Review Protocols
What Works ClearinghouseTM (WWC) reviews are designed to provide education practitioners and policymakers with timely and objective assessments of the quality of research evidence. WWC reviews focus primarily on studies of the effectiveness of education or school-based interventions serving students in early childhood education through 12th grade, as well as students in postsecondary settings. However, in some instances, they might focus on studies of interventions serving other groups, such as teachers or other school leaders.
All WWC reviews are governed by a review protocol that describes the procedures that will be followed when conducting the review. When a study has been identified through a literature search defined by a WWC protocol, such as a topic area protocol for preparing WWC intervention reports or a protocol for preparing a WWC practice guide, the study review is guided by that protocol. However, the WWC also reviews studies that have been identified through other means and that may not fall under the umbrella of a more specific review protocol. The version 3.1 and 4.0 protocols guide such reviews of individual studies. These review-specific protocols are used in conjunction with version 3.0 and version 4.0 of the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbooks, respectively.
Prior versions available for download.
- Review Protocol for Individual Studies, Version 3.0 - May 2015 (434 KB)
- Single Study Review Protocol (189 KB)
- Postsecondary Education Evidence Review Protocol for individual studies
Protocol Details
- Version: 4.0
- Released: May 2019
- Version: 3.1
- Released: April 2020
- Version: 3.0
- Released: May 2016
- Version: 2.0
- Released: June 2013
What is a Protocol?
Starting in January 2021, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) uses the Study Review Protocol in combination with the Procedures and Standards Handbook to guide reviews of all studies. In particular, the Study Review Protocol provides additional information on eligible outcome domains for all topic areas reviewed by the WWC and provides examples of outcome measures that fall within each domain.
When conducting systematic reviews, the WWC uses the Study Review Protocol to review studies and an accompanying topic area synthesis protocol to define the parameters of the systematic review. The synthesis protocol provides criteria for the literature search; guidance on how to identify and prioritize relevant studies for review and inclusion in evidence synthesis products; and guidance on intervention, sample, and outcome eligibility criteria for the synthesis.
Prior to 2021, studies were typically reviewed using a topic-specific synthesis protocol and the corresponding version of the Procedures and Standards Handbook. In addition to defining the parameters for the review, these protocols described any topic-specific applications of the design standards, such as how to establish baseline equivalence between samples when required.