A protocol states your research question and methodology, along with your plan for conducting your evidence synthesis. Your team then uses this protocol as a guide to conduct the research.
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is widely used as a protocol checklist. PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The 27 checklist items pertain to the content of a systematic review and meta-analysis, which include the title, abstract, methods, results, discussion and funding.PRIS
Evidence Synthesis Protocol Template
Use this document as a template to prepare a protocol for a range of evidence synthesis methodologies (such as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, or systematic maps)
Adapted from Cornell University Libraries LibGuide
It is strongly recommended that you register your protocol prior to conducting your review. This will improve transparency and reproducibility, reduce bias, and will also ensure that other research teams do not duplicate your efforts. It's also important that you search protocol registration systems for protocols that may be similar to yours, so that you do not duplicate the efforts of other teams.
Refer to our protocol registration guide.
Generalized Registration Form Template
van den Akker, O.R., Peters, GJ.Y., Bakker, C.J. et al. Increasing the transparency of systematic reviews: presenting a generalized registration form. Syst Rev 12, 170 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02281-7