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 |
Watch the following video by Dr Saravana Kumar, Professor in Allied Health and Health Services Research, UniSA.
Video Length: 4:46
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
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.
Many tables have been developed to show you the different levels of evidence.
The image below represents one example of the hierarchy of evidence
'Hierarchy of Evidence Pyramid' adapted from EBP & the Medical Librarian training manual, Duke University 2019 (CC-BY-NC) and Online EBM Page Generator, Dartmouth College and Yale University.
'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 standards
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:
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:
Protocols for Cochrane and Joanna Briggs Institute reviews are published on their websites: