A protocol states your rationale, hypothesis, and planned methodology for your systematic review or other evidence synthesis. Much like a blueprint for a house, a protocol outlines the planned framework for the evidence synthesis. Members of the team use the protocol as a guide to conduct the research.
It is recommended that you register your protocol prior to conducting your review. This will improve transparency and reproducibility, reduce bias, and help ensure that other research teams do not duplicate your efforts.
Links to a protocol template and checklist are included on this page, as well as a checklist for structured literature reviews that serves as a similar document to an evidence synthesis protocol.
See also the tab in this guide for Step 6: Register the Protocol.