Mary Lou Klem, PhD, MLIS
Assistant Director of Advanced Information Support and Engagement Initiatives
klem@pitt.edu
Why Does HSLS Require a Protocol?
The rigor and trustworthiness of a systematic review is based on the a priori planning and documentation provided by a protocol
Minimizes arbitrary or "on the fly" decision-making that might introduce bias into study selection or data extraction
Makes it easier and quicker to draft the final manuscript
Allows journal reviewers to assess the potential for selective reporting
PRISMA for Systematic Review Protocols was published in 2015 to provide guidance on the development and reporting of protocols for systematic reviews
Organizations such as the Cochrane Collaboration, Joanna Briggs Institute, or Campbell Collaboration have their own guidance and templates for systematic reviews - please contact the organizations for additional information
Examples of published protocols can be viewed in the BioMed Central journal Systematic Reviews (on the home page, enter "protocol" in the search box)
Prospero is an open access repository for registering an intention to conduct a systematic review with health-related outcomes. When a "protocol" or record is submitted for registration in Prospero, the content is checked to ensure it makes sense, but there is no formal scientific review or critical appraisal conducted. The content in Prospero records falls well short of the information required to meet PRISMA-P reporting standards.