Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr 1;20(4):950-952.
doi: 10.11124/JBIES-21-00483.

What are scoping reviews? Providing a formal definition of scoping reviews as a type of evidence synthesis

Zachary Munn  1 , Danielle Pollock  1 , Hanan Khalil  2 , Lyndsay Alexander  3   4 , Patricia Mclnerney  5 , Christina M Godfrey  6 , Micah Peters  7   8   9 , Andrea C Tricco  6   10   11
Affiliations

What are scoping reviews? Providing a formal definition of scoping reviews as a type of evidence synthesis

Zachary Munn et al. JBI Evid Synth. .

Abstract

Evidence synthesis encompasses a broad range of review types, and scoping reviews are an increasingly popular approach to synthesizing evidence in a number of fields. They sit alongside other evidence synthesis methodologies, such as systematic reviews, qualitative evidence synthesis, realist synthesis, and many more. Until now, scoping reviews have been variously defined in the literature. In this article, we provide the following formal definition for scoping reviews: Scoping reviews are a type of evidence synthesis that aims to systematically identify and map the breadth of evidence available on a particular topic, field, concept, or issue, often irrespective of source (ie, primary research, reviews, non-empirical evidence) within or across particular contexts. Scoping reviews can clarify key concepts/definitions in the literature and identify key characteristics or factors related to a concept, including those related to methodological research.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Pham MT, Rajić A, Greig JD, Sargeant JM, Papadopoulos A, McEwen SA. A scoping review of scoping reviews: advancing the approach and enhancing the consistency. Res Synth Methods 2014;5 (4):371–385.
    1. Tricco AC, Lillie E, Zarin W, O’Brien K, Colquhoun H, Kastner M, et al. A scoping review on the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews. BMC Med Res Methodol 2016;16 (1):1–10.
    1. Tricco AC, Tetzlaff J, Moher D. The art and science of knowledge synthesis. J Clin Epidemiol 2011;64 (1):11–20.
    1. Munn Z, Stern C, Aromataris E, Lockwood C, Jordan Z. What kind of systematic review should I conduct? A proposed typology and guidance for systematic reviewers in the medical and health sciences. BMC Med Res Methodol 2018;18 (1):5.
    1. Gough D, Thomas J, Oliver S. Clarifying differences between review designs and methods. Syst Rev 2012;1 (1):1–9.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources