Ever thought about doing a Scoping Review?

If you've ever thought about doing a scoping review, this is a good read for you!

What is a Scoping Review?

• A type of literature review used to map what is known about a broad or emerging topic

• Focuses on the extent, range, and nature of available evidence

• Identifies key concepts, sources of evidence, and gaps in the literature

• Emphasizes breadth rather than depth

• Often used when a topic is complex or not yet comprehensively reviewed 

When should you use it?

• Early-stage research to map the scope and nature of literature

• When the topic is broad, emerging, or poorly defined

• To identify research gaps

• To determine if a full systematic review is needed

• When evidence is heterogenous through methods, populations, or outcomes

  
  

What does it include or exclude?

Includes:

• Identifying the research question

• Identifying relevant studies

• Studying selection

• Charting the data

• Collating, summarizing and reporting the results

Excludes:

• Formal quality assessment of literature

• Evidence synthesis or meta-analysis

• Narrow, outcome driven conclusions

How is it different?

A scoping review is:

• Addressing broad questions

• Exploring the breadth and types of evidence available

• Not assessing quality of literature

A systemic review is:

• Addressing a narrowly defined research question

• Restricted to specific study designs

• Include formal quality assessments

References

Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616

Mak, S., & Thomas, A. (2022). Steps for conducting a scoping review. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 14(5), 565–567. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-22-00621.1