Systematic Review

A systematic review protocol:

• serves as a road map for your review
• specifies the objectives, methods, and outcomes of primary interest of the systematic review
• promotes transparency of methods
• allows your peers to review how you will extract information to quantitatively summarize your outcome data

Source: Office of Research Services, National Institutes of Health

The protocol should be developed before you actually begin your systematic review. This will ensure your review is carefully planned. By developing a protocol, the purpose, rationale, hypothesis, and methods you plan to use in your review are well considered and explicitly documented.

Here are some guidelines on protocol reporting. They can help you understand the key elements in a protocol and plan your protocol.

• IOM Standard 2.6 for Systematic Reviews Protocols - a short checklist and explanation of protocol items.
• MECIR (Methodological Expectations for Cochrane Intervention Reviews) Manual - guidelines on reporting protocols for Cochrane Intervention reviews.
• PRISMA-P - guidance for creating protocols from PRISMA.

Once you have written your protocol, it is advisable to register it. This will help avoid other people conducting a review similar to your topic and reduce unnecessary duplication of research effort.

Note that: Some journal publishers, such as BMJ Open and Systematic Reviews, require protocol registration prior to starting the systematic review. The protocols will be published as with research articles.

• Campbell Collaboration - produces systematic reviews of the effects of social interventions. Read Submitting a Proposal for details on title registration and protocol submission.

• Cochrane Collaboration - produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions. Read Proposing and registering new reviews for details.

• JBI Systematic Review Register - members of the JBI Collaboration can register their review titles with JBI on completion of the Online Systematic Review Title Registration Form.

• OSF (Open Science Framework) - pre-register the protocol of your research with OSF. More information on the preregistration can be found on the help guides.

• PROSERO - aims to provide a comprehensive list of completed and in-progress systematic reviews. Read this page for details on completing the protocol registration form. Note: PROSPERO does not accept scoping review protocols.

• Research Registry - offers registration for all types of research studies, from case reports to observational/interventional studies to systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Further reading: Pieper, D., & Rombey, T. (2022). Where to prospectively register a systematic review. Systematic Reviews, 11(1), 8-8.