Systematic Review Protocol: Title

PRISMA-aligned structure – the standard for reproducible literature reviews. Register on PROSPERO or OSF before starting.

Field	Value
Registration	PROSPERO / OSF ID
Authors	Names
Date	YYYY-MM-DD
Status	Protocol / Screening / Analysis / Published

Review question (PICO)

Element	Definition
Population	Who
Intervention	What
Comparator	vs what
Outcome	measured how

Research question

Precise formulation of the question this review answers.

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion

• Criterion one
• Criterion two

Exclusion

• Criterion one
• Criterion two

Search strategy

Database	Date range	Search string
PubMed	YYYY-YYYY	"(term) AND (term)"
Scopus
Grey lit

Study selection process

1. Deduplication – tool
2. Title/abstract screening – N reviewers, conflict rule
3. Full-text screening – same process
4. Inter-rater agreement: Cohen's $\kappa$ target

PRISMA flow

flowchart TD
    A[Records identified: N] --> B[Deduped: N]
    B --> C[Screened: N]
    C --> D[Full-text assessed: N]
    D --> E[Included: N]
    C -.->|excluded| F[Reasons]
    D -.->|excluded| G[Reasons w/ counts]

Data extraction

Fields extracted per study:

Field	Notes
Study design
Sample
Outcome measure
Effect size

Quality assessment

• Risk-of-bias tool: RoB 2 / ROBINS-I / QUADAS-2
• Assessment procedure

Synthesis plan

• Narrative vs meta-analysis decision rule
• Effect measure: OR / RR / SMD
• Heterogeneity: $I^2$ threshold

$$I^2 = \frac{Q - df}{Q} \times 100\%$$

Amendments

Protocol deviations are logged here with date + reason.