Reporting standards for evidence syntheses can serve as guidelines for protocol and manuscript preparation. Some academic journals require that specific standards for the review type that is being employed (e.g., systematic review, scoping review, etc.) be followed. Therefore if you have a specific journal in mind for potential publication of your review, it is best to consult the journal's author guidelines or contact the journal's editors to ascertain the specific standards or guidelines they require authors to follow. Commonly used standards include the following:
Step 16a of the PRISMA 2020 Checklist states, "Describe the results of the search and selection process, from the number of records identified in the search to the number of studies included in the review, ideally using a flow diagram." The PRISMA flow diagram depicts the flow of information through the different phases of an evidence synthesis. It maps the search (number of records identified), screening (number of records included and excluded), and selection (reasons for exclusion). Many evidence syntheses include a PRISMA flow diagram in the published manuscript.
The paid versions of commonly used evidence synthesis screening tools, such as Covidence and Rayyan, will generate a PRISMA flow diagram for your evidence synthesis project.
Here are some other, free resources that will help you generate your own PRISMA flow diagram: