Advancing credibility in longitudinal research by implementing open science practices: Opportunities, practical examples, and challenges

Longitudinal studies provide unique opportunities to study dynamic developmental processes over time and are often afforded a high degree of credibility. Transparency facilitates evaluation of credibility, yet, research practices that can increase transparency, that is, open science practices, do not appear to be widely implemented in longitudinal developmental research. In the current article I discuss three open science practices (pre- and post-registration, Registered Reports, and data management) and the opportunities they bring to facilitate enhanced credibility in longitudinal studies. Drawing on my own experiences of conducting longitudinal developmental research on adolescent mental health, I provide practical examples of how these open science practices can be implemented. Using open science practices in longitudinal research is also accompanied by challenges, and I specifically discuss the issue of evidencing prior knowledge of data in Registered Reports and some potential solutions to this challenge.