Subject and Course Guides: Scoping Reviews: Preparation

Steps in the Process

Based on the Joanna Briggs Institute's Reviews Manual, Arksey & O'Malley (2005), and Cochrane Institute guidelines, there are 5 steps for conducting scoping reviews.

Develop & register a protocol
- State a clear research question
- Define eligibility criteria
Search the literature
- Database searching (at least 3 databases, including one multi-disciplinary)
- Supplementary searching
Study Selection (2 or more reviewers)
- Title and abstract screening
- Full text screening
Charting included sources (2 or more reviewers)
- Chart characteristics of studies (form established a priori)
- Code sheet
Report results, implications, and recommendations

Tip: Be sure to be realistic about the amount of time it will take to conduct a thorough scoping review. While these types of reviews don't include the same level of assessment or data analysis and synthesis as a systematic review, the broad nature of a scoping review typically results in far more identified studies to be screened. A typical scoping review takes a 3-member team about a year to complete.

Guidelines

Which Guidelines to follow?

Which guidelines you choose and how rigorously you follow them will depend on your topic and where you intend to publish. Be sure to look at other reviews published in your target journals and see what guidelines and standards they use.

PRISMA for Scoping Reviews
The PRISMA extension for scoping reviews was published in 2018. The checklist contains 20 essential reporting items and 2 optional items to include when completing a scoping review. Scoping reviews serve to synthesize evidence and assess the scope of literature on a topic. Among other objectives, scoping reviews help determine whether a systematic review of the literature is warranted.
Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's Manual, Chapter 11: Scoping Reviews
JBI, formerly known as the Joanna Briggs Institute, is an international research organisation which develops and delivers evidence-based information, software, education and training.
PRISMA-Equity
Equity Extension from PRISMA helps reviewers identify, extract, and synthesize evidence on equity in evidence synthesis
PRISMA-P
PRISMA extension for Protocols
PRISMA-S
PRISMA extension for Searching and reporting on search methods

Learn More

Scoping reviews: what they are and how you can do them
Training videos from Cochrane
Evidence Training Workshop from UT Austin
Playlist of videos from 6-part workshop series

Recommended Tools

Tracking Log
.xlxs document developed by librarians in-house. Let us know if you have any recommendations about how to improve this document.

RevMan 5
A tool developed by Cochrane for Cochrane-style reviews

Making the Process Smoother

The two things that will benefit you the most in conducting a Scoping Review are 1) document every step of the process as you go and 2) find existing reviews similar to your topic.

Document everything!

By far, the most common frustration I encounter among researchers conducting reviews looking back and being unable to find things like the date they conducted their final search strategy, or the exact terms they used for each database, or the number of articles they identified through supplementary searching. Don't let this be you! I recommend keeping a log of each decision you make and keep it all in one place. Parts of this documentation can go straight into the methods section of your paper. Keeping track of it will save you many hours of panicked searching when the time comes to sit down and write. The two recommended tools on the right can help greatly in this process.

Why find existing reviews?

Finding existing reviews

tells you if your planned scoping review has already been done before, in which case you can either amend your research question or find a way to materially improve on or update the existing scoping review
shows you where your review fits into the scholarly conversation and enables you to acknowledge the existence of related reviews in your introduction
gives you a means to mine relevant sources from related reviews
provides examples for how to conduct your own review (note what questions and criteria are included in these reviews, pay attention to search terms and databases used to search for studies)

Where to find existing reviews

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
This database is devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health.
The American Psychological Association's abstracts of scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and dissertations in the behavioral sciences and mental health. Covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Indexing and abstracting of articles from nearly 10,000 journals, book chapters, books, and dissertations. Links to full text in the PsycARTICLES database as well as other full-text EBSCOhost databases.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Provides access to over 21 million MEDLINE citations and over 3 million additional life science journal article citations.
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 11 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960s and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources, including links to molecular biology databases of DNA/protein sequences and 3-D structure data.
Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
Provides high quality evidence to inform people providing and receiving health care, and those responsible for research, teaching, funding and administration of health care at all levels
The Cochrane Library is an electronic publication designed to supply high quality evidence to inform people providing and receiving health care, and those responsible for research, teaching, funding and administration of health care at all levels. Cochrane reviews represent the highest level of evidence on which to base clinical treatment decisions. In addition to Cochrane reviews, The Cochrane Library provides other sources of reliable information: other systematic review abstracts, technology assessments, economic evaluations, and individual clinical trials.
Campbell Collaboration This link opens in a new window
The Campbell Collaboration is an international social science research network that produces high quality, open and policy-relevant evidence syntheses, plain language summaries and policy briefs. Their priorities include education, social welfare, and crime and justice.
ERIC (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, provides references to a broad range of educational topics. Includes articles, books, theses, curriculi, conference papers, reports and standards
ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, provides extensive access to education literature and resources. The database provides access to information from journals previously included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index. ERIC provides coverage of journal articles, conferences, theses, audiovisual media, directories, monographs and government documents.

Tips for finding existing reviews

1) Search for systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as scoping reviews.

2) Use broader search terms than you will include in your own search protocol. This will help you find related reviews that may not explicitly match your research question but still be useful.

3) The term "scoping review" will not always appear in the title or abstract on an article. In some databases, you cannot limit your searches to a systematic review methodology. So, using a search string like the one below helps you catch more potential reviews of interest.

"scoping review" OR "scoping study" OR “systematic review” OR "research synthesis" OR "synthesis of research" OR "meta analysis" OR meta-analysis