Boxer Library
Put simply, a protocol is a PLAN for your review. It defines the topic, objectives, methods and reporting for your review. A protocol is a very important way to reduce reporting bias and to prevent researchers from changing their question or methods to get certain results or answers.
Protocols for systematic reviews should be registered at the beginning of your project so that other researchers can find that you are doing a review on your topic.
Protocols are REQUIRED for systematic reviews.
Protocols are RECOMMENDED for scoping reviews.
The Boxer Library and JBI recommends PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) to guide how researchers report their reviews, as well as how they write their protocols.
PRISMA has an extension for protocols called PRISMA-P that dictates exactly what should be included in a systematic review protocol.
While protocols are not required for scoping reviews, they are highly encouraged as they provide all of the same benefits to your review (preventing bias, creating the plan for your review).
Currently, there is not a specific scoping review protocol checklist, but you can use PRISMA-P and/or use PRISMA for Scoping Reviews to guide what information you should plan to report.
The JBI recommends that systematic review protocols be registered with PROSPERO (the international prospective register of systematic reviews). Registering your protocol will allow other researchers to see what reviews are currently being worked on and avoid any possible duplication of research.
If you are doing a JBI affiliated review, you can also register your review with JBI's Systematic Review Register.
Currently, PROSPERO does not accept registrations for scoping reviews. This may change over time. For now, you can register your scoping review on the Open Science Framework or FigShare.
