Includes protocol details for systematic reviews relevant to health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health related outcome. Systematic review protocols on PROSPERO can include any type of any study design. Reviews of reviews and reviews of methodological issues that contain at least one outcome of direct patient or clinical relevance are also accepted.
This feature is provided to help clinicians locate systematic reviews and similar articles. Search results include a column which displays citations for systematic reviews.
Developing a protocol (plan) for a systematic review outlines the individual processes that need to be undertaken within the review. The first part of this process is formulating a question.
There are several available frameworks for developing including:
You would choose the appropriate tool for your type of question, in the examples given here – intervention, risk, diagnostic and experiential/qualitative questions.
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), University of York.
CRD has produced a complete guide to writing up systematic reviews[1]. It covers core principles and methods including how to conduct a review, how to identify studies, the basics of searching databases and formulating search strategies and how to document and report searches. View and download the guide here: https://www.york.ac.uk/media/crd/Systematic_Reviews.pdf
Once you've formulated your question, you will need to start developing a protocol to guide the conduct of your review. This will cover inclusion/exclusion criteria, screening methods, risk of bias and data analysis.
It is good practice to prospectively register your protocol and in many cases a requirement for future publication of the review.
Where to register your protocol;
(https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/systematic-reviews/methodology)
Standards for the conduct and reporting of new Cochrane Intervention Reviews, reporting of protocols and the planning, conduct and reporting of updates
These MECIR Standards present a guide to the conduct and reporting of Cochrane Intervention Reviews. Each set of Standards includes links to Cochrane Training resources, the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (the Handbook) and other available resources.