The Review Protocol

The Review Process

The five phases of a literature or systematic review — search strategy, screening, extraction, synthesis, and reporting — with templates and tools.

The Review Process

Every rigorous literature review — whether narrative, systematic, scoping, or meta-analytic — moves through five interlocking phases. This hub walks you through each phase in order, links to the methodological guidance you need, and points to the templates that keep your work reproducible.

Reviews that skip phases or blur them together tend to fail peer review. The sequence below is the reproducible spine you can adapt to any review type described in our systematic review guide or scoping review guide. Each phase page explains the concepts, the software, and the reporting expectations, and it links to the corresponding download in our templates library.

  1. Search Strategy

    Develop a reproducible search across databases using Boolean operators, MeSH terms, and documented protocols.

    Deliverable: Documented search strategy with database, date, and result counts

    • PubMed
    • Scopus
    • CINAHL
    • Web of Science

  2. Screening & Selection

    Apply inclusion/exclusion criteria through title/abstract and full-text screening stages.

    Deliverable: PRISMA flow diagram with counts at each stage

    • Covidence
    • Rayyan
    • EndNote

  3. Data Extraction

    Systematically extract data from included studies using a pre-piloted extraction form.

    Deliverable: Completed extraction spreadsheet with all coded variables

    • Excel
    • Literature Matrix
    • Covidence

  4. Synthesis

    Combine findings using narrative, thematic, framework, or meta-analytic methods.

    Deliverable: Synthesized results section with themes or pooled estimates

    • RevMan
    • R (metafor)
    • NVivo

  5. Reporting

    Report results following PRISMA 2020, register the protocol on PROSPERO, and publish transparently.

    Deliverable: PRISMA-compliant manuscript and flow diagram

    • PRISMA checklist
    • PROSPERO
    • EQUATOR Network

Where to start

If you are at the very beginning, open Phase 1 — Search Strategy. If you already have a corpus to screen, jump to Phase 2 — Screening & Selection.