OSF protocol registration when PROSPERO will not accept the review

PROSPERO accepts prospective systematic reviews with an outcome of direct relevance to human health. It rejects scoping reviews, evidence and gap maps, literature reviews, guideline appraisals, indirect outcomes, training or class reviews, reviews whose results will not be public, and any review where data extraction has already started. Those reviews can still be registered on the Open Science Framework with the Generalized Systematic Review Registration template.

The form authors’ preprint is https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/3nbea. A worked public example is https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/F8QD5. The protocol guide builds a copy-paste worksheet for schema 69cbc587cd7e8b69fa11ab52, version 6. SystematicReviewTools does not submit the form, does not log you into OSF, and does not upload files.

When to use this template

Use Generalized Systematic Review Registration when PROSPERO’s eligibility rules say no, or when you want a public home for search files next to an eligible PROSPERO record. Cochrane protocols are already registered. Do not add a second PROSPERO record for those.

If extraction has already started, the OSF record is still a valid registration. It is not a preregistration. Say that in Current review stage. Only an early stage counts as a preregistration on this form.

What version 6 asks for

The live schema has five question pages, in this order:

1. Review Methods
2. Search Strategy
3. Screening
4. Extraction
5. Synthesis and Quality Assessment

There are 61 required text boxes. Empty required boxes block submit. Where a field does not apply, type Not applicable — and the reason. Two file slots are optional: screener instructions, then extractor instructions. Attach those files on the OSF project. This app does not upload them.

Start at osf.io/registries, choose Generalized Systematic Review, and paste one worksheet section per page.

Public DOI, embargo, and updates

On the review step, choose Make public immediately if you want a DOI assigned then, or an embargo of at most four years. Do not cite a DOI in a manuscript while the registration is embargoed. The public identifier is https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/{GUID} and https://osf.io/{guid}.

A frozen registration is not edited in place. An update is a new linked registration with a required justification. Withdrawal keeps the DOI metadata and removes the form.

Admin contributors approve the registration, or the request auto-approves after 48 hours.

What the worksheet is for

The protocol guide maps each OSF label to a section you already drafted, or it tells you to write that box on OSF. Copy the text, submit it on OSF, and keep the same wording in the methods. A journal protocol paper can sit beside either path. It is not a third worksheet.