Systematic Reviews & Evidence Synthesis Methods

Once your evidence synthesis team has created a protocol, it's a recommended practice to register or deposit that protocol. There are a few reasons why protocol registration is a good idea, several are listed below.

• Others can discover that your team is working on this review. 
  • Claims the review topic.
  • Provides contact information to potential collaborators.
• A uniform resource identifer (such as a DOI) will be assigned making it easy to cite and link to a protocol.
• Some publication venues require the a priori publication of a protocol.
• Establish a location to publish supporting materials for the review.

Publishing a protocol does not mean you are tied to the individual methodological parameters in your protocol. Some teams publish more than one version of a protocol as they make modifications.

Registering your protocol claims your review topic and makes public your plans. Sometimes the registration site is obvious but here are some of the options: