Protocol Vault & New Review Flow

The Protocol Vault is a personal library of saved research protocols. Save a protocol once and you can spin up a brand-new review from it in two clicks, with every field — research question, eligibility criteria, search strategy, screening plan, extraction plan — already filled in.

Why use the Vault

• Reuse hard-won methodology. A well-designed protocol takes hours of expert thought. Save it and you never have to recreate it from scratch.
• Standardize across a programme. Use the same protocol shape across a series of related reviews so they are directly comparable.
• Audit trail. Every protocol in the vault tracks how many reviews it has spawned and when it was last used.

How a protocol gets into the Vault

There are two paths:

Path 1 — Save from the Protocol Builder

1. Open Compose → Protocol Builder (/blueprint).
2. Build the protocol as usual — research question, PICO, eligibility, search, screening, extraction.
3. Click Save to Vault in the header.
4. Give it a memorable name (e.g. "NSCLC immunotherapy SLR — v3") and an optional description.

The protocol now lives in the Vault and is ready to be reused.

Path 2 — Save from inside an existing review

When you finalize a protocol on /slr/protocol, the Save to Vault option lets you also push that protocol back to the Vault for future reuse.

How to start a review from a Vault protocol

You have two equivalent options. Both pre-fill the new review with every field from the saved protocol.

Option A — Start from the Vault

1. Open Compose → Protocol Vault (/protocol-vault).
2. Find the protocol you want to reuse.
3. Click New Review on the protocol card.
4. The wizard at /studio/new opens with every field already populated — review type, title (suggested from the protocol), research question, eligibility criteria, search strategy, screening plan, and extraction plan.
5. Adjust anything you want to change for this specific review (e.g. update the title, tighten the date range).
6. Click Create review.

A small banner at the top of the wizard reads "Loaded from Vault — <protocol name>" so you always know which protocol seeded the review.

Option B — Load a protocol from the New Review wizard

1. Sidebar → Evidence Studio → New Review (/studio/new).
2. Step 3 of the wizard has a heading Load Protocol.
3. Click Load from Protocol Vault.
4. Pick a protocol from the modal.
5. The wizard repopulates with the saved protocol's fields. The same "Loaded from Vault" banner appears.
6. Continue through the wizard and create the review.

Both paths produce identical results — Option A is faster when you start from the Vault; Option B is faster when you start from the New Review wizard.

What happens after the review is created

When you create a review from a Vault protocol:

• The new review's protocol page (/slr/protocol) opens with every field pre-filled. A small banner at the top reads "Loaded from Vault — <protocol name>".
• The same banner appears on every other phase page that consumes the protocol — for SLR that means the Search, Screening, and Extraction phases each show "Loaded from Vault" next to the configuration card so you can spot fields the protocol filled in.
• The Vault tracks the lineage: the source protocol's Used in reviews counter increments, and a small chip on the new review's settings drawer links back to the source protocol.

Protocol Vault management

In /protocol-vault each protocol card shows:

• Name and description
• Created and last-modified timestamps
• Used in reviews counter
• Version chip (incremented every time you edit and save)

Card actions:

• New Review — start a new review from this protocol (Option A above)
• Open — open the protocol in the Protocol Builder for editing
• Duplicate — copy the protocol so you can adapt it without changing the original
• Rename / Delete
• Export — download as PDF, DOCX, or JSON

Works for every review type

The Vault flow supports every Evidence Studio review type:

When you load a protocol into a Rapid / Scoping / Umbrella / Evidence Map review, the relevant panel opens with the "Loaded from Vault" banner and the saved settings already applied.

Best practices

• Save the protocol before you run the search. A vault entry that captures the protocol as it was when search executed is the most reusable artifact for the next review on the same topic.
• Name protocols by topic + year. NSCLC immunotherapy — 2026 ages better than final final v2.
• Duplicate before you adapt. If you need to tweak a protocol for a related review, duplicate first so the original lineage stays clean.
• Use the version chip. When you make a major methodological change, save a new version (don't overwrite). The version chip in the Vault helps you reason about which version seeded which review.