High quality systematic reviews start by developing a protocol. It is best practice to register your protocol in a publicly accessible way. This increases the transparency and reduces the potential bias in systematic reviews. Registering your protocol will help avoid other people completing a review on your topic. Similarly, before you start doing a systematic review, it's worth checking the different registries that nobody else has already registered a protocol on the same topic.
This page lists mains sources of registered protocols.
For an overview of the characteristics of each register, check out Table 1 of this article:
This is an open access article.
Writing a protocol
PRISMA-P aims to facilitate the development and reporting of robust systematic review protocols. It consists of a 17-item checklist.
Covidence developed a guide which may help you develop your review protocol to help plan and manage your systematic review.
PROSPERO is an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews, rapid reviews and umbrella reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health related outcome. Key features from the review protocol are recorded and maintained as a permanent record.
Learn how to register a systematic review in PROSPERO.
PROSPERO does not accept registrations for scoping reviews or literature scans; it also often has a backlog.
Cochrane Library of Systematic ReviewsCochrane is the leader in systematic reviews of health evidence, recognised for its rigorous methodology and high standards.
The Cochrane Library is a database that contains different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Search the Cochrane Library for any published protocols or reviews related to your topic of interest before you propose and register a new review.
JBI is recognised as a global leader in evidence-based healthcare. The Institute and its collaborating entities promote and support the synthesis, transfer and utilisation of evidence through identifying feasible, appropriate, meaningful and effective healthcare practices to assist in the improvement of healthcare outcomes globally.
The JBI EBP database is a comprehensive range of resources including over 3,000 records across seven publication types: Evidence Summaries, Evidence-Based Recommended Practices, Best Practice Information Sheets, Systematic Reviews, Consumer Information Sheets, Systematic Review Protocols, and Technical Reports.
Learn how to register a systematic review title.
Campbell Systematic ReviewsCampbell Systematic Reviews is a peer-reviewed open access journal. It accepts proposals for new reviews, evidence and gap maps, and methods research papers.
Publishing a Campbell review consists of three steps: 1. title registration, 2. protocol, and 3. review.
Learn about how to submit a proposal.
Open Science FrameworkThe Open Science Framework is a free and open source project management tool that supports researchers throughout their entire project life cycle. It has been developed by the Center for Open Science with a mission is to increase openness, integrity, and reproducibility of research.
Amongst other initiatives, it offers preregistration - you can specify your research plan in advance of your study and submit to to a registry.
PROCEED is a global, open-access database for prospectively registered environmental evidence reviews and syntheses. It allows authors to upload titles and protocols using standardised templates. PROCEED is managed by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE), a global network that promotes and supports high-quality evidence syntheses in environmental science.
Inplasy is an international platform to register systematic review, scoping review and meta-analysis protocols. Registration attracts a small fee, processing time is max. 48 hours and protocols get a DOI.
Learn about step-by-step protocol registration or browse registered protocols.
Research RegistryThe Research Registry offers registration for all types of research studies, from case reports to observational/interventional studies to systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Whilst the focus in the past has been on registering randomised controlled trials (RCTs), there has been tremendous growth in observational studies (case series, cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, etc), many of which are not registered. Whilst some trial registries do allow for the registration of observational studies, only a small fraction are actually registered.
