Free template

The Plug-and-Play Systematic Review Protocol Template

A systematic review needs no hospital database, no data manager, and no place in an IRB queue. The evidence is already published. The only real barrier is knowing how to write a protocol that survives peer review.

This is the one I wish I had as a student. Twenty-nine pages, fill in the gold fields, and you have a document you can register on PROSPERO.

What is inside

Part One: the three gates. A method for choosing a question the field has already said it wants, including how to reverse-engineer society guidelines for open questions.
The targeting worksheet. Fifteen minutes that tells you whether to proceed, modify, or kill the topic.
Twelve protocol sections. PRISMA-P 2015, fill-in-the-blank, with a worked example threaded through all of them.
Real search syntax. PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane strings you can adapt rather than invent.
Risk of bias decision tree. Which tool for which design. RoB 2, ROBINS-I, Newcastle-Ottawa, QUADAS-2.
A full statistical analysis plan. Effect measures, model choice, heterogeneity, subgroups, sensitivity, publication bias, GRADE.
The 17-item self-check. Mapped to section numbers, so you can prove completeness before you register.

One honest note. This will not write your review in 48 hours. It will get you a registered protocol in 48 hours, which is the thing that usually stops people from ever starting.

Part One exists to talk you out of bad questions. If it does, that was the template working.

Yours, Dimitri

Dr. Dimitrios Magouliotis · 200+ publications · Top 2% worldwide (Stanford/Elsevier)

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