Systematic review and meta-analysis protocol: effective dose (ED50/ED95) of remimazolam for induction of unconsciousness and procedural sedation (protocol deposit)

Nature of this record: This is a protocol deposit (retrospective public archiving of an a priori protocol), not a prospective registration. The protocol was written before data extraction began, but it was not prospectively registered on PROSPERO. This document is deposited on an open-science archive (OSF/Zenodo) to make the pre-analysis plan publicly citable and time-stamped. The deposit date above is the date of upload to the archive; it is not the date the protocol was authored, and it is not a prospective registration date. Why not registered prospectively on PROSPERO: PROSPERO does not accept systematic reviews that have progressed beyond the point of completing data extraction at the time of initial registration. By the time registration was considered, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment, and analysis were already complete. A retrospective PROSPERO record would be misleading and is not permitted by PROSPERO's eligibility criteria. This deposit is the transparent alternative.