A Primer for Transparent Reporting: The Digital Experiment Reporting Protocol (DERP)

Abstract

Research transparency and transparent reporting, as critical components of the scientific process, are garnering increasing attention in the information systems (IS) discipline. Yet while top IS journals encourage authors to report accurately, they do not offer guidance on the necessary elements of transparent reporting. To address this issue, this paper draws on the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT Statement; a checklist designed for medical trials) to develop a reporting checklist for digital experiments. We applied our checklist to top-tier IS articles (published in Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly) and found a serious reporting problem in the IS discipline: only 43% of the papers report core items in sufficient detail, underscoring the need for a standardized checklist. Our checklist provides a valuable tool for authors and reviewers to improve both study reporting and replicability.

Keywords: Methods, digital experiments, reporting, research transparency