A systematic review protocol describes the rationale, hypothesis, and planned methods of the review. It should be prepared before a review is started and used as a guide to carry out the review.
The content in a protocol includes:
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PRISMA-P was published in 2015 aiming to facilitate the development and reporting of systematic review protocols.
Ghezzi-Kopel and Porciello (2020) created an evidence synthesis protocol template that is freely available from OSF. It pulls from both PRISMA as well as materials from the Campbell Collaboration.
Ghezzi-Kopel, K., & Porciello, J. (2020). Evidence synthesis protocol template. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ZWD6N
This is a general purpose systematic review registration form that applies to a multitude of disciplines (e.g., psychology, economics, law, physics, etc.) as well as several review types (e.g., scoping, meta-analysis, etc.).
Van den Akker, O., Peters, G. Y., Bakker, C., Carlsson, R., Coles, N. A., Corker, K. S., … Yeung, S. (2020). Generalized systematic review registration form. https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/3nbea
It is common practice in the health sciences to register your protocol in a registry, such as PROSPERO, in an effort to promote transparency and reproducibility (and reduce your chances of being scooped!).
Outside of the health sciences, protocol registration has been slower to catch on. However, there are places in which you can register a non-health sciences systematic review.
