Scoping Review
A scoping review is a systematic method for mapping the breadth of literature on a particular topic, concept, or field. Unlike systematic reviews, which answer specific research questions through rigorous quality assessment, scoping reviews are designed to identify and synthesize the types of evidence available, key concepts, and themes within a domain. This approach is particularly useful for topics that are broad, complex, or where evidence comes from heterogeneous sources and methodologies.
Purpose and Application
Scoping reviews serve several functions in health and wellbeing research. They help clarify the scope of a topic, identify research gaps and priorities, and determine whether a full systematic review is warranted. They are commonly used when a field of inquiry is emerging, when concepts lack clear definition, or when evidence spans multiple disciplines and study designs. This flexibility makes them valuable for informing policy decisions, clinical practice guidelines, and future research agendas.
Methodology
Scoping reviews follow a structured framework typically involving five stages: defining the research question, identifying relevant studies, selecting studies based on predetermined criteria, extracting and charting data, and synthesizing findings. While they use systematic processes similar to systematic reviews, scoping reviews generally do not assess the quality of included studies and instead focus on cataloguing evidence and identifying patterns across the literature. This allows for faster completion and broader inclusion of different evidence types, including grey literature and non-empirical sources.