Once you have defined your question, you need to develop a systematic review protocol. The purpose of a protocol is to outline your systematic review process in a clear and transparent manner to reviewers and readers.
The content in a protocol includes:
Your eligibility criteria is what you plan to include and exclude from your review. It needs to:
The key areas for your criteria are:
Demographic factors |
e.g. age, sex, ethnicity |
Study design and duration |
e.g. what types of studies do you need to answer your question? |
Measure |
e.g. are you looking at a particular type of measure? |
Date range |
e.g. only apply a date range if you are updating a previously published systematic review |
PRISMA for systematic review protocol (PRISMA-P) |
PRISMA-P is 'a guideline to help authors prepare protocols for planned systematic reviews and meta-analyses that provides them with a minimum set of items to be included in the protocol.' - PRISMA-P Statement, p. 2
Provides checklist items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols.
Provides a 17-item checklist to facilitate the preparation and reporting of a robust protocol for the systematic review.
The PRISMA-P Explanation and Elaboration document provides full details about the necessity of each checklist item as well as a model example from an existing published systematic review protocol.
Publisher requirements |
While PRISMA-P is the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, there may be other specific requirements from your review body or publisher, for example:
To view criteria descriptions, hover the cursor over the green arrow, or download the file below.
Special thanks to Scott Dale and the University of South Australia Library for permission to reuse content from the Systematic Review Guide: Protocol.
This chapter provides recommendations for the Protocol, including how to define criteria for included studies and how they will be grouped for synthesis.
This chapter details the necessary components of protocols for SRs conducted for the Cochrane Collaboration
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) website
'Provide registration information for the review, including register name and registration number, or state that the review was not registered.'
'Indicate where the review protocol can be accessed, or state that a protocol was not prepared.'
'Describe and explain any amendments to information provided at registration or in the protocol.'
- PRISMA 2020 Explanation and Elaboration, p. 28
Other guidelines and standards
See the overview page (of this guide) for additional guidelines and standards.
Guide from Covidence published in 2024. '...this guide can help you develop your review protocol which will help you plan and manage your systematic review'
Registering your protocol |
It is a good practice to register your protocol, as you do not want anyone else to do the exact same review you are doing.
Reviews with health-related outcomes (systematic, umbrella, rapid, but not scoping) can be registered on PROSPERO. Once you register, your review will:
An international, free to search database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care.
Before registering your review check to see if your protocol is eligible for registration.
Recommended by PRISMA and PRISMA-ScR, the Open Science Framework is a free, open platform to support users' research and enable collaboration. From OSF Registries, Generalized Systematic Review Registration is available
If you are working on a review for an organisation affiliated with JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute) - a 'JBI Collaboration Entity' - you can register the title of your review on their website.
Publishing your protocol |
You can publish your protocol in various journals. There are some examples below:
'...encompasses all aspects of the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews...publishes high quality systematic review products including systematic review protocols' - 'About'
'...publishes systematic and scoping review protocols, diverse types of systematic reviews, and scoping reviews covering multi-disciplinary healthcare-related topics that follow methodology and methods developed by JBI' - 'About the Journal'
Protocols for Cochrane and Joanna Briggs Institute reviews are published on their websites:
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) is the international not-for-profit, research and development Centre within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. It brings together a range of practice-oriented research activities to improve the effectiveness of nursing practice and health care outcomes.
Explains the reasons for and importance of systematic review protocol and registration.
The latest edition of Cochrane standard for conducting a systematic review.
A quick overview of protocols.
This article gives a overview on different study types and a comparison of advantages and disadvantages.