LibGuides: Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analysis: Developing Your Protocol

What is a Protocol?

The PRISMA guidelines for the transparent reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses provides guidance on what to items to include in your protocol, such as:

The rationale and objective for your systematic review.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Intended search terms, search strategies, and information sources
Data management plan to manage data and evidence
All variables for which data will be sought (such as PICO items)
All outcomes for which data will be sought, including main and additional outcomes
How you will extract data, assess risk of bias, synthesize data, and grade the evidence.

Resources to Help Develop Protocols

Guidelines and Resources for the Social Sciences

Campbell Collaboration Protocol Template This template incorporates standard evidence synthesis protocol guidelines from PRISMA and The Campbell Collaboration.
EPPI-Centre The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) conducts systematic reviews in the fields of Education, Health Promotion and Public Health, as well as social welfare and international development.

Guidelines and Resources for Health and Medicine

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions See Chapter 2 of the handbook to find guidance on preparing a Cochrane protocol
Institute of Medicine Chapter 2 in "Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews" describes what should be included in a protocol.
PRISMA-P PRISMA-P was published in 2015 aiming to facilitate the development and reporting of systematic review protocols.

Guidelines and Resources for Other Disciplines

The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) is an open community of scientists and managers working towards a sustainable global environment and the conservation of biodiversity.
Evidence-based Software Engineering Some effort has been made to provide guidance for systematic reviews in software engineering. This site provides guidelines and other resources for this field.
Systematic Review Methods for the Humanities Systematic reviews in the humanities are less common, but this site provides some examples of reviews conducted in areas like Bioethics and Religious Studies.

Registering Your Protocol

Once you have written your protocol, consider registering or publishing it. In some disciplines, journals may require proof that your protocol has been registered.Registration and/or publication improves transparency and can help prevent unnecessary duplication of research.

The following are a few organizations where you may register and publish your protocol:

PROSPERO This international database allows free registration of systematic reviews of interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions in humans, for which there is a health related outcome.
Open Science Framework Registries Use the OSF (Open Science Framework) platform to preregister the protocol for your knowledge synthesis. This is a useful option if you are not publishing a systematic review or a review of interventions with health-related outcomes. You can pre-register your protocol on the Open Science Framework registry. It can be submitted for blinded peer-review, or can be embargoed for a set period of time (maximum 4 years).
BMJ Open BMJ Open "will consider publishing without peer review protocols that have formal ethical approval and funding from a recognized, open access advocating research-funding body". Otherwise, protocols are peer reviewed.
Systematic Reviews, a BioMed Central journal This open access title publishes protocols of systematic reviews broadly related to health sciences.