Call for papers

Registered Reports of studies of trigeminal pain

Published monthly on behalf of the International Headache Society, Cephalalgia contains original peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of headache and facial pain. The journal provides an international forum for original research papers, review articles and brief communications. Cephalalgia's rapid review averages 2 ½ weeks from author submission to first decision. Readers receive timely cutting edge original articles, editorials, reviews, letters, and clinical correspondence on both clinical and basic research.

Building on our strong research publishing foundation, Cephalalgia introduces a mechanism that adds to the best research practices that the journal has been promoting for decades, and for which Cephalalgia is recognised in the headache community: Robust, replicable, methodologically sound, and conceptually meaningful. The planned publication type will support these endeavors by inviting authors to submit their study protocols, including hypotheses, aims, methods, and expected outcomes of studies they are planning to conduct. These manuscripts will undergo full peer-review including a review by a biostatistician. If the manuscript is accepted, the study protocols will be published in Cephalalgia Reports (Stage 1), together with the promise to publish the completed study, independent of the outcome, in Cephalalgia (Stage 2). The only requirement is that the Stage 2 study follow in all details the methods outlined in Stage 1. This will incentivise quality and rigor during the Stage 1 preregistration over novelty and statistical significance of the actual Stage 2 findings – allowing negative results to be published at equal level with positive results.

The Registered Report format supports the nature of science twofold: Firstly, it allows the separation of hypothesis-generating (exploratory) from hypothesis testing (confirmatory research, independent from the research target (i.e., can be used in bench and bedside research) and secondly, it facilitates the motivation of confirmatory research (i.e., testing whether earlier research can be replicated). This type of research is immensely important (see replication crises) but often it is difficult to publish the results.

For papers to be considered for the special issue they must adhere to the following criteria:

The study examines relevant aspects of the trigeminovascular system and trigeminal pain.

The study is adequately powered for relevant statistical tests of all hypotheses and an appropriate power analysis is reported in detail. This is important to allow for the estimation of a plausible range of true effect sizes with reasonable precision.

Data collection has not started. Analyses of existing data will not be considered. The collection of pilot data to determine feasibility is allowed. If pilot data are collected, these data should be described in the initial Stage 1 manuscript.

Replications: Direct (close) replications of earlier published studies are interesting, if the planned study implements the same methodology (i.e., data collection, processing, analysis) as the original research within a new sample of participants. Authors must provide a compelling case to justify the value of a direct replication by outlining why the to-be-replicated result is empirically and/or theoretically important to be replicated and why replicability cannot be considered well established for this specific finding.

Although the following considerations are not mandatory, we encourage them for all submissions.

All study materials, code, and data should be made publicly available upon the submission of the Stage 2 Registered Report. The open sharing of study materials encourages further scientific inquiry, helps replication efforts, and increases the impact of the study.

Extensions on the Stage 1 studies are welcome but must be performed in addition to the Stage 1 outline and must be clearly labelled as such.

Timeline

Stage 1 Registered Report Cephalalgia Reports submission deadline: December 2022

Stage 2 Registered Report Cephalalgia submission deadline: December 2024

Note: Stage 1 Article processing charge (ACP) fee waived to publish the Registered Report article in Cephalalgia Reports

For information about Cephalalgia and the full submission guidelines, please visit the author guidelines at https://journals.sagepub.com/home/cep. Papers can be submitted here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cephalalgia. During the submission process, please select Registered Reports as the manuscript type and then select the Stage (1 or 2) from the dropdown menu.

Please feel free to email Arne May ([e-mail]) or Wendy Krank ([e-mail]) if you have any questions.