Research Guides: Systematic Reviews: 5. Register a Protocol

What is a protocol?

What is a Protocol?

A systematic review protocol states your rationale, hypothesis, and planned methodology. Members of the team then use the protocol as a guide to conducting the research. It is recommended that you register your systematic review protocol prior to conducting your review. This will improve transparency and reproducibility, but will also ensure that other research teams do not duplicate efforts. A systematic review protocol template and checklist are attached below, as well as a checklist for structured literature reviews that serves as a similar document to a systematic review protocol.

Systematic Review Protocol Template
PRISMA-P Checklist
PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) 2015 checklist. Recommended items to
address in a systematic review protocol.
Preparation Checklist for Structured Literature Reviews
Even if you’re not performing a full systematic review, completing the items on this checklist and keeping them as record of your planned work (like a study protocol) ensures reproducibility, transparency, and reduction of bias.

Where to Register Protocols

Where to Register Protocols?

Though not comprehensive, below is a list of registries to consider.

Cochrane
"Our mission is to promote evidence-informed health decision-making by producing high-quality, relevant, accessible systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence. Our work is internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care."
Disciplines: Healthcare
Campbell Collaboration
"The Campbell Collaboration promotes positive social and economic change through the production and use of systematic reviews and other evidence synthesis for evidence-based policy and practice."
Disciplines: Business and Management, Crime and Justice, Disability, Education, International Development, Knowledge Translation and Implementation, Methods, Nutrition, and Social Welfare
PROSPERO
An international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care. Key features from the review protocol are recorded and maintained as a permanent record. (Does not accept scoping reviews)
Disciplines: Health and Social Care, Welfare, Public Health, Education, Crime, Justice, and International Development
Open Science Framework
An open source web application that connects and supports the research workflow. Researchers use the OSF to collaborate, document, archive, share, and register research projects, materials, and data. OSF can be used to pre-register a systematic review protocol and to share documents such as a Zotero library, search strategies, and data extraction forms.
Disciplines: Multidisciplinary
Collaboration for Environmental Evidence
"An open community of stakeholders working towards a sustainable global environment and the conservation of biodiversity. CEE seeks to promote and deliver evidence syntheses on issues of greatest concern to environmental policy and practice as a public service."
Disciplines: Environmental issues