Systematic Reviews and Knowledge Synthesis for the Sciences

Protocol

A protocol is a plan for your review. It is important to create your protocol before conducting your review to minimize bias.

Protocols for knowledge synthesis include:

• Your review topic or research question and provide justification for doing the review
• A detailed account of the methods that will be used to identify, screen, and appraise studies for the review
• A detailed account of the analyses that will be conducted.

Protocol Development

For more information on developing your protocol, review Chapter 5. Review Protocol in Campbell Collaboration's Campbell Systematic Reviews: Policies and Guidelines handbook. You can also consult PRISMA-P, the reporting guidelines for items to include in a systematic review and meta-analysis protocols.

Identify Previous Reviews

Before you begin writing your protocol, you will want to check to see if there have been previously registered or published reviews on the same topic or research question. To search for registered protocols, you can visit:

• Campbell Collaboration
• Collaboration for Environmental Evidence
• 3iE Database
• Systematic Reviews for Animals & Food (SYREAF)
• OSF Registries and OSF.io projects
• Guide to Community Preventive Service
• EPPI-Centre
• International HTA Database
• Cochrane Library
• Preprint servers (e.g. arXiv, bioRxiv, ChemRxiv)
• PROSPERO
• Joanna Briggs Library
• Health Evidence
• Epistemonkos
• BEME: Best Evidence Medical and Health Professional Education

Protocol Templates

• ROSES for systematic review protocols
  Primarily for biological sciences and environmental sciences, the RepOrting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses provide a template for systematic review protocols.
• Evidence synthesis protocol template
  Developed by Cornell University librarians, use this protocol template for systematic reviews, scoping reviews, or systematic maps.
• Inclusive systematic review registration form
• Structured literature review protocol template
  Not completing a full systematic review? Developed by Cornell University librarians, use this template for structuring your literature review for your thesis or dissertation.

Methodological Guidance

• Methodological Expectations of Campbell Collaboration Intervention Reviews (MECCIR): Conduct standards
• Campbell conduct standards checklists for evidence and gap maps
• Guidelines and Standards for Evidence synthesis in Environmental Management
• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
• JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis

Reporting Standards

• PRISMA
  http://www.prisma-statement.org/
• ROSES (RepOrting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses in Environmental Research)
  https://www.roses-reporting.com/
• MOOSE (Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology)
  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/192614
• NIRO-SR (An integrative framework for planning and conducting Non-Intervention, Reproducible, and Open Systematic Reviews)
  https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv/8gu5z/
• PRISMA-P (Protocols)
  https://www.prisma-statement.org/protocols
• PRISMA-S (Search Extension)
  https://www.prisma-statement.org/prisma-search
• PRISMA-ScR (Scoping Review Extension)
  https://www.prisma-statement.org/scoping

Acknowledgements

Content on this guide has been reused, with permission, from the University of Manitoba Libraries' Health Sciences' Knowledge Synthesis & Systematic Reviews guide.