All research should be carried out according to a pre-defined, written plan or protocol which should be registered to avoid redundancy and promote transparency. Use the PRISMA-P Checklist for Systematic Review Protocols to help develop the protocol. Be sure to include the following
Indicate whether a review protocol exists; state if and where it can be accessed (for example, a Web address); and if available, provide registration information, including the registration number.
Note: Search protocol registries and repositories for protocols or evidence syntheses in your discipline to see if your research topic has been done already to avoid duplication of research.
Two that are recommended are PROSPERO from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination,
University of York, and the Open Science Framework (OSF) (Brackett, A., & Batten, J., 2020).
Brackett, A., & Batten, J. (2020). Ensuring the rigor in systematic reviews: Part 2, preparation is key: The question and the protocol. Heart & Lung., 49(6), 965–966. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2020.07.001
This video provides an overview of what a systematic review protocol is, and how and why to create one. From The University of Alabama Libraries.
Systematic Review Protocol Template A downloadable template created by Stephanie Roth in 2021 and licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA License (4.0).
Lely, J., Morris, H. C., Sasson, N., Camarillo, N. D., Livinski, A. A., Butera, G., & Wickstrom, J. (2023, May 30). How to write a scoping review protocol: Guidance and template. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YM65X
Note: PROSPERO (the international prospective register of systematic reviews administered by the University of York’s Centre for Reviews and Dissemination) states that scoping reviews (and literature reviews) are currently ineligible for registration in the database (Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, n.d. ‘inclusion criteria’, para. 5). Although this may change in the future, scoping reviews can be registered with the Open Science Framework or Figshare in the meantime, or their protocols published in some journals, such as JBI Evidence Synthesis.
Peters MDJ, Godfrey C, McInerney P, Munn Z, Tricco AC, Khalil, H. Scoping Reviews (2020). Aromataris E, Lockwood C, Porritt K, Pilla B, Jordan Z, editors. JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. JBI; 2024. Available from: https://synthesismanual.jbi.global. https://doi.org/10.46658/JBIMES-24-09