> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.myresearchlab.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The study workspace

> Tour of each tab in an open study — where you document, design, collect data, and publish your finished research.

Open a study and you'll see a horizontal tab bar below the workspace header. Each tab is a phase of the research lifecycle: from planning through publication. Your editable **Draft** lives here; once frozen (preregistered or published), the pinned version becomes the immutable citable snapshot participants see.

<Frame caption="An open study — the tab bar runs from Dashboard through Record.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/myresearchlabapp/tSWvn9ODUqI9WexW/images/getting-started/dashboard.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=tSWvn9ODUqI9WexW&q=85&s=88e15f4879f006e85346771a27334bb8" alt="" width="1760" height="1100" data-path="images/getting-started/dashboard.png" />
</Frame>

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Dashboard">
    Your study at a glance — lifecycle progress, next actions, recruitment status, condition balance, and a changelog of recent edits. This is the first tab when you open a study. Use it to spot blockers and orient newcomers on where the study stands.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Overview">
    Researcher-authored documentation: abstract, hypotheses, methods, and custom sections. This is where you describe the study to readers. The overview freezes into your preregistration record, so amendments preserve the lineage of changes. See Overview editor.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Build">
    The block editor — add, reorder, configure, and delete screens and measures. Every participant-facing element (stimuli, questions, scales, flow) is a block. See [Block catalogue](/builder/blocks) and [Conditions](/builder/conditions).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Design">
    Participant-facing theme and visual styling — preset pickers and granular primitives (colors, fonts, spacing) that only affect the participant experience, not your workspace. Changes freeze with your study version. See [Design](/builder/themes).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Preview">
    The participant experience in full-screen, device-framed mode — the real runtime in preview mode (ephemeral, no data counted). Live validation, branching, and condition assignment as a participant would see them. Use this before running to catch flow issues.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Comment">
    Peer review and comments — invite collaborators to leave feedback, suggestions, and annotations on your design. Manage permissions and respond to comments before finalizing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Preregister">
    Freeze your design to the Open Science Framework. This creates an immutable, timestamped snapshot: the registered plan. You can keep editing your draft afterwards; changes to the plan require filing an amendment. Preregistration is required to collect data. See [Preregistration](/methodology/preregistration) and [OSF integration](/integrations/osf).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Run">
    Recruitment and data collection. After preregistering (or publishing), this tab shows your shareable recruitment link, recruitment status (recruiting / paused / closed), participant target, and preview access. Share the link to collect responses. Integrates with [Prolific](/integrations/prolific) for managed recruiting. See Running a study.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Results">
    Live summary as responses come in — condition balance, completion counts per condition, question-by-question results (mean/n for numeric, option counts for categorical, n for open text), emotion analysis, and spatial responses. Export data as CSV. Version filtering available if you've published multiple frozen versions. See Results analysis and Export.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Record">
    The readable, citable face of your finished study. Bound sections auto-fill from your data (Overview, Preregistration, Methods, Results); authored sections are yours to write and reorder. Publish a public study record for readers and citation. See Study record.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Replications">
    Replication lineage — upstream ancestors (the study you copied) and all descendants (studies replicated from yours). View side-by-side block diffs against the original or descendants. Helps you track the family tree of your work. See [Replication](/methodology/replication).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Draft vs. frozen

Everything you edit lives in the **Draft** — your working copy. The draft is never shared with participants until you freeze it (preregister or publish). Once frozen:

* The frozen version becomes immutable and citable (gets a DOI if pushed to OSF).
* You can keep editing the draft independently.
* Amendments to preregistered plans require filing a formal amendment record.
* Replications copy the frozen version, not your draft.

## Status pill

The top-right corner shows your study's current recruitment status:

* **Draft** — not yet frozen. You can edit everything; no participants can access it.
* **Preregistered** — frozen to OSF (or locally if not connected). Recruitment is ready to open.
* **Published** — finalized and public. Recruitment is closed; the study record is live.
* **Recruiting** — active session collecting responses.
* **Paused** — recruitment temporarily stopped; can resume.

## Common workflows

**Building and testing**: Use Build, Design, and Preview tabs together. Preview as you iterate to catch branching issues and flow problems before freezing.

**Before data collection**: Finish your Overview, preregister in the Preregister tab, then open recruitment in the Run tab.

**During collection**: Monitor Results as responses come in; check Dashboard for condition balance and progress.

**After finishing**: Compose your Study Record and publish it for public citation and discovery.