We encourage commissioners and journal editors to promote registration of systematic reviews in PROSPERO.
The UK NIHR has made protocol registration a condition of funding for all the eligible systematic reviews they commission. The model NIHR have adopted requires little additional effort on their part. The funder notifies the researchers of the requirement to register. The researchers then register their review and send the funder the unique registration number issued by PROSPERO. On receipt of this number, the funder continues with contractual/ funding arrangements as usual. Further information is available in Example of registration requirements. Following implementation, the numbers registering in the UK have risen considerably.
At the publication end of the review process, PLoS journals, BMJ and BMJ Open, BioMed Central and BJOG all recommend in their instructions to authors that details of protocol registration be included in manuscripts of both systematic review protocols and their final review reports/articles.
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