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Systematic Reviews & Other Syntheses

Introduction

Protocols should describe in detail the research question, the rationale, and proposed methods. Additionally, they should be developed before the synthesis starts, and made publicly available, either by publication or registration, to increase the transparency and credibility of the results. 

Reviews conducted under the auspices of international collaborations (i.e. Cochrane, the JBI, and the Campbell Collaboration) require reviewers to register new titles and develop a protocol.

Reporting Standards

Guidelines

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines include an extension for Protocols (PRISMA-P):

Although PRISMA-P was developed to guide the planning of quantitative syntheses, it can be used as a template for protocols that are not evaluating therapeutic efficacy, as there is a lack of existing protocol guidance overall.

Locating and registering protocols 

  • PROSPERO: The international prospective register of systematic reviews (not scoping reviews).
  • figshare: An open research repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner.
  • OSF Registries: The Open Science framework or (OSF) is an online platform that enables researchers to transparently plan, collect, analyze, and share their work throughout the entire research life cycle.

Cochrane

Guidelines

Chapter I: Starting a review. 1.5 Protocol development. In: Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.5. [3].

Chapter II: Planning a Cochrane Review. 1.4 Cochrane protocols. In: Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.5. [4].

Locating protocols for Cochrane Reviews

All Cochrane Protocols are published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and registered in PROSPERO.

You can find published protocols for Cochrane Reviews by accessing The Cochrane Library (e.g., via the Wiley interface as shown below):

 

Example:

Immunotherapy for non‐small cell lung cancer in the elderly population: a generic protocol [5].

JBI

Publication of a JBI protocol in a peer reviewed journal is not required however, a protocol must be completed and made publicly available (e.g., in PROSPERO for systematic reviews or OSF for scoping reviews), prior to the conduct and publication of the systematic or scoping review.

Guidelines

Instructions for developing a protocol ​can be found in various sections of the JBI Manual for Evidence Syntheses [6].

Locating JBI review protocols

Published review protocols can be located in the JBI EBP Database by doing a topical search and then limiting by Publication Type to "Systematic Review Protocols."

The Campbell Collaboration

Guidelines

See section 3.1.2. Review protocol in Campbell systematic reviews: policies and guidelines. Version 1.8. [7].

Locating Campbell review protocols

Published protocols can be found on the journal website for Campbell Systematic Reviews by selecting the Campbell Article Type for Protocols under Topic Browse.

Collaboration of Environmental Evidence (CEE)

Guidelines

See Section 3 Planning the conduct of an Evidence Synthesis in Guidelines and standards for evidence synthesis in environmental management [8].

Locating CEE protocols

Published protocols can be identified when searching or browsing articles from the Environmental Evidence journal website.

Bibliography

  1. Moher D, Shamseer L, Clarke M, Ghersi D, Liberati A, Petticrew M, et al. (2015). Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Syst Rev, 4(1), 1-9. doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-4-1.
  2. Shamseer L, Moher D, Clarke M, Ghersi D, Liberati A, Petticrew M, Shekelle P, Stewart LA, the PRISMA-P Group. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015: elaboration and explanation. BMJ 2015.349:g7647. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7647
  3. Lasserson TJ, Thomas J, Higgins JPT. Chapter 1: Starting a review [last updated August 2021]. In: Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.5. Cochrane, 2024. Available from cochrane.org/handbook. 
  4. Cumpston M, Flemyng E. Chapter II: Planning a Cochrane Review [last updated August 2023]. In: Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.5. Cochrane, 2024. Available from cochrane.org/handbook.
  5. Marchal C, Orillard E, Calais F, Westeel V. Immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer in the elderly population: a generic protocol. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Jul 3;7(7):CD014907. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD014907.
  6. Aromataris E, Lockwood C, Porritt K, Pilla B, Jordan Z, editors. JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. JBI; 2024. Available from: https://synthesismanual.jbi.global.
  7. The Campbell Collaboration. Campbell Collaboration systematic reviews: policies and guidelines. Version 1.8. 2021. doi: 10.4073/cpg.2016.1.
  8. Collaboration for Environmental Evidence. 2022. Guidelines and standards for evidence synthesis in environmental management. Version 5.1 (AS Pullin, GK Frampton, B Livoreil & G Petrokofsky, Eds). Available from: www.environmentalevidence.org/information-for-authors. 
  9. Booth, A., M. Clarke, et al. (2012). The nuts and bolts of PROSPERO: an international prospective register of systematic reviews. Syst Rev 1(1): 1-9. doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-1-2.

Training Module

An inter-professional team led by Queen's has set out to develop an open access module series titled The Essentials of Conducting Systematic Reviews to introduce researchers to all stages of the systematic review process.

Check out Module 2: Formulating Review Questions and Protocols.

Tool Spotlight

Introducing Methods Wizard (beta-version), a piece of software to assist with writing the protocol of systematic reviews.

This online tool prompts questions to the systematic review team to answer in order to build the methods section of a protocol. This format changes the focus from writing sentences to thinking about what is needed for the review. The generated protocol text can then be copy/pasted into a Word document and edited.