A protocol is a plan for how you will conduct your review. It will save you time and frustration when conducting your review because the process prompts you to think through how you will approach issues which may arise in the search, screening, extraction, and synthesis stages of your review.
It's recommended to publicly register your protocol. Registration can:
Adapted from: Stewart L, Moher D, Shekelle P (2012). Why prospective registration of systematic reviews makes sense. Systematic Reviews 1(7) https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-1-7
Some journals publish systematic or scoping review protocols. You may also register your protocol in PROSPERO or Open Science Framework. If you have questions regarding protocol publication, email your subject librarian for assistance.
A strong research data management plan (DMP) is important for any research project, and should be developed in parallel with your protocol. The DMP outlines aspects such as, what kinds of data you will collect and create, what file formats are being used, is there a preservation plan for your data, and what data will be shared and how.
For more information on data management for knowledge synthesis:
General information on research data management can be found on UBC's Research Data Management site.
In addition to being a place to register your protocol, OSF can host your review data such as search strategies and data extraction forms.