Multisite collaborations are becoming increasingly common in psychological science, offering a powerful opportunity for testing effects across diverse samples. However, leading such projects can appear overwhelmingly demanding and inaccessible, particularly for early-career researchers or teams with limited resources and the pressure of strict deadlines. This article offers a practical, experience-based guide for coordinating small-to-medium-scale multisite studies, drawing on lessons learned during my PhD while leading a multisite Registered Report. The structure follows the typical stages of a multisite initiative, providing templates, examples, and recommendations at each step: Preregistering the protocol, with a justified sample size based on power analyses for multilevel data structures and a thoroughly piloted task, recruiting labs by making the project attractive, with clear criteria for co-authorship and credit recognition, collecting multisite data and, finally, preparing and submitting the manuscript to journals and repositories. Throughout this process, we offer tools to translate materials, track laboratories, register participant details, and to navigate unexpected problems. Although several published guides to large-scale collaborations already exist, this piece adds a personal perspective on what can realistically be expected from smaller collaborations, which often require different strategies, and how to adapt best practices to more modest settings. All resources are openly shared, and the aim is to encourage other early-career researchers to consider leading such projects themselves. Multisite studies do not always need to be carried out at a big scale to be valid, powerful, and impactful. With a well-defined protocol and a small but motivated network of collaborators, your team can contribute to high-quality, collaborative science.
Franco-Martínez et al. (Thu,) studied this question.