Navigating PROSPERO4animals: 10 top tips for efficient pre-registration of your animal systematic review protocol

Abstract

Systematic reviews are an essential tool in identifying knowledge gaps and synthesizing evidence from in vivo animal research to improve human health. The review process follows an explicit and systematic methodology to minimize bias, but is not immune to biases or methodological flaws. Pre-registering a systematic review protocol has several benefits, including avoiding unplanned duplication of reviews, reducing reporting biases, and providing structure throughout the review process. It also helps to align the opinions of review team members and can shield researchers from post-hoc critique. PROSPERO4animals is the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO) for the preregistration of systematic review of animal studies. As administrators, here we provide 10 tips to facilitate pre-registration in PROSPERO4animals. These tips address common difficulties that both beginners and experienced researchers may face when pre-registering their systematic review protocols. This article aims to help authors write and register a detailed systematic review protocol on PROSPERO4animals.