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Systematic Reviews and Other Evidence Synthesis Types Guide

Systematic Reviews and Other Evidence Synthesis Types Guide

Task 4 - Write and Register Protocol

GROUP PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY NOTES
ES/SR Team ✔  
Librarian   Librarian contributes to the search section of the protocol design and provides guidance on protocol registration as part of the fee-based service.

Write the Protocol

Written by the ES/SR Team, the ES/SR protocol includes the research question, context, and rationale for the review, study design, search strategy, inclusion/exclusion criteria, procedures for study collection, data collection and extraction, data synthesis, reporting, and other components of the research plan. The protocol is your roadmap.

The ES/SR protocol is important for several reasons (IOM (Institute of Medicine), 2011; Moher et al., 2015; Shamseer et al., 2015):

  1. Helps the ES/SR Team to plan and identify potential issues
  2. Allows the ES/SR Team to explicitly detail their plan before they start their review, enabling others to compare the protocol and the completed review, to replicate review methods if desired, and to judge the validity of planned methods
  3. Prevents arbitrary decision making with respect to inclusion criteria and extraction of data
  4. May reduce duplication of efforts and enhance collaboration, when available

Register the Protocol

Registering the ES/SR protocol helps minimize bias in the conduct and reporting of the review, reduce duplication, and keep systematic reviews updated. (IOM (Institute of Medicine), 2011) Review registries include but are not limited to:

The Cochrane Library includes:

  • Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – peer-reviewed systematic reviews and protocols
  • Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) – reports of randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials
  • Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs) – developed to inform point-of-care decision-making each CCA contains a clinical question, a short answer, and relevant outcomes data for the clinician

Protocol Development Resources

  • Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., … PRISMA-P Group (2015). Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Systematic reviews, 4(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-1
  • 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. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7647

For additional information, see guidelines specific to ES/SR that are listed at Evidence Synthesis – Guidelines and Resources. For questions regarding guidelines to an evidence synthesis not listed, contact the Library using the Ask Us form.