Abstract: The development of open science movement puts forward higher requirements for the sharing of scientific research results. In this context, the research document “Registered Reports”, which is used to standardize test procedures and improve the reliability, transparency and openness of research results, has emerged and developed. Comprehensive application of content analysis and comparative research methods, based on the publication guidelines or writing instructions issued by academic journals or publishing platforms that are currently active in the publication of Registered Reports, this paper analyzes and refines the content framework and core modules of its composition in two stage. Results of this study show that, the Stage 1 Registered Reports and Stage 2 Registered Reports have different emphasis on content composition; the content module of Registered Reports is basically consistent with the content of traditional academic papers, but the description focus and the space occupied are different.

Key words: Registered reports, Content framework, Core elements, Open science