Evidence Syntheses (Scoping, systematic, & other types of reviews)

A protocol serves as a roadmap to your project. It’s the first step in creating transparency in your methodology, and it increases your chances of a successful publication or other product. All methodologies, including narrative reviews, benefit from having a protocol. THSL Informationists require a draft protocol be included with any evidence synthesis request.

This page contains resources you can use to help you as you draft and finalize your protocol.

If you have detailed questions, refer to the appropriate standards, guidelines, and ebooks for your chosen methodology on the Methods & How-to page.

Below are protocol templates for you to use. You are welcome to use your own protocol template as long as you include all required elements for your selected methodology.

These resources provide additional practical guidance on developing your protocol. If you have additional questions, refer to the appropriate standards, guidelines, and ebooks for your chosen methodology on the Methods & How-to page.

Key reasons to register your protocol:

• Prevent duplicate research  By registering your protocol, others can see if a similar study is already underway, avoiding unnecessary repetition.
• Enhance transparency  A registered protocol clearly outlines your research question, methods, and analysis plan, promoting openness and reproducibility.
• Reduce bias  Registering your protocol before data collection minimizes the potential for researchers to adjust their methods based on emerging results, thus reducing bias.
• Improve visibility  A registered protocol makes your research more visible to the scientific community, allowing potential collaborators to identify relevant projects.
• Support for publication  Many journals now require researchers to register their protocols before publishing a systematic review.

Where to register your protocol

• PROSPERO  For systematic reviews & meta-analyses on health outcomes in Human subjects. Students doing mini-reviews or other training exercises should NOT register their protocol in PROSPERO. See: How to register a protocol in PROSPERO

• OSF (Open Science Framework)  For any evidence synthesis methodology. The flexible protocol template is designed to be edited to fit your project, and a project site can house your project materials.
  • OSF Registration & Preregistration hompage
  • About the Generalized Systematic Review Template

• Figshare  For any evidence synthesis methodology. Figshare is a provider of repository software, and allows project material uploads, data management, and DOIs for project sites.

• Deep Blue (University of Michigan's Institutional Repository)  For any evidence synthesis methodology. Deep Blue documents accepts most document types, and makes them searchable (including in Google Scholar). Deep Blue Data provides access to digital research data that were developed or used in the support of research activities at U-M.