You may have heard the terms proposal and protocol come up while you develop your research idea. You may have heard them used interchangeably, when in actuality, they build on another. A proposal is your proposed plan for research. It does not need all the specific details in place. It is a general plan for what you hope to accomplish. It is going to become your pitch to your faculty advisor, the basis for all the rest to come. Sage has great information on developing your proposal, including this basic structure of a proposal.
Once the plan is fleshed out, you will begin developing that proposal into a protocol. The protocol is how you are going to specifically conduct the research: inclusion/exclusion criteria, data collection methodology, statistical analysis, and every detail. You will take your protocol to the IRB, if it requires their approval. There are many templates available for your protocol, depending on what time of research you plan to do. There are lots of protocol templates online. Your advisor should be able to help you find one that will suit your project. We have included some resources below that you might find helpful.
PRISMA: Reporting Guidelines for Systematic Review or Meta Analysis
Equator Network Reporting Guidelines