Pre-registration of a protocol is the formal documentation and publishing of a protocol that you intend to follow. This is required for some publications and is a way of reducing bias and unethical manipulation of data (such as p-hacking or HARK-Hypothesizing After Results are Known). For reviews, it serves as a way to document the selection and analysis criteria before the selections are made. This serves, among other functions, to reduce the chance of missing eligible studies because the selection criteria is changed in the middle of the selection process.
Good research starts with a good research question. There are a number of useful frameworks for developing good research questions, including:
It's a good idea to know what you might be required to include when you publish your review. Here are several reporting frameworks, the best known of which is PRISMA.
* also see: Heidi M Levitt. (2020). Reporting Qualitative Research in Psychology : How to Meet APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards, Revised Edition, 2020 Copyright: Vol. Revised edition. American Psychological Association.
I use Zotero most often, so a sample procedure would be something like: