Cochrane Style Manual
Tense

Write things you plan on doing in the future tense (such as in a protocol for a Cochrane review), and things you have already done in the past tense (such as in a Cochrane review).

In reviews in which few or no trials are included, where not all the methods outlined in the protocol could be used, use the conditional in as simple a form as possible to make it clear what was planned but not executed.