1, which generally includes RCTs), it is generally not possible to clearly verify that the registration is prospective. In particular, where the dataset with impacts information already exists, it is hard to establish that researchers had no access to it or had not examined it before they registered the study. In some cases, access to restricted data can be verified and dated, hence can be shown to have occurred after the registration. However, the philosophy of RIDIE is to accept what researchers say about whether they have access to or have examined the data on impacts at the time of registration, while at the same time distinguishing these cases.

8. I have registered and submitted my study to RIDIE. Now what?

The registration will be checked for consistency by RIDIE staff. If there are no problems, the registration will be released publicly within several days. If there are items needing attention, you will be notified by email and asked to make changes as appropriate. Please see the Guide to Registration for a walkthrough of the process.

9. What if information on my study changes after it has been registered?

You can make changes to your entry after the study has been registered, in any area—data source, research partners or funders, study population, evaluation design, etc. You will also be able to describe or explain any changes you make.

10. How do I cite a registered study from RIDIE?

You can use the unique RIDIE identifier to cite and locate a study using the Advanced Search function.